This Amazon Dowel Maker compelled me to create my own Product. 

A suggestion that may improve the quality of the dowel. Instead of taking the blank square stock directly to the size dowel needed, I am wondering if the stock where first "dowelled" through a larger size aperture and then incrementally step that dowel down through successively smaller sizes to the desired final size if the quality would not be improved? If you find it in you it would be interesting to see what you arrive at.

Hello! I bought the same one. Had the same problem till I ran the drill the other way. Try running the drill in reverse. It works! Good Luck!

The blade is at a scraping position of the red and black jig. It should be positioned at a shearing position for it to work better, it would shear the fibers off instead of “chopping” off the fibers.

I made and used several, a key is the longer the blank, the more it whips out of line. So it needs a pre-feed, however the point is not to have the blanks have to be perfect before the dowel is perfect. Obviously it is a mini-lathe, so all lathe practices would be followed even if too small to see: cutting point vs centerline, sheer angle, depth of cut, sharpness, cutter angle (entry and relief sides), heat. Here's a different question: what is the best or only workable solution on the market now? Can we convert this excellent well-made block to use them?

I purchased this item and it produced a very clean and smooth dowel. Maybe it has to do with the type or state of wood you used.

i got one, same problem. my thinking 'speed' how fast the lathe goes? the faster , the smoother. so i will try this idea.

One thing I did like about using a steel plate however, besides tolerating heat, was that it burnished the wood. It may be smart not to cut accurately, but to exit-hole accurately by burnishing, or "pressing" it. The high speed and tension are there anyway, and sandpaper clogs and leaves fur fibers.

I need one that can do 2" to 2.5"

You can try to put a drill bit into it to check good placement of the cutter. On mine it was way too close from the axis (about 0,6mm). Indeed, in this case the whole stability is compromise as the dowel is not properly guided which amllify the problem...

I can't tell from the close up views, but it seems the angle of the blade seems wrong. I would think you would want to mimic the blade angle of whittling. When you first showed it, I imagined the dowel maker was going to be powered by a electric drill, such as 1/4" bit drive. I imagined some sort of simple gears that would change the x rotation torque into a z-axis rotation. The simple machine would grip, pull, and rotate the wood while the blade would be cutting mostly down it's length towards the leading edge, also pulling the wood in. I could also imagine another way to do this like an old school pencil sharpener, but without the angled worm blades. Interested to see what you have built.

Got one and had the same result and comparing it to the larger dowel maker I have it's clear the main problem is the angle of attack of the blade. The more sophisticated dowel makers have the blade set to take a shearing cut as the wood rotates into the blade, slicing away the long grain fibres. In this design the blade is set at 90 degrees to the surface of the wood so as it rotates into it this just rips out the fibres and gives the predictable ragged finish. If the blade were set at an angle in the central element that might help. It also might help if the blade was tapered in its length so the amount of material taken off at the start was less and it only cut down to the required diameter as it reaches the exit side of the jig.

Could you be pushing it through too fast? If you push a metal lathe/mill too fast, it will create chatter with softer materials (you just break equipment with harder materials). I can't help but wonder if the final product would be much smoother if you pushed it through at a much slower rate and maybe had a faster drill. Wood is different, but I think the physics are similar in this regard.

Same experience as yours with this jig. Very disappointing. It's a little better if you first bring your initial part closer to a cylinder. If you found a way to improve it I'm interested.

Did it fail though? It sounds like it might be designed for rough dowels with room for sanding. Any case, you got my sub for part 2.

Take a 2 inch piece of 1/4 srlteel flatbar 10 onches long drill a 1/4 inch hole in it if tgats the diameter of dowel you want. Take a dremmel tool with a small thin cut off wheel and make multiple cuts around the 1/4 in hole, both sides. Taper your 5/16 inch square cut piece of wood on both ends. One end goes into your drill the other into the flatbar. Makes killer dowels only takes 10 min top to make and it practically free. Keep it simple n cheap

Others have correctly mentioned cutting angle for the blade - a shearing cut gets you a smooth surface. However it also needs a lot more RPM. I regularly turn 5-6mm lace bobbins at 4000 RPM. There’s not a drill on the planet that will get anywhere near that speed. The key here is surface speed (feet per second). The smaller the diameter the faster it needs to spin to get past tearing out and into shearing.

Got those serial killer vibes

If only there was something that specialized in making round things of all sorts.

"This doesn't work, but I will make something that does, and you can buy it from me 😃"

As to the question of how much I would pay, with a little fine tuning I would gladly pay between $100-$125

You are taking off too much material in one pass.

I an currently getting into building my own arrows for archery and upon doing research I came upon this video. I am searching for the best "dowel maker" for the money.( Buget is pretty tight.) While i can't justify $450-$10000, i would definitely break my own arm reaching for my wallet to drop $100 or so on this. I will be keeping my eye out for this even of i have to put a slight pause on my endeavors. I pray this does in fact hit the market soon.

I think my lathe is much better😊

This product surface not good