Pegs Too Big

Hi,

Our 3/4 pegs are 25/32nd's. Doesn't sound like much but try driving them. Got a raising next week. So looking for good ideas.

I have done the block plane on the thigh before. If all else fails, this will be done. I have heard about putting em in the oven. Gonna try this too.

Any other suggestions. Pegs that split before they drive. Well...

If you have a good sharp pocket knife, turn the blade so that it is facing towards the wood at a right angle, and use it like a scraper. Hold the peg in one hand, and scrape away from you. Turn it around and shave down the part that was in your hand.
The same thing can be done a little quicker with a drawknife, if you have a shaving horse. Only here your shaving toward yourself rater than away, which allows you to be more aggressive.

Or, if they are round pegs you could take a stout steel plate and bore a good clean 3/4" hole in it, then drive the pegs through it to shave that extra 32nd off. Basically a dowel plate. A little trick to use here, when you drive a peg to the end of the dowel plate, just push it out by starting the next peg right away.

Hold one of these suggestions works out for you!

DLB

Hi Mo, I take it the pegs are turned not rived. All my pegs are rived and shaved on a horse with a draw knife. I taper my pegs the whole length, so they all fit at some point. I suspect it would not be too bad to shave a taper on them, but I bet the grain will run off, making this a little more challenging.

Are the joints draw bored?

You can order turned taper pegs, too.

How many are you using? Perhaps save these for the next job, drilling a correct size hole. Make new ones?

Hi Mo,

There is a hand held rotary shaving device used by chair makers to create the spindles that are fitted to the back of Windsor chairs. This tool works like a giant pencil sharpener and is very easy to use especially on green wood. The rotary plane employs a spoke shave blade set at an angle which can reduce quite rough oversized drawn stock down to a uniform diameter (1" and 3/4" are standard rotary plane sizes). You would need to clamp the peg in a vice at one end and then resize same using the tool and then use a draw knife over the last clamped bit to create a taper to start the peg in the hole.

Is it possible that the pegs supplied to you were turned green and left slightly oversize to enable final turning to the correct size ? Grasp the peg in your hand and rotate same - if turned green it will have become oval as it dried.

Regards

Ken Hume

Mo, I've done the oven trick with furniture scaled work. Worked like a charm. On a larger size I'd worry a bit about the material ovalizing, but it depends on thr grain. Throw a couple in the oven. See what happens.

Shaving and scraping work well too.

Hello,

Alternatively the pegs could also be made somewhat octagonal with the corners staying at the size they are now which will bite into the wood and give a good grip. A planing board with either a low stop or a hollowed out section where the pegs fall into makes planing go quickly.

A taper over the whole length, like timbeal writes is also good especially if you can leave the but end long for pounding further as everything dries out.

Greetings,

Don Wagstaff

Hi Mo,

Here is a link to the peg sharpener rotary plane :-

http://www.ashemcrafts.com/

Regards

Ken Hume

The problem with shaving these turned pegs with draw knife and shaving horse is that it sounds like they are dry. What would happen is that they would not shave smoothly and you'd take chunks out (with the diving grain contributing to this). You can soak these pegs in water. Make sure they are immersed. Assuming they are oak, only a thin outer layer will absorb water and soften, as oak does not like to absorb water after dry. But this outer layer may be all you need to shave off with the shaving horse and draw knife. Ordinarily, you'd like to start with green stock, that has been kept green by keeping the blanks in water until shaving. These are soaked throughout, and will shave much easier.
Another option would be to set up a little jig on a table saw and shave them that way into Octagons.

Anyway, using the oven is forcing the wood to much. It would be better, if taking this route to stack the dowels vertically in a sturdy box, open at the top with a lightbulb at the bottom of it for a week.

Greetings,

Don Wagstaff

Thank you everyone for the suggestions! Ruminating now...

Find a local machine shop and have them drill and ream a 3/4" hole through a 1/4" thick piece of steel. Fasten this plate to a stump with a hole through it. This is a Die. Now just drive your pegs through this die. All my pegs are finished in this manner.

We've always made our pegs by taking straight grained boards and ripping them into squares just a 1/16 of an inch larger then the finished peg size. Then shaving off the corners until it fits through the test hole, in the seat of the shaving horse.

We never wet our pegs, again.

When the dry peg is driven into a wet timber frame the peg draws some moisture into it from the frame and swells up a bit to make it a tight fit. This is why when we test fit things using these pegs we never drive them in a lot, as we're going to drive them out again to dis-assemble.

Jim Rogers

I understand that the primary peg turning business makes different sized pegs for imperial sizes and for the Owl Bit holes, which are graded in imperial but manufactured in metric, so they are actually a 32nd or 16th off. Is it possible you have an order of pegs designed to fit the Owl Bit 3/4 approximation?

I tend to use dry split hickory driven through a plate to make my pegs. Riven pegs follow the grain and tend to bind better when set, using dry materials ensures the peg won't loosen when it does dry out.

Howdy,

Thought I'd follow up. Eric that is an interesting post, which brings up the question: If the timber is green and your pegs have moisture when they both dry, whats the result? Me thinks that they will only get tighter with all the wood movement.

Tried the microwave: DO NOT ATTEMPT! Hehehe.
Solution: Take block plane and go to town. About 15 seconds per with a sharp blade. As far as grain, if your iron is sharp enough and your depth is small enough, and your hand is quick enough, no problems. And if it tears a little so be it, its still doing its job.

P.S. Anybody want to see some pictures? Its a nice frame.

Pics please.

Mo, isn't the answer to a question like that obvious? Pics, please! It's always a pleasure to see other folks' work

OK.

Mo, that's great work.
What did you use to treat your timbers?

I am a big fan of curved, profiled, or otherwise decorated struts and braces, so this is right up my ally!

This makes me think of this (look at the bracing):

Hi Mo,

What has happened to the colour of this frame ?

Regards

Ken Hume

PLS, to start off the process? Very nice.

very nice mo...

love those curved purlins.

Wow! That is some great work mo.

Hi there. Thanks for the kind words. We have been fortunate to get free reign on our work.

DL, No treating. Wonderful Cypress out of the Cape Fear River Basin. Makes you want to buy 20,000 bd/ft and sit on it for a few decades.

Penofin oil.

The material was rough sawn and included those characteristics. Thats why we went with the plumb line on all radiating pieces. All "straight" sticks were center line lay-out.

Those braces and purlins are in double curvature and had to be laid out by points and full scale drawings.

Wire wheel and roll it on then wipe it off.

Thanks for letting me share.

Cheers.

Beautiful stuff. You should be proud.