Source for dowel nuts (cross dowels) left & right hand

Nov 03, 2006 8 Replies

I have checked mcmaster and the rest to know avail. I am building handscrew clamps. Need a few of them, left and right hand. I am not ready to lay out the cash cuz I have everything but the dowel nuts covered. Mc master has left hand 5/16" all thread which I will weld to right hand all thread. Have baltic birch ply to laminate the wood arms and handles. I have found a left hand tap and I have some 5/8" brass rod if push comes to shove........sounds like a lot of work though. I see these dowel nuts on all types of machinery , why are they so hard to find? Maybe it is easy for mfg to make their own out of rods. 1/4" dowel nuts can be found , but I don't think it is stout enough for say a 12" handscrew clamp. Jorgenson makes do it yourself kits for about $20 but I could buy the whole clamp at horrible freight for that......maybe a couple of them. Thanks in advance Lyndell


Maybe i use them and dont know what to call them .

Explain what a D nut is .

Im a doer , not a "teacher"

Lyndell Thomps> I have checked mcmaster and the rest to know avail. I am building handscrew

Round stock crossdrilled and threaded . Make them in left and right hand threaded pairs , stick them in holes drilled in a couple of hefty pieces of maple and tie the two together with rods threaded half and half . Commonly called a parallel jaw clamp by woodworkers . Also works great to break the bead loose on a motorcycle tire .

A dowel nut is a piece of barstock or rod in my case about 5/8" diameter by

2" long with a hole drilled and tapped not lengthways but @ 90 degrees to the length of the rod. It advantage is being able to swivel and push or pull at the same time.

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Try here:

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didn't have the time to search for you but they have billions of things you can't get just anywhere.

Try here...

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Ned Simmons

Is this a result of using a non-fixed width font ?? ...lew...

I just finished making 8 of them out of 1" brass rod, threaded 1/2 NC to hold a sigh frame together.

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