I'm curious as to how those of you who have made acrylic handles for fly reels went about chucking the acrylic stock in a lathe for turning. Did you pre-drill the stock and mount on a (very small diameter) mandrel?

Hi Torin
I have'nt made one but what I would do is chuck up the ararylic in my lathe turn the handle right there on the end of the block polish then drill while still in chuck then saw off and polish the cut end.

Mike

Thanks Mike. Would you likely chuck a drill bit in the stationary tailstock to bore out the handle after turning? I've never worked with acrylic, so I don't know if such a small piece is prone to chipping easily. Any recommendation on type of drill bit to use for boring after turning?

Hi Torin,

I've done a few of these and I use PVC for molds and drill 3/8" hole in the resulting acrylic blank. I chuck the piece into the head stock and then use a 3/8" brad point bit with a jacobs chuck in the tail stock. Once drilled I turn the piece using a 3/8" mandrel.

I prefer drilling first because there always is a little chip out when the drill bit exits the back of the piece. This has always worked well for me.

Thanks,
Chad Huderle

Huderle Custom Rods
Prior Lake, MN

I do mine much like Chad; I drill first then mount to a mandrel to turn.

This was covered in a RodMaker article a while back. There are various ways to do it, all resulting in the same finished product. My preference is to mount the square stock in the chuck, just a length a bit longer than needed for the finished part so no tailstock support is required. Turn and polish, then bore, then part off and mount on reel.

Sometimes the reel requires a shouldered bore, so the boring process requires two bits and precise depth of the larger bore. Drill the smaller bore first, of course.

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Thank you all for the replies. I know that, as Tom stated, I will need to shoulder bore for the type of hardware used by the reel manufacturer. I have made handles out of wood, cork, and birch bark (a little fragile) and pre-drilled and mounted on a drill bit used as a mandrel (about 3/16" if I remember right). The problem I had with this was that I also shoulder bored prior to turning and occationally broke the handle at the shoulder bore during turning. I may try to chuck the square stock at a length greater than needed and then turn, polish and part. Tom, the article I've recently read had "tips" for turning acrylic that recommended using a negative rake scraper, but no specifics for mandrel vs. direct stock mounting of small pieces like those used for reel handles. I'll search for the issue you're referring to.

If you chuck the solid piece into the headstock, and forego a mandrel, you can turn to shape and then bore without ever having to unchuck the piece. One the bore is complete, just part off and install.

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Torin,

I agree with the other guys. There are a number of different ways you do the same process. I’ve made a few acrylic reel seats and I make mine on a mandrel. This works great for me as the reel seats I’ve made have a mortised cut out for the reel foot to set on. I haven’t yet gotten around to getting a router bit for this process so I setup the reel seat blank mounted on the mandrel in an indexing fixture on my milling machine and step in the mortise radius. This still leaves very fine indexing steps from the square end endmill. I just take some 400 and 600 grit sandpaper and hand sand the lines out. With the part still mounted on the mandrel I now take it my buffing wheel for a good polishing. I use Clean Cut a buffing compound made for clear coat paint that works great. It will buff out to a great gloss finish in no time.

David

I drill it first, I then use a wooden tapered point on the head stock and a 60deg live center and turn it down. Very easy.

Bob