I was thinking of purchasing some 1/8" and 1/4" sheets of cork off the roll. These come in a number of colors. This cork is used for making bulletin boards etc. Is this suitable for using for grips, and is there anything specific I should be watching out for. This comes with no glue or additives on the back, but was curious if the glue they use to hold the particles together in their sheets would be any problem when the rings I make would be glued together with Tite-bond III. I'm just looking for different mediums to use in my builds.

Thanks for any advice you can lend me.

Harold



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/2008 09:46PM by Harold Dean.

Harold, I've not used this material before, but have been planning to. I've seen other posts here on the forum where people have used the bulletin board material for grips. When all of the rings are glued up either with tite-bond or epoxy, it should serve to bond all of the particles in the board material and make a nice grip, or accents in a grip.

I have used the bulletin board cork for accents, never as a full grip. It works well in that respect. I used Tite Bond glue, no problems.

I use thicker bulletin board cork sheet (tiles) for my grips. Full grips, accents, butt ends, etc. The bonding matrix used to hold the particles will be fine with your epoxy.

harold , I have made a handle from the sheet cork . work out very nice . used the same wood glue . give it a try

Thanks everyone. That's what I was hoping to hear.

Harold

I haven't found the bulletin board cork and other cork products from the craft store to be anywhere near the quality of the cork sheeting used in automotive/industrial gaskets. It used to be available in a few colors from different manufacturers. I also find the rubber and paper gasket materials for auto/industrial use to hold up very well. You do have to watch your turning technique when using several materials of different type and density.

Hi Spencer. Good reminder on the sanding of different materials. I learned that real quick when I started combining cork and wood into grips. I picked up a small roll of 1/8" cork today, so I will give this a try over the weekend. I'm going to cut the sheet into 1.5 X 1.5 " squares, and some in 1.5" circles. I'll time the process to see which is easiest and quickest. Squares, or precutting them into circles and turning them from there.

I'll post some pictures when it's done.

Harold

Squares turned down is much quicker and easier then circles, you won't hav to wory abotu gluing it up off center. Biggest problem is boring teh center out.

Good point Billy.

In that case, I think if I glue the 1.5" squares up in one inch piles initially, and then drilled a pile at a tiime, I should be able to keep the drill bit fairly centered. Then I just have to glue the 7 piles together predrilled to get a 7" grip. It's one extra step gluing, and a few extra hours drying, but hey, it's not a race. If I start early enough in the day, the grips would still be ready to turn the next day.

I glue them in stacks and then use a hole saw to get round sections, drill bit in center of hole saw will give you a center, you can glue the sections up on a mandrel and turn them down.

Yep, hole saw will give you great rings. High speed, feed slowly, and make sure the drill bit is sharp. Support the sheet well, or stack them and clamp together. I try not to try and cut too many at a time: stack 3 or 4 sheets high, 'cos friction from rings cut in the saw and the sheet surface can cause burning of the cork. Gets bad when the saw fills up, so best to cut a few in a stack.