How are dowels manufactured?

29th February 2020


	How are dowels manufactured?


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			To ensure that dowels are made accurately, machines are used to manufacture them. This process is quick and easy and involves two machines.

			One machine is responsible for whittling strips of wood into cylinders, creating dowel rods. Its primary component is a rotating blade that is used to shape wooden stock into dowels.

			The other is responsible for cutting dowel rods into pegs of uniform size.

			Producing dowel rods
			Step 1 – Feeding machine Wooden strips are fed into the first cutting machine manually. Shaped rollers guide the wood and hold it steady so that it can be cut evenly.



			Step 2 – Sharpening Rotating blades trim the wood into a cylindrical shape. This works in a similar way to a pencil sharpener.

			Step 3 – Grooves Flutes or grooves are added as an optional extra by the final part of the machine.



			Cutting dowel pegs
			Once dowel rods have been made on the dowel mill, they can be fed into a rotating rack at the top of a cutting machine and turned into dowel pegs.

			Step 1 – Locating dowel rod A dowel rod is dropped from the overhead rack and lands on a pre-adjusted pin directly below.

			This pin and the blade that is used to cut the dowel will remain a fixed distance apart while the entire batch of dowel pegs are cut. This ensures that all dowel pegs are produced at a uniform length.

			Step 2 – Cutting A circular saw blade, mounted on a swinging arm, pivots in to cut through the dowel rod.

			Step 3 – Setting up next peg Once the rod has been cut, the saw blade pivots backwards and the precisely cut dowel peg falls into a collection bin.

			This then causes the process to begin again from step 1.

			Once a dowel rod has been completely cut into pegs, sensors cause the rack at the top of the machine to rotate and the next dowel rod drops into place.