I assembled and turned a cork grip with standard cork in the center and a checkerboard pattern of both standard cork and burl at each end of the grip. The next day the ends of this grip were now oval and "out of round" Did the burl take on moisture of some sort? The rest of the grip is round and without concern. Any suggestions?

I use a lot of burl without any problems. I doubt that it would absorb moisture as it' is just bonded cork particles. When you glued the wedges up, what was your procedure?
Possibly when you glued it up, it went out of round when clamping. That's easy to do.

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/2006 10:37AM by Mike Barkley.

Sounds like you might have squashed the rings together a little too tight???

Guys,

I may very well have squeezed too tight, but If I did, wouldn't the sanding process restore the shape to round?

Dave

Not exactly. If it is out of round and you hold sandpaper against it, it will be very smooth but still out of round as the paper will just follow the shape of the grip. On a lathe, it would turn concentic because the tool is held in the same position and will take more off one side if the object is out of round. Backing your sandpaper with a piece of wood and held in the same position (distance from the mandrel) will help, but you best bet would be to make sure they are round when you start. What I do is drill the ring out to 3/8" before I cut into wedges. I have a piece of 1x 4 wood with a 3" piece of 3/8" all thread rod sticking up from it and apply my adhesive to the wedges and arrange my pieces around it and use a cable tie to cinch it up and then just slide it off and set aside to dry. Keeps them round and works pretty good (for me). I usually pull a piece of ordinary wax paper down over the rod on to the wood to keep the glue off of the wood base. I also set my glued up rings on a sheet of wax paper to dry as the wax paper will pull right off.

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/2006 06:09PM by Mike Barkley.

Mike offers the best explanation. I'd bet it was out of round when you finished turing it. The thing many don't understand about turning and shaping handles, is that you can't do it with sandpaper alone - you have to use a tool that will cut the cylinder in a concentric fashion, rather than just floating on top of the cylinder, which may already be somewhat oval in shape, or which may have rings with hard areas.

Instructions for grip shaping are in the book I did for Amato and also in a back issue of RodMaker. You need to use a round nose scraper to turn a true and concentric cylinder first, then follow that with the sanding operation.

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One thing you may want to look at in the future is try and dry fit the pieces before glue up and make sure there are no gaps in the joints. If the parts have gaps between or an odd angle in the pieces before glue up you can force them together with a clamp (tiestrap) but when the pressure is removed the parts will relax and can become oval. It's like gluing a board together if one board is warped and the other is not you can force the 2 halfs together but in the end both boards will have a slight warp. This may not be the problem but it's something to think about next time. Mark

Mark,

Your explanation may just be the answer. I guess I should have explained that I did in fact follow Andy Dear's video instructions using a file and then sandpaper and I usually have had n trouble. It's piecing these cork ring sectons together that I need to work on and maybe need to try Mike's idea as mentioned above to get more clean, balanced sections that will glue up correctly.

Dave

A file will also "float" on any hard areas. You must actually cut the grip with a turning/cutting tool, in order to create a concentric cylinder.

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You have to use the file on a tool rest in order for it not to float. If you don't use a tool rest, it won't work correctly. In addiition the file has to be agressive enough to cut through the hard areas on burl like Tom mentions, if you're using a fine mill bastard file, it won't work as well as a rougher cut like on a 4 in 1 file.


Andy Dear
Lamar Fishing

Andy,

I use the exact 4 in 1 file you use in your video with the tool rest and the rougher cut. I need to either cut away the end rings where it happened and redo or just try to again file it concentrically again.

Dave

The other thing thta might be happening here is that you're pressing too hard and deforming the rings during turning. Let the file and the speed do the work...no need to press hard at all.


Andy Dear
Lamar Fishing

Tom, I came to rod building from wood turning and woodworking. A round nose scraper works well (so does a skew chisel BTW) but the key is in using a tool rest. I rarely bother with the scraper anymore, I just use 36 or 60 grit sandpaper stapled to a small piece of wood and then use the tool rest to support it. You can also do fairly well by using a larger backing block and hold it askew of the handle. This way you are presenting a long surface to the cork and you minimize the oval effect.

Here is the question. The cork was fine throughout with no deformities and then I sealed it with cork seal and the next day I had Ovals at the ends where the burl rings were which led me to believe that quite possibly the burl took the seal differently? or some type of moisture? It may be, as I stated earlier, that I squeezed the rings too tight. But would there not be a deformity after I sanded and not overnight? Sorry guys, I sound like a whiny kid. Bottom line.................DO IT AGAIN!

Dave

seems like if it was sanded to a oval shape that would have been apparant right after sanding. I have made 2 grips with Andy's burl cork and have another 3 dozen or so rings loose in a bag and scattered around in a couple of shop rooms and I have see no indication of a change in shape from moisture change.
Even if you use a file on a tool rest, you can oval the stock. Tom's suggestion of turning with a gouge is one way to help make it round. Works fine for me with the burl cork, but not very good with regular cork. Using a file or sandpaper with a backer it would be best to have a double support, the tool rest and some type of adjustable height support behind the stock too. Be a good place to have 2 banjo's and a spare tool rest. Basically the turning tool has to be rigid and also has to take light cuts as the out of round grip beats against it.
I do not seal my grips, so I don't know how cork reacts to the sealing.

One more thought. Did you turn the grip after it was glued to the rod, or did you turn it on a mandrel and then put it on the rod? If the latter, perhaps the shape change is related to inserting the rod shaft in some way. Like the hole in the grip was not round or something was caught, causing the grip to expand from the inside to a oval shape? Or just a tight fit and the cork was stronger in one direction than another.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/25/2006 03:07PM by Bill Moschler.