Hi everyone,

I have been turning my own grips and handles for the past few weeks but seem to ruin them when it comes to drilling them out enough to fit on a rod blank. I need help! If anyone knows how to make this easier, please let me know. I can't seem to get the drill bit to go straight through and end up drilling off center by the time I get to the other end of the grip. HELP! Thanks to all.

Gary,

I am going to assume that you are talking cork handles and eva grips and that you are turning them off the blank on a mandrel. The way I do it and many other rod builders is to use a tapered reamer made from a scrap piece of blank and either coated in coarse grit or a corase oxide paper that is about half an inch wide wound around the pice of blank in a spiral leaving say an eighth of an inch between turns to allow waste material to clear. You can get these tapes in 25 foot and 75 foot rolls from many of the listed sponsers. I belive flex coat have some notes on this and you will find past posts to on making reamers. It is necessary to find a piece of blank that has the same taper as the rod you are building. To keep the bore concentric I like to have the end of the reamer poking out of the end of the grip before any material starts coming off. In effect this part of the reamer acts as a pilot. These are hand reamers by the way. Some guys do try chucking them and using power it's up to you but they can get hot and you may loose the glue bond and damage the reamer. If I am not sure I have the same taper on my reamer as the blank I will do a trial bore on an old cork handle or grip. It's one of the reasons I keep loads of scrap blanks and broken rods as one day they could be turned into the right reamer for the job. This can be a slow process so be prepared for this.
It seriously is not a difficult thing to do. You may be able to get by with commercialy purchased reamers again from the sponsors in various sizes. I did to start, by a selection and mostly you will find one pretty close.

Hope this helps


Regards

Mike O.

Gary,

I am going to assume that you are talking cork handles and eva grips and that you are turning them off the blank on a mandrel. The way I do it and many other rod builders is to use a tapered reamer made from a scrap piece of blank and either coated in coarse grit or a corase oxide paper that is about half an inch wide wound around the pice of blank in a spiral leaving say an eighth of an inch between turns to allow waste material to clear. You can get these tapes in 25 foot and 75 foot rolls from many of the listed sponsers. I belive flex coat have some notes on this and you will find past posts to on making reamers. It is necessary to find a piece of blank that has the same taper as the rod you are building. To keep the bore concentric I like to have the end of the reamer poking out of the end of the grip before any material starts coming off. In effect this part of the reamer acts as a pilot. These are hand reamers by the way. Some guys do try chucking them and using power it's up to you but they can get hot and you may loose the glue bond and damage the reamer. If I am not sure I have the same taper on my reamer as the blank I will do a trial bore on an old cork handle or grip. It's one of the reasons I keep loads of scrap blanks and broken rods as one day they could be turned into the right reamer for the job. This can be a slow process so be prepared for this.
It seriously is not a difficult thing to do. You may be able to get by with commercialy purchased reamers again from the sponsors in various sizes. I did to start, by a selection and mostly you will find one pretty close.

Hope this helps


Regards

Mike O.

Hello Gary,
Get alittle innovated, build yourself a steady rest. With some scrap metal, nuts, bolts, little "C" clamps, visegrips, what ever it takes at first, then refine it as you go along. What you what will be 3 rollers to hold your piece steady off the lathe bed. Similar to a wrapping set-up for your guides. The 3 roller must each be adjustable so you can center the piece your working on. I think this is what you need , if I read your question correctly.
You may not want to drill to exact size, but as MIKE describes in his reply, you want to leave some material to ream out for a nice snug fit

Dave von Doehren
PRRODS......If man built it , man can fix it.and if man built it man can break it !

First, thanks for the reply and good information. My e-mail was in error as I did not state what material I have been turning. I have been turning some exotic wood pool cue blanks into rod handles, but I am having a time trying to keep them centered when drilling. I thought I might drill them out before I turn them but there again I have a problem centering them on the lathe. Do either of you know where I might pick up the mandrels to do the centering? I think I may still have this message or the terminalogy wrong and I hope you can understand what it is I am asking.

Thanks again, Gary Currie

Hi Gary
Mandrels, yes , go over to the left side of this page. Under sponsors, click on LAMAR REEL SEATS, you should find what you need there, might get some info to help working on reel seats, and the like.

Dave von Doehren
PRRODS......If man built it , man can fix it.and if man built it man can break it !

Guys
I think he is having trouble center drilling with his " lath ".
I don't own one yet, little room.
Lath users should be able to help here.

When you drill the wood make sur you drill small depths and remove and clear the bit (especially twist drills) the wood buildup often will make the bit walk to the soft side of the wood. This is more critical as you go deeper into the wood. You may also want to start with smallere bits to drill you first pass and gradually step up. I build a lot of pens and originally had the same problems you are experiencing. Using drills with pilots or centerong spurs will help but they are not the ultimate solution.

Hi Bill.

I agree with you the problem is coming clear now. I personally do not use a std wood lathe. I have looked at many and most seem to have very poor tailstocks with poor alignment to the headstock center. Also many lathes have very short drilling depth capability which means you have to drill a little way using the tailstock handle withdraw your drill bit and then reposition the tailstock to drill some more. This is not good in trying to drill concentrically to the O.D.

I have only used metal turning centre lathes for deep hole boring using proper boring bits. A large enough lathe like this is out of the reach of most builders because of cost and the space they take up. Now there are more than just a few expert wood turners who perticipate on this board I reckon who use wood lathes and who can help Gary with his problem.

Greg made some good pointers too. Twist drills are notorious for finding their preferred route through whatever material they are cutting. I guess my approach to solving the problem would be to rough out my bore as the first process then mount my workpiece on a manderal and turn to the manderal. Much easier to do it this way than finish turn the OD and then try and bore concentric to the O.D.

I hope this helps a bit Gary but what we really need is a top wood turner to answer your post. Here's hoping.

Regards


Mike OLiver

Thanks guys, you have given me some things to think about and to try. I think I will try to drill first and then turn the handle, at least I will have a couple of straight and flat sides to line up with. I will go to Lamar Reel Seats and take a look. I will let you all know how it turns out (no pun there), and if it does I will post a pic of the new handles.

Thanks again guys, Gary