<Li> To precisely align two objects in a dowel joint: a hole is bored in both objects and the dowel pin is inserted into the aligned holes </Li> <Li> As a core to wrap cable or textiles around </Li> <P> The traditional tool for making dowels is a dowel plate, an iron (or better, hardened tool steel) plate with a hole having the size of the desired dowel . To make a dowel, a piece of wood is split or whittled to a size slightly bigger than desired and then driven through the hole in the dowel plate . The sharp edges of the hole shear off the excess wood . </P> <P> A second approach to cutting dowels is to rotate a piece of oversized stock past a fixed knife, or alternatively, to rotate the knife around the stock . Machines based on this principle emerged in the 19th century . Frequently, these are small bench - mounted tools . </P>

When a hole is reamed in metal to size it is grooved bored finished drilled