# beal wood threader and dowels



## SteveCherry (May 21, 2013)

For anybody who has made threaded rods with the Beal wood threader; where do you get your dowels? I have been practicing on cheap poplar dowels from the big box store but the results, although acceptable for practice, could not be used in a project. I'm getting a lot of tear out and chipping of the threads I guess because they are low grade poplar and dried out. Do you order your dowels online or get them locally? I'm in the Northern Virginia area and am willing to travel a little. Thanks for the suggestions.


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## bndawgs (Oct 21, 2016)

have you tried to soak the dowels prior to cutting the threads?


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## rad457 (Jun 15, 2013)

We have a local store, Windsor Plywood that sells Maple and Oak Dowels, Maple Good, not so much with Oak. had some threads chip out?


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## LittleBlackDuck (Feb 26, 2016)

*SC*, you'll probably regret that I entered this thread as I love to spend other peoples money.

I used to buy my dowels from Beal's when our $ exchange was more reasonable but now at 0.62c, with exhorbitant shipping costs, it is totally inhibitive. Also having the Beal threader, demand is for bleeding imperial as the metric "equivalent" just won't cut the mustard…

I used to make my own dowels on my lathe using a router on a frame (and still do for larger diameters), however, lately I have forked out for the Veritas Dowel Maker.

Dave Stanton has made a very good video on using that jig.
Yoiu will need to laminate for your blank, but after that the jig gives you a good range of dowels up to 1"... and virtually anything in between


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## Davevand (Feb 10, 2016)

I use maple dowels most of the time with mine, but I have used poplar, cherry and oak. All of them will tear out to some degree. The best results are when I go with a very slow and consistent feed rate, any stopping or jerking will tear out the treads. I bought all my maple dowels online from a craft store with a bulk purchase. I have noticed that the dowels diameters are not really consistent, but are close enough for most applications, ie while feeding into the threading jig they will get looser or tighter as I feed.
I now use a table saw jig to create my smaller dowels, 1/4 and 3/8 and it is very easy and work great




Disclaimer: I have not used the jig to make any dowels for threading although I will the next time I need one.


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## bndawgs (Oct 21, 2016)

Just to add to my post, I would watch this video for a couple more tips


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## Jeff28078 (Aug 27, 2009)

I bought a similar system from Garrett Wade. Their instructions say to soak the wood in a light oil first. Whether the tear out matters I guess depends on whether it'll be seen. I used dry cherry my first try and had considerable tear out. But the two threaded pieces meshed correctly and didn't show.


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## becikeja (Sep 12, 2010)

So I used a lot of threaded dowels making these guys: https://www.lumberjocks.com/projects/309746
Each joint is a threaded screw. I used oak dowels from the big box store, and soaked in BLO for about 10 minutes before cutting. I used the woodcraft brand threader, not sure it makes a difference. Very minimal tear out.


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