What would be a good tool for boring cork with? High speed or low speed?

low speed, brad point bit. not sure what power tool you're planning to use. I'm assuming you are boring unbored cork blocks?

Get a cork drilling clamp from Fish sticks 4u and use a brad point bit at high speed in a drill press. Excellent set up.

It depends on what you're wanting to do. For just enlarging the bore on single cork rings, a good twist drill (I like brad points with edge spurs) spun at 2000 rpm will do fine. I'm assuming here that you need to do more than just ream them for a quick fit and that you're boring them one at a time.

If you need to bore a ring for a reel seat hood inlet, Dan Craft has a great inletting tool that works extremely well. Comes with several different sized cutting blades, too. Or, you can do as some do and just trace the outline of the hood and remove the material with a dremel tool. The former is much neater and quicker, the latter probably cheaper if you don't count your time.

If you need to enlarge the bore of an entire cork grip, nothing would be faster or cleaner than the reverse pilot bits shown in the Volume 9 #5 RodMaker. You will have to rework a long spade bit and grind new cutting edges on the reverse side, but the article shows how to do this in fine detail. Once done, you can zip out a nice, smooth bore in mere seconds and keep everything centered at the same time.

You can always ream rings to the same relative size by putting some tape on a reamer where you need to stop. Check the Flex Coat DVD called "How We Do It" to see Roger Seiders making quick work of this process.

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The tool shown in Rodmaker is the ticket. Get an old spade bit but make sure it's the long shank style. It doesn't have to be sharp because you won't be using the regular cutting edges. You shape new sloped cutting edges on the BACK side of the bit. I don't have those specs in front of me but do it like the article says and you'll be boring L - O - N - G cork grips in seconds. No other tool I've used cuts them as true and clean as these do.

You can also buy these now from Flex Coat but they're so easy and inexpensive to make you might as well make up your own shop set from some old spade bits. If you know any woodworkers you might ask them for donation of their old worn out ones.

Duh. I had the article right here all along. Only had short shank spade bits but managed to find a bit extender and used that to get all the way through the entire length. Reground the back edges as indicated and it worked as promised. Thanks. I should have searched a little more before bothering you guys.

I've tried the Flex Coat pilot type spade bits on long cork grips. They work okay, not great. The pilot is too short IMO to stay centered and the spade cut is rough. Might not be an issue if you plan to do some final reaming though.

A spade bit will not be ideal for cutting cork. It'll work, but tends to tear rather than cut the soft cork. The Flex Coat pilot bits were intended for use on their urethane reel seat arbors and they do indeed work very well for that purpose.

The tool we're talking about here is made from a spade bit, but what you end up boring with is not a spade bit. The regular spade bit cutting edges are not used for boring the cork, only the new tapered rear cutting edges which you will have to grind for yourself. The specifics are in the article. You'll find it to work extremely well for boring cork grips.

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Our Crafty's Cutter is possibly the best tool for inletting cork for uplock seats. You can view our video at Utube or e-mail me for a copy at info@dancraftent.com
I have been much happier with my results since I switched to Craft'ys Cutter but admittedly, I am biased.

Dan Craft
Dan Craft Enterprises
www.dancraftent.com