In one of my previous posts I showed my attempt at making my own dowel plate. Sorry to say it wasn't successful. The first Ebony peg was the correct size and worked fine going in to the Poplar sample joint. Each peg after that got ever so slightly larger and rougher. I was concerned that the force required to get the peg into the joint would split the stool. As I broke for lunch and pondered what to do I checked my emails. I had one from Vince saying that he got his dowel plate from Lie-Nielsen! A phone call to make sure he was home and a quick ride over there had me coming back with his brand new dowel plate. He was more than willing to let me borrow it but did mention that he wasn't sure how to secure the plate to make the dowels. I told him I'd come up with something so here's what I came up with:
Since his birthday is coming up I figured might as well make it a little special. I used a couple of scrap pieces of Australian Lacewood and sandwiched two short pieces of Maple in the middle. The plate is recessed and it is completely open at the bottom so the dowel can fall through. The lacewood is about 3/4" thick, the Maple is about 1 1/4" so you can clamp the Maple section in your bench vise. It takes a lot of pounding to get the dowel through the plate. This way it is completely supported by the bench and secured in the vise. I thought I'd show some of the pegs. The Ebony is from some material that was supposed to be 1/4" square for another pegged project but is undersized. That's what I was able to use.
Thanks Vince and Happy Birthday!!
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