On Tue, 23 Sep 2003 23:03:20 GMT, "Jon Endres, PE"
wrote:

Hi all,

In conversation with the guy who's building a timberframe house for me, we
were discussing materials for the pegs for the joints. I mentioned that I
had a large white oak tree that had been cut to make room for the
foundation, and if it could be used.
First off, cut logs the length you need and tie a rope around it.
Then use a froe to split out the 5/4 squares (4/4+1/16 is better for
hand planing). They will air dry in a couple of days. Then make a
board for a plane at 45 degrees Put a stop on the end. Clamp it down
and go to it. You will have the best pegs around.
He said yes, to have it cut 5/4 and kiln-dried, and cut into 5/4 x 5/4 x 12
blanks. He suggested making up a jig for the tablesaw such that the blank
could be held in place, indexed and then fed through to produce octagonal
shapes about 1" in least diameter. Basically, cutting an eight-sided piece
instead of a dowel for increased friction (the frame will be white pine).
About 10 years ago I made a fixture to index a peg 8 times and used a
router with a 1" wide cutter . ( A table saw would have been better.)
This also lets you cut a slight taper on the peg.
I used a detent made from hardened steel and used spring loaded
plungers to index.
The peg rotated on two lathe type dogs. It worked OK but not great.
Any ideas on how I could rig up a simple yet reliable indexing jig to hold a
square blank and turn it into an octagonal (or maybe even 16 sided) peg? If
I can do that successfully, I'm going to experiment with maybe some locust
or hickory pegs as well.
If you were near Long Island I would show you the thing.
Good luck