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...