Sometime in the past 2 months. While reading through this years posts.....

Someone was talking about holding a blank on a lathe with a "gizmo" ........basicly, a bolt with a rubber bushing and a nut. goes inside blank when you tighten the nut it "swells" the rubber and holds the blank for turning.

What are these called? Are they available commercially? Where could they be found?

Thanks in advance

tom

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tom in indy



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2010 08:33PM by Tom Kirkman.

Tom -
Clemens Custom Tackle used to sell them (like 20 years ago). They're really easy to make. Round head stove bolt; length of surgical tubing and a nut. Slide the round head (and surge tubing) inside the blank & tighten the nut. However, I prefer a piece of scrap blank. One flea market $5.00 solid glass rod will make into a variety of diameters - and I think they hold the blank more securely.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2010 08:34PM by Tom Kirkman.

Tom, I used to use a bolt and a piece of rubber hose in the manner that you describe. Working in a lab I had access to many sizes of hoses. I would save pieces that folks threw away. This was in the late 70's and early 80's when I worked on fiberglass rods with bigger butts than graphite blanks that we use today. I would slip a piece of hose on a bolt, put that piece into the butt, take a nut and tighten until the bolt and hose were snug inside the blank. Next I would chuck the end of the bolt into a drill that I used on a homemade lathe to turn a handle. At that time I was turning handles with the cork rings glued to the blank. It worked then but now the hole diameters are much smaller on blanks and the walls are thiner. I won't try it now.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2010 08:34PM by Tom Kirkman.

What you discribe is known as a "Crusenberry" mandrel and is shown in the book by Dale P. Clemens "Advanced Custom Rod Building" on page 329. Dale said on page 328 that
Rodcrafter Harry Crusenberry came up with the idea but others may have also.

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2010 08:34PM by Tom Kirkman.

I think Ellis is onto something. I would hesitate before I tried it on todays graphite blanks



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2010 08:34PM by Tom Kirkman.

Tom,
You can really simplify your life.
I have been using a "gizmo" for years to hold a blank in the lathe while I turn the handle.

Very simply put, it is a solid piece of either graphite ro fiberglass blank material that is turned down on the lathe using relatively coarse sand paper to a size that is a bit smaller than the inside of the blank that you want to hole.

If I happen to have a very large blank, I will take the largest piece of blank material that I have, and simply build up the outside of the solid blank with masking tape. Again, I generally insert thse solid blanks about 4 inches into the blank for secure holding.
When, I wrap the masking tape on the solid blank stock, I wrap it perpendicular, or simply wrap it around the blank. I taper the outside by putting fewer wraps on the end of the blank that gets inserted further into the blank, than the portion of the solid blank material that sits near the butt section of the blank.

After building many rods and using the full length rod lathe to turn down the handle that has been glued up to the blank, I have a box of various sized solid pieces of blank stock that are all about 6 inches long or so. I insert the blank to the end of the chuck, about 32 inches and then insert the other end of the solid blank material into the inside of the blank being turned about 4 inches or until tight. If it doesn't snug up, I will add a wrap or two of masking tape on the solid stock until it does snug up.

Since the outside of the blank stock is relatively rough due to the shaping of the blank stock with coarse paper, the blank stock "grabs" the inside of the blank very well. It is very seldom that the rod ever backs down off the solid rod stock as I am turning it to shape the handle.

So, you can certainly use the bolt and surgical tubing if you like, but the very simple and effective method to hold the bare blank, is to use tapered solid glass or graphite stock.

Take care
Roger

p.s.
For those times that I use a cork butt cap, as opposed to using a piece of cork for a butt cap, I will use the same method to hold common hardware store rubber chair leg tips for turning. i.e. I will take a 1/2 inch piece of solid rod stock, and then build it up with masking tape until the taped up rod stock is a tight fit into the rubber chair leg. Then, I will spin the rubber chair leg tip on my lathe and turn it down using coarse and then finer grits of sand paper to match the butt diameter of the rod being built.

Since I only use about 4 different size rod butts, I only have about 4 different sized, solid built up solid rod stocks to hold the various sized rubber butt caps for turning.

Could check and see if well nuts come in a large enough size, John