Exposed Dowels Too Dark - Question of the Week

November 12, 2007 | Filed Under Blog, Question of the Week 

This week’s question comes from John. He writes:

Hey Marc. As usual, I have another question! :) I cut some maple dowels from the same piece of stock to put in the center of the rear vise jaw, so they’d be invisible. And they really were quite hidden, UNTIL I put on the finish and then they jumped right out, especially the ring around the edges. Any tips how I could’ve avoided that?

dowels

And here was my response:

“Hey John. Excellent work! I really like how the bench turned out. As to the dowel contrast, you will most likely always have that problem. Remember that the dowel is endgrain, while the face of the jaw is face grain. So when finish hits it, the end grain sucks more in and becomes darker. This is nearly impossible to prevent with dowels. Usually, the easiest way to prevent end grain color contrast is to sand the endgrain 2 grits higher than the face grain. This will prevent excessive finish absorption and will lead to an even color. But how can we ever do this with a dowel?? So instead of preventing, lets come up with a competely different strategy. How about a plug, instead of a dowel? Pick up a basic set of plug cutters and you will have all of your common sizes. Then you can cut your plugs out of face grain. And if you orient the face grain in the proper direction, paying close attention to detail, you should have a well-hidden plug. Good luck!”

Comments

12 Responses to “Exposed Dowels Too Dark - Question of the Week”

  1. wilbur on November 12th, 2007 9:56 pm

    No, no. It’s not a finishing mistake. It’s a design element. Problem solved. :@)

  2. Tim aka Mopardude on November 13th, 2007 4:38 am

    I wouldn’t worry about it, the darker spots really set it off!

  3. Rob on November 13th, 2007 6:24 am

    One thing to mention, you will need a drill press for your plug cutter jig. I’ve tried it with a hand drill before I got the drill press… it didn’t work out so well. I managed to do it but it was not safe.

  4. Len Reinhardt on November 13th, 2007 6:41 am

    Suggest using Miller dowel system, make up a sample board with available dowel pins, sand the entire face, shellac the pin ends and then apply finish to entire surface. Works better with dark finishes than light.

  5. Scottish Iain on November 13th, 2007 11:17 am

    Miller dowels are great! Easy to use and come with the proper drill bit. why the worry about it looking different anyway? you wouldnt try to hide the end grain on a nice set of dovetails. Keep your stain and dye in the cupboard and let the wood do the talking. Is that not why we all like the stuff?

  6. John from Jackson on November 13th, 2007 1:01 pm

    Hi, The bench looks great, and I would “claim” that the contrast is planned?!||?
    Anyway, I like the contrat. but you can give the dowel ends a wash of glue, sand, wash, and it should stop the increep on endgrain. I have used the miller system and it was great.
    Again, nice job, John

    Peace

  7. Claude Stewart on November 13th, 2007 2:18 pm

    In my woodworking shop any kind of mistake is called character. Problem solved. Claude

  8. Claude Stewart on November 13th, 2007 2:20 pm

    Oh by the way. It looks great sort of like a design element.Claude

  9. Mike on November 13th, 2007 2:49 pm

    I think this thread needs more pictures of the workbench. :-)

  10. JohnC on November 14th, 2007 11:51 am

    Thanks Marc, and everyone for the advice!

    More details on the bench- the workbench is intended to double as an assembly table. The top is Marc’s torsion box design. The biggest challenge was how to mount a big heavy vise onto an essentially hollow MDF box. I ended up completely filling the vise area of the torsion box with a bunch of solid birch, to give the vise carriage something to screw into.

    I know, I know– no one really *needs* walnut inlays and a hard-maple apron, on a shop workbench!! :) But I wanted to experiment on shop furniture before the real thing. Learned a lot! The walnut strip and plugs all turned out great. I thought I’d try to make invisible plugs in the rear vise jaw, just to see if I could, and as you see- not so invisible.

    After all your advice, I tried an experiment with plug cutters in a drill press, cutting plugs from the face of the same piece of stock in which I would place the plug. Glued em in, cut off with a cheap marples pull saw, sanded down. At that point they’re mostly invisible. Then I added poly, and - hello dark ring around the edge!! So what is it?? Some glue seepage that didn’t get sanded off? (I would think that would result in a lighter rather than darker edge). Maybe the hole I drilled, in which the plug fits wasn’t clean enough? Or maybe my pull saw is making rough edges? I don’t get it!

    Or course, “Yeah, i meant to do that” always works :) OTOH, using an accent wood looks great, and it sure was easier to get right. But I’m thinking I may want invisible plugs some day, and it’d be nice to know how!

    Thanks again everyone.
    -John

  11. thewoodwhisperer on November 14th, 2007 12:01 pm

    Hey John. Im not sure which type of plug cutter you bought, but hopefully its a tapered cutter. If the plug is tapered, you can hammer it in with quite a bit of pressure. In fact, you want to crush the fibers a little bit. This will really reduce the “ring around the dowel”. It also helps to use something like a ball-peen hammer to really spread out the fibers. Then when you flush trim, you should be left with a tight fit.

    The bottom line is you may never be able to get that line to fully disappear. Think about a butt joint. No matter how tight the joint is, you will nearly always notice the glue line. This is because the joint is perpendicular to the grain direction. Your plug exhibits the same properties on two sides. And given the fact that its circular, its becomes a little more obvious. So…the bottom line is line up your grain, knock that puppy down, and get it as good as you can. OR, follow the old adage, “if you cant beat em, join em”, and make that plug a feature like the walnut plugs.

  12. Edwin from Toronto on November 15th, 2007 10:19 am

    I agree with John from Jackson. Try a wash of glue and water mixed to seal the end grain of the dowels. Nice bench, by the way.

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