I recently bought a cutting jig for cork. I've done a handful of grips with checkers now and have run into a problem on a few of them. When I glue up the cork, all the glue lines are parrallel and everything squared up. I put it on the lathe to turn it and sand it and somehow the inlays and whatnot get whopperjawed. Then have a slight slant to them.

Before I glue up the cork, I drill out the cork ring to 3/8" so it will fit on my lathe mandrel. I will make figure 8s with each ring on sandpaper before glueing. I then glue up the cork rings in the desired pattern. I use 1/4" all-thread as a clamp. I have a washer on each end and tighten the wing nuts up. This last time I tried glueing up smaller sections, then glue those smaller sections together. After the glue up this last time, everything looked good. I put it on the lathe tonight, roughed it out then sanded it. The inlay lines are slanted a bit.

The grips are 8"+ grips. The next set I do, I'm going to use a 3/8" mandrel to glue them up. I made a cork clamp using 2 pieces of all thread and 2 2x4s so I'm going to try it this way this time.

If anyone else has had this problem with the inlays ending up slanted, what did you do to solve it?

Thanks for the help.

Jeremy W. Reed

You should glue them up on a mandrel or what ever you use that is the same size as the hole in the cork, otherwise they can shift while setting up. Also do not use excessive pressure when gluing up, this also can cause shifting if the layers are not perfectly square to each other, the glue can act as a lubricant.

Jeremy,

I agree with Phil. By putting on too much pressure, you can smash the inlay which may or may not ever regain it's form and original size. You should be able to tell if and when you're using too much pressure to glue up the grip by detecting any rings that looks like they may be bulging or becoming distorted under the pressure.

Good Luck

Phil is right....cork gives and too much pressure will cause them to be out of alignment..wood or other hard materials are different and behave differently..you can take a piece of wood and forstner bit to make a drilled hole the size of your rings..place your pieces in the hole and put a dowel or mandrel in the center..this will give you both exterior and interior pressure and keep the pieces from wandering if you are having trouble with other clamping methods

I have also found that excess pressure when sanding the foam checkers can cause them to shift. With cork and wood checkers I always glue them up as seperate entities first, using wire ties to clamp them with. Next I glue my rings of checkers together separtley in quick grip and threaded rod clamp then glue my handle pieces together.

This may not be your problem but I always slice my rings in half (or thirds, depending on the checker I want) then glue them up, 1 dark, 1 light, and then cut them into wedges, Just flip every other piece and all of the line will be lined up.

If you sand the flat surfaces, make sure that you sand them perfectly flat or they will be skewed.. If you cut them in the jig, they shouldn't need sanding. What jig are you using and what saw are you using??

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!!

Thanks for the replies. Jig is the mudhole jig and saw.

I would scrap the jewelers saw. They are worthless, time consuming and flimsy. Try this saw [www3.towerhobbies.com] This saw is the ONLY one that we could find that will fit the slots and is very popular with builders. The depth of the cut is 1 3/16" so when cutting a ring in half, you have to turn the ring to cut all the way through (no big deal)

Save yourself a lot of headaches and get the saw, it's cheap! It HAS to be model # 35-500 It also does great on wood and acrylic

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!!

Mr. Barkley -
Just ordered 2. I definately hate using the jewelers saw, it works, but it's also very time consuming and flimsy. I've been looking for a replacement for it, but couldn't find anything to fit into the slots. Thanks for suggesting the razor saw.
jwr