Hole Dowels Tight During Drilling

I built a game scorekeeper that uses short lengths of dowel that slide on a rod, similar to an abacus. I cut the dowel sections first, then figured out a way to drill the holes in the thin "slices." My solution was to build the jig shown above.

The lever holds the sliced dowels firmly against the V-notch during the drilling process. The same setup with a wider V-notch works great for drilling axle holes in toy wheels.
—Don Lefler, Middletown, Calif.