dowel

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A dowel is a solid cylindrical rod, usually made of wood, plastic, or metal. In its original manufactured form, a dowel is called a dowel rod.^{[citation needed]} Dowel rods are often cut into short lengths called dowel pins. Dowels are employed in numerous, diverse applications including as axles in toys, detents (e.g., in gymnastics grips), structural reinforcements in cabinet making, and supports for tiered wedding cakes. Other uses include:

• As furniture shelf supports
• As moveable game pieces (i.e., pegs)
• As supports for hanging items such as clothing, key rings, tools, toilet roll dispensers and picture frames
• To precisely align two objects in a dowel joint: a hole is bored in both objects and the dowel pin is inserted into the aligned holes
• As a core to wrap cable or textiles around

Wood dowel

Fluted wood dowel pin

Dowel joint

A steel dowel

Cross dowel. Note that the slot is usually parallel to the bolt hole, contrary to this drawing.

A cutaway view of a cross dowel in use. For illustrative purposes the dowel's slot is shown perpendicular to the bolt, but in practice the slot is usually parallel to the bolt.

Manufacturing process

For modest manufacturing volumes, wood dowels are typically manufactured on industrial dowel machines. Such machines employ interchangeable cutting heads of varying diameters, thus enabling the machines to be quickly retooled to manufacture different diameters of dowel (e.g., ¹⁄₄ in or 6.35 mm, ¹⁄₂ in or 12.7 mm, 2 in or 50.8 mm, etc.). Each head consists of a hollow chuck with cutting knives protruding inward, through which the wood passes as the knives cut it into cylindrical shape. The mechanism is open-ended, with material guides at the machine's entry and exit to enable fabrication of continuous dowel rod of unlimited length. Some dowel machines have powered feed devices that automatically feed material into the machine, while others require hand feeding.

High-volume dowel manufacturing is done on a wood shaper, which simultaneously forms multiple dowels from a single piece of rectangular stock (i.e., wood). These machines employ two wide, rotating cutting heads, one above the stock and one below it. The heads have nearly identical cutting profiles so that each will form an array of adjoined, side-by-side "half dowels". The heads are aligned to each other and one head is shaped to make deeper cuts along the dowel edges so as to part the stock into individual dowel rods, resulting in a group of dowel rods emerging in parallel at the machine's output.

Application

The wooden dowel rod used in woodworking applications is commonly cut into dowel pins, which are used to reinforce joints and support shelves and other components in cabinet making. Some woodworkers make their own dowel pins, while others purchase dowel pins precut to the required length and diameter. Various systems, such as Dowelmax, have been devised to aid in dowel joinery.

Dowel-based joinery typically employs fluted dowel pins. A fluted dowel pin has a series of parallel grooves cut along its length. The fluting provides channels through which excess glue—which is used to secure the dowel pin in its hole—can escape as the dowel is inserted, thereby relieving the hydraulic pressure that might otherwise split the timber when the mating pieces are clamped together.

Depending on the application, alternative joinery methods may be used in place of conventional dowel pins, including Miller dowels, biscuit joiners, and proprietary tools such as the Domino jointer.

Metal dowel

In stonemasonry

Steel dowels are commonly used in masonry to pin stone components together. Holes are bored in the stone and the steel dowels inserted to secure the components.

In machinery

Steel dowel pins

Dowel pins are often used as precise locating devices in machinery. Steel dowel pins are machined to tight tolerances, as are the corresponding holes, which are typically reamed. A dowel pin may have a smaller diameter than its hole so that it freely slips in, or a larger diameter so that it must be pressed into its hole.

When designing mechanical components, mechanical engineers typically use dowel holes as reference points to control positioning variations and attain repeatable assembly quality. If no dowels are used for alignment (e.g., components are mated by bolts only), there can be significant variation, or "play", in component alignment.

Typical drilling and milling operations, as well as manufacturing practices for bolt threads, introduce mechanical play proportional to the size of the fasteners. For example, bolts up to 10 mm (0.394 in) in diameter typically have play on the order of 0.2 mm (0.008 inches).^{[citation needed]} When dowels are used in addition to bolts, however, the tighter dimensional tolerances of dowels and their mating holes—typically 0.01 mm (0.0004 inches)—result in significantly less play, on the order of 0.02 mm (0.0008 inches).^{[citation needed]} Manufacturing costs are inversely proportional to mechanical tolerances and, as a result, engineers must balance the need for mechanical precision against cost as well as other factors such as manufacturability and serviceability.

In automobiles, dowels are used when precise mating alignment is required, such as in differential gear casings, engines, and transmissions.

In woodworking

A cross dowel is a cylindrically shaped metal nut (i.e., a metal dowel) that is used to join two pieces of wood. Like other metal nuts, it has an inside threaded hole, although the hole is unusual in that it passes through the sides of the dowel. One or both ends of the dowel are slotted, with the slots oriented parallel to the threaded hole through which the bolt will pass.

In a cross dowel application, the two pieces of wood are aligned and a bolt hole is drilled through one piece of wood and into the other. A dowel hole is drilled laterally across the bolt hole and the cross dowel is inserted into it. A screwdriver is inserted into the slot at the end of the cross dowel and the dowel is rotated so that its threaded hole aligns with the bolt hole. The bolt is then inserted into the bolt hole and screwed into the cross dowel until the wood pieces are held tightly together.

See also

• Bar stock
• Dowel reinforced butt joint
• Rebar
• Spring pin

References

Reference Standard ISO 2338,ISO 8374