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Shop-made dowels
use a lot of 1/4" cherry, walnut, and oak dowels with my students both for joinery as well as decorative accents. Rather than purchase expensive pre-made dowels, I make my own in a twostep process. This quickly yields polished dowels that fit perfectly in their intended holes. The first step uses an annular cutter—a type of end mill (See Buyer’s Guide on page 60.) with a hole through