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Dowelling Machinery
"cooling tower"| aligning machinery| "thermal growth"| Precision Shaft Alignment

By Stan Riddle on April 30, 2015

A dowel pin, in its simplest form, is a hardened steel shaft, usually very short, and can be straight
or tapered. It is often used in machinery for:

Precise locating of machinery components, such as the top half of a pump, gearbox
components, line shaft bearings, etc. Dowels are usually located in diagonal corners of the
machine components, to make sure machine parts line up properly.

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 In high horsepower industrial machinery, dowel pins are used to help the hold down bolts
control lateral, or shear movement, in machine feet. This is usually due to high torque loads on
start-up.

 
Dowel pins, both tapered and straight, are used in some machinery installations to “pin down”
machinery to prevent unintended movement. From a machinery alignment standpoint, dowel pins
can be a real cause of headaches. When I started in maintenance in the early 1980’s, tapered
dowel pins were placed into almost every motor, gearbox, and pump I worked on. Some of these
machines were small-less than 25 horsepower, yet they were still dowelled.

Millwrights would replace a motor, align it with dial indicators, and then drive tapered pins through
the motor foot and into the base plate. In almost every instance, driving the tapered pins into the
base would misalign the motor. It was not as well known that the dowel pin holes should be
reamed with a tapered drill, and THEN reinstall the dowel in the machine.

So, often these pins were left out. Engineers would state that the hold down bolts, if sized properly,
were su cient to overcome any shear forces created by the machine start-up. I never witnessed
any machine failures due to leaving out the dowel pins.

In most general industrial applications, the use of dowel pins is not necessary. But there are some
circumstances in which dowel pins are recommended, such as:

• High torque, high vibration machines such as hammer mills and crushers.
• High torque applications, such as large cooling tower gearboxes.
• High horsepower machines-typically over 1000 HP.

If dowel pins are used, engineering should be consulted as to the proper placement of the dowel
locations. This is to:

• Minimize thermally-related problems, such as radial or axial thermal growth.

• Control and minimize the e ects of high torque applications.
• Allow for proper maintenance, when removal or adjustment of the machine location is required.
So, what do you think of using dowel pins?

About the Author

Stan Riddle
Stan Riddle joined VibrAlign in 2008. He has over 35 years experience in aligning industrial machinery.
Stan received his AAS Degree in Machinist Technology from Surry Community College in Dobson, NC,
and also holds a diploma in Industrial Systems Technology from Forsyth Technical Community College
in Winston-Salem, NC, where he was also an instructor in the program.

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 Stan began his maintenance career working as a machinist and millwright for companies such as
Weyerhaeuser, R.J. Reynolds, and Tyco Electronics. He also has over 25 years experience in Predictive
Technologies, such as vibration analysis, thermography, oil analysis, and ultrasonic inspection. He is a
certi ed Level III Vibration Analyst with the Vibration Institute, and is a Past Chairman and Board
Member of the Piedmont Chapter.

Stan and his wife live in Yadkinville, NC.

Mike Hinkley

May 5, 2015 at 2:04 pm

We have a few customers that will have us do an alignment on a piece of equipment. They will then drill
and dowel it. Their logic is that the equipment will never need to be aligned again. Simply put back into
the same location using the dowel (alignment) pins. I feel that the equipment should be checked
whenever either end is removed for repair/replacement. Any thoughts?

Stan Riddle

May 6, 2015 at 7:52 am

Mike, great question! I agree with you 100%. The alignment should be re-checked each time.

Franklin Pérez

May 6, 2015 at 11:14 am

Very helpfull information, thank you so much for the advice, the client meda put the pins anyways

Rafael Dwell Dos Santos

February 12, 2019 at 7:25 am

what are the di erences between spigot and dowel pin? For example, some vendors of mine said the
connection on stu ng box and bearing housing in ‘in between bearing pump type’ should be using
dowel pin instead of spigot. I’m not sure what’s that even mean.

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