# Glue to hold dowel in hole



## Brassie14 (Mar 4, 2017)

I'm making some fly tying racks for spools of thread storage. I drilled the holes with a 1/4" Forstner bit. I'm trying to find a glue that expands a little bit. I believe some of the dowels are slightly undersized. Some fit nicely others are a little play, not a lot but would like glue that with tighten them a little bit. The dowels won't have a lot of stress so anything that will expand even a couple of thousands will work fine. Any suggestions, I know I can keep looking for dowels that are slightly larger bit thats a real pain. I'm making a bunch of these to sell to fly tiers.

Any help will be greatly appreciated,

Maine Guide
John


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

Polyurethane glue expands.


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

Ditto on the Polyurethane glue one brand is the original Gorilla /Glue but others make Poly glue too.

If you have some expanding foam(Great Stuff) it is basically made from the same stuff but you would use a tiny about
because it expands big time vs just the glue. I'd do a test on scrap first before using (Great Stuff)


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## Redoak49 (Dec 15, 2012)

I think using regular wood glue will work fine since the strength of the joint is not critical.

The poly glue can make a mess and not easy to clean up.


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## wormil (Nov 19, 2011)

When shopping for dowels, I take a pocket caliper along because retailers often mix metric and inch size dowels. Often when people complain that dowels are undersize, it's because the store was selling metric dowels as inch sizes (6mm instead of 1/4").


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## Fresch (Feb 21, 2013)

Masking tape to enlarge the dowel.


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

I agree that polyurethane glue can make a
mess. Regular PVA glue fills gaps somewhat,
but maybe you've tested that already and 
found it insufficient. I have mixed fine 
sawdust with PVA glue to fill gaps. I think
it's a sketchy thing to do for fine work and
joinery but for your application it might 
work okay.


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## eflanders (May 2, 2013)

You could also use a hot glue gun.


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## builtinbkyn (Oct 29, 2015)

Dowels should expand a bit using pva glue. Or you could always use some epoxy and call it a day.


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## Hammerthumb (Dec 28, 2012)

You can also get the end of the loose dowel a little wet, then let it dry and try the fit again. the water will make it expand. If it expands too tight, a little sandpaper will help.


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