I am making a mandrel for turning cork handles. The mandrel is going to be level. I was wondering about the cork ring inside diameters - do they vary much? Of course I can make the mandrel a bit thin and tape it tight but which size would you recommend making the mandrel in?

Cheers again!

Mikko,
Most are 1/4"

Neal's Fishing Products

Most cork rings come in 1/4 inch ID. But... you're usually better off boring the rings to closely approximate the OD of the blank where they will reside. In other words, rather than have to ream out a long grip with a 1/4 inch bore to fit a 1/2 OD rod blank butt, go ahead and bore them to 1/2 or 3/8 or something close so very little reaming needs to be done afterwards,

This does require that you have several size mandrels. I get the most use of my 5/16 inch mandrel, but also have them in 1/4, 3/8, 1/2, 5/8 and 3/4 inch sizes.

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Don't know if this will help but I turn my cork using two pieces of scrap blank glued together to make them strong. They have a nice taper.

Thanks guys!

I forgot to mention that I'm making the mandrel from metal. I'm not experienced at all in using a metal lathe so that's why the mandrel will be level. If I could make a tapered one matching the blank in concern I'd do it naturally. So I'm planning in making a general mandrel and ream the handle later eventhough Tom's way would be the easiest and best. Maybe I could make the taper to the mandrel from tape etc.? So far I've been using a crap blank reamer made to match the blank taper.

What I really ment to ask when I asked about the ID was that is it an exact 1/4" or say typically few 64th +/-? Since cork is natural material I'd emagine there being some variation in the size.? Does it really mather whether I make the mandrel snugg or not.?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/17/2005 09:36AM by Mikko Stenberg.

Hi all.

I must ask why would one need a separate mandrel? I just use the blank. I fit every single cork ring's ID to fit perfectly its place on the blank. Then I glue them on. After that a jig and a hand drill accompanied with some sandpaper will do the job. Why make things more difficult if you're not building thousands of rods?

This is what I'm talking about:
[www.thomaspenrose.com]

Cheers,
Sakari

No, you don't want a tapered mandrel. You'd have to have hundreds of them in order to match each blank taper. Just make a straight non-tapered mandrel but in a few sizes so you can pre-bore your cork rings to a size that closely matches the OD of the blank where your grip will reside.

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Hehe! :D Now I got it Tom. Thanks for clearing that up! A bit easier to ream a handle to an exact ID that way.

Doing a grip on the blank has advantages, but IMO, it's disadvantages outweigh them. If I scew up a handle on a mandrel, I only have lost some Cork/EVA/wood, if I do it on a blank, I screw up the handle AND the blank (I have wrecked a blank).

Both methods work and it's personal preference, but I spend a lot of time on grips and prefer the safety of mandrels. Like Tom said, 3 or 4 straight mandrels would be the way to go!

Mike



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/17/2005 12:46PM by Mike Barkley.

Just don't screw up. IMO, you get better results when shaping directly on the blank since you don't have to worry about off center reaming. The big advantage I see with MAndrels is you can shape everything seperately away from thread & such (although dust in epoxy is WAY OVERRATED!!), on a high power lathe, if you have one. With cork, it doesn't much matter, but speed & power really help with hypalon.

What I would suggest, is NOT using the Mandrels to fully sand your grip - get the rough shape, then ream & instal on teh blank - then finish it off. If you reamed off center, which is highly likely when you first start reaming, you'll be able to semi-fix it by sanding with teh paper on a sanding block. What happens is when the grip spins off center, it will have high & low points - with the block the sandpaper will only sand the high points - you'll be able to get it much more coencentric with teh blank this way than if you sand totally on teh mandrel & ream, especially at first.

Of course, nobody will notice if teh grip isn't 100% coencentric with teh blank anyway......(until they look at where the grip meets the reel seat & notice something's off)

If you have the different sized mandrels, and pre-bore the rings to a near fit, then the amount of reaming you have to do is very slight. You probably won't have to worry about any off-center reaming and we'd only be talking about taking off a tiny amount, and usually just at the aft end.

Now if you try to ream a grip with a 1/4 inch bore to fit a blank location that has an O.D. of 1/2 or 5/8th inch, then off-center reaming is a distinct possiblity. But again, that's why I mention pre-boring the rings and using the appropriately sized mandrel.

Mandrels don't cost very much considering that they'll last a lifetime. Well, unless you're careless and bang them around or drop them. A bent or crooked mandrel isn't much use.

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