I throw away A LOT of stock when I'm selecting draw bore pins for my workbenches. It's a calculation that pits the time I would spend driving to and picking through the stock at the home center against the cost of buying dowels in bulk and accepting material waste as a part of the process.
No matter how you do the math, reading the grain and carefully choosing the stock that gets driven into the joint should always be a part of your process.
Here's a look at how I evaluate potential pins and either accept or reject them for a build. Sadly, the failure rate is about 50%.
Where do you purchase your draw bore pin stock? Thanks in advance