You can easily make a center marker for dowels yourself.
Take a scrap of wood and drill a hole in it the same size as the dowell, just don't go all the way thru. Then drill a small pilot hole all the way thru the center making sure you are perfectly straight. Then screw a screw into the hole from underneath so it just sticks up into the other hole. Now all you simply do is grab a dowell and place in the hole and ream it a little to mark the centers. Takes no time at all, simple and easy, no marking with a pencil or razorknife, no x's needed. Done in one quick operation.
You can thank Tattoo for that one, he showed me that.
