I am a new builder that still has less than 10 rods under my belt. I just wanted to share my experience trying out my drill press to turn cork. It started with using a pre-made skeleton handle that I didn't like the shape of. I'm a big fan of as low tech as possible until I know what I'm doing at least, so I figured I'd give it a try on my drill press. With the short skeleton handle pieces, I was able to take a drill bit, wrap it with a couple rounds of masking tape for a tight fit, and shape them how I wanted them with no problem at all. I can tell this will work fine with unshaped rings, since I can put as much pressure on the cork as I want without it slipping or anything. Admittedly I'd need the drill press lathe setup if I did new handles, which I don't plan to use at this time.

So I know this topic has been covered numerous times, I just wanted to share that this may be a good option for anyone (especially newbs) that have a drill press, like to do skeleton handles, and aren't ready to spring for a lathe quite yet. I'm going to do some handles from scratch, I'll post how it goes on here.

RodMaker Volume 6 #2.

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Darren,

I've turned many inserts, cork rings, full cork grips, EVA grips, about a dozen foam cores, and reshaped a lot of pre-made grips with mine.

If you want to turn longer stuff, drop the adjustable base all the way down and kick it off to the side a little, clamp a piece of wood with a hole in it sized to your mandrel. Slide the mandrel in the hole and the other end into the chuck. I just use steel bar stock from the home improvement stores for the mandrels in 1/4 and 1/2 inch cut to length.

Feel free to email me if you want pics of my setup.

Steve