"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
...
"Phil Kangas" wrote in
message ...

"Gunner Asch" wrote in
message
...
On Sun, 8 Apr 2012 10:54:16 -0400, "Phil
Kangas"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in
message
m...
On Thu, 5 Apr 2012 16:42:55 +0000 (UTC),
James
Waldby
wrote:

On Thu, 05 Apr 2012 08:25:49 -0700, Bob La
Londe
wrote:
On Apr 4, 10:09 pm, Bob La Londe wrote:
If you needed to put a hemispherical end
on a
bunch of 1/4" stainless
dowels how would you tackle it? Say 400,
give
or take.

No. They don't need to be terribly
accurate.
This is just to make the
non press fit end of alignment pins a
little
faster to start. They do
need to be pretty and smooth though.
[Snip list of rounding methods]

I don't see a good reason to round the ends
for
that purpose. A
chamfered or conical end would be easier to
cut
with good finish
than a hemisphere, and probably better as an
insertion aid.

Indeed. Most of the guys sticking in dowel
pins
or cleaning up the ends
on 12' bar stock simply make em pointed to
some
degree or another

Gunner

Chamfered or conical is _not_ smooth! pdk


Correct. And if its simply to aid in getting
the dowel pin started..who
cares if its "smooth"?

Gunner

Bob LaLonde, the OP, that's who !!!!

In this case smooth...ish would be nice. It's a
pin for something that is assembled and
disassembled perhaps dozens of times per hour
during normal use. Wear would be minimal, but
cumulative. After much consideration I decided
a ground and polished lathe bit was the best
option for what I want to do. I tried it, and
it actually works much faster than I thought it
would.
I'll bet there are a lot of guys out there nodding
in total agreement
with you! Way to go, Bob! ;)} phil k