ramrod making tool

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I got the latest Lee Valley tool catalog today and there is a tool for making a dowel as long as you want. They are a steal at $16.50 and come in 3/8, 7/16 and 1/2. The part number is 05j60.01 check them out at www.leevalley.com .
 
I was at a guys place some years ago and he was makin ramrods with a homemade jig. It is a little difficult to describe. He had taken a couple pieces of oak 1x6 on edge and spaced them apart wide enough to clear his router bit. He had mounted his router on a flat piece on top such that it could be moved from size to size. In the side of the near piece, he had bored holes the size of the square of the wood he was using, and on the opposite side the size of the outgoing dowel. He put the pieces together and drilled the outgoing hole through both of them in the drill press, then drilled the larger ingoing hole while it was clamped down so that they were centered. He had about 4 different sizes drilled there so that he could make different sized ramrods. This was all mounted on a base on a table. The router bit just ran between the guides and he Xed the end of a piece of straight grained wood he had cut and put a screw in it and chucked it in a hand drill, and ran it though the jig. The big hole centered the piece, the router turned it to size, and the outie hole stabilized it on the other side. It was pretty neat. Considering he could have ordered a good straight hickory ramrod from the Log Cabin Shop for $2.50.

Bill
 
I think the best way is to use the old fashoned method of pulling the ramrod blank thru a number of holes drilled in a steel plate. Each hole is a little smaller than the last one. The only real requirement is that the edge of the hole where it meets the top of the plate must be sharp.

One end of the stock is cut round, and slightly smaller than the finished ramrod will be X a few inches long.
Starting with the hole that's a little smaller than the square stock you insert the small end and pull it thru the hole. Continue pulling the entire ramrod thru the hole. Then move to progressively smaller holes until you reduce the outside diameter until it is what you want.

The advantage of this is the ramrod will follow the grain in the wood rather than cutting across it. When it's finished, the grain will run from one end to the other instead of breaking out thru the sides.
Because it's following the grain of the wood, it is important to get stock with very straight grain or the ramrod will come out wavy or bent.
Within limits, wavy or bent isn't really bad. It tends to keep the ramrod in place.

Most power tools don't give a hoot about the grain and will just plow the wood off leaving the end grain breaking thru the surface. In other words it makes the kind of ramrod that comes with a TC or that you might buy at a Hardware Store. Nice to look at but dangerous to use. :hmm:
 


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