Shortcut to Making Round Things Flat.

When making doll furniture, I sometimes need to flatten one side of a dowel (for example, to make a decorative beading). Rather than try to split it on my bandsaw, I hot-glue the dowel to an L-shaped pushblock made from ³⁄₄ " stock where shown above. I then run both pieces through my jointer, keeping the face of the pushblock against the fence. I end up with a nice flat face with virtually no tear-out.
—Bud Hadford, Atasadero, Calif.