I've got a handful of oak dowels (ok, a lot) and holes that are both 5/8" in diameter, the problem is that the dowels are just barely too big for the holes.

I'm trying to figure out easy ways to either sand down the dowels or expand the holes. I don't have a power sander and much in terms of tools.

I was thinking of putting the dowels into the freezer to see if they cool off just enough to get them in the holes or otherwise looking for an alternative to manually sanding down the ends of... a lot of dowels or buying a bench top belt sander.

Are there other tricks I can do to get them to fit nicely?

I've got a handful of oak dowels (ok, a lot) and holes that are both 5/8" in diameter, the problem is that the dowels are just barely too big for the holes.

I'm trying to figure out easy ways to either sand down the dowels or expand the holes. I don't have a power sander and much in terms of tools.

I was thinking of putting the dowels into the freezer to see if they cool off just enough to get them in the holes or otherwise looking for an alternative to manually sanding down the ends of... a lot of dowels or buying a bench top belt sander.

Are there other tricks I can do to get them to fit nicely?

I can't find a good picture of exactly what I'm trying to make, but this shows the general idea (my holes are drilled all the way through, though):