I am just about ready to start to turn up a few cork grips in the next few days so i have a few questions obviously.These will be practise
runs for the first few.I have bought some cheap rings before i go all out with some better quality.

I basically wanted to know what speed roughly to turn the cork at.I have a decent wood lathe so it has around 8 speeds i think.

Does anyone use a surform to take off any excess glue before they start to use the sandpaper to start shaping.

And do you use a block with the sandpaper to make sure you dont get any valleys along the grip.

Thank you in advance for replies.

cheers

Ray Balmforth
Figtree
NSW
Australia

You will get alot of different opinions on this. I do not use a sureform or a block. I wipe off as much epoxy as I can from the cork before it hardens. I just use sand paper. I spin the cork at a fairly high speed. I generally use burl, burnt burl and rubberized cork for my handles.

Hillsborough, NJ

I use all of the above but mostly sandpaper. Vary the grit starting with 80 and down to 220. I don't like to glue the rings together with epoxy as It dries harder than the cork and is hard to sand even with the softer cork. I use titebond 3, it dries softer and isn't effected by water.

Don

I use a SurForm to knock off the hard epoxy edges (if you have them) and then a round nose scraper to turn the cylinder concentric. The rest of the way is sandpaper.

A speed of 1500 to 2000 should be sufficient.

...................

Don O'Neil Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I use all of the above but mostly sandpaper. Vary
> the grit starting with 80 and down to 220. I don't
> like to glue the rings together with epoxy as It
> dries harder than the cork and is hard to sand
> even with the softer cork. I use titebond 3, it
> dries softer and isn't effected by water.
>
> Don

X2

______________________________________
Super Tight Lines......Don

I use sandpaper, usually starting with 60 to get the basic for then down to 220 to finish shaping then 400 to finish. I have several curved forms to shape the grip. Also have an electronic caliper to check against the pattern I'm using. This keeps me from oversanding the grip. I use a drill set up and run it between medium and high speed.

I don't like solid burl grips, they feel to hard and heavy to me. Usually I mix about 60% to 70% cork and the rest burl. This helps cut cost and allows you to use a lower quality cork. The mix of burl and cork tends to minimise the appearance of flaws in the cork.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/2012 09:22AM by Bob Riggins.

Bob,

Going back to the RodMaker article, it is possible to core the burl or other exotic cork grips with rigid urethane. This gives you the look, without all the weight. Just something to keep in mind should you ever want to use them for a solid grip.

................

Thanks for all the replies so far.I will be glueing some rings together and am using trondak rod bond.Might have some fun
with the grips getting them concentric as they are low grade and are cut on all angles.Just have to sort through to get them
matching.As you said Tom a scraper or maybe a a wood working chisel is the way to go.Anyway its only a practise run for a
few grips and after doing 4 or 5 i will be able to knock up a few good ones with some good quality cork.

cheers

Ray Balmforth
Figtree
NSW
Australia

Ray,
I use most of the same ideas as have been posted above.
I generally always run the lathe on the highest speed of about 3600 rpm. I don't find any reason to run slower.

I also use epoxy to glue all of the rings together. As a result, I use the Surform file to remove any glue ridges, or any glue from the surface of the cork. i.e. I use the file until there is no shine - indicating glue - on the surface.
Then, I start with 100 grit paper to do all of my rough shaping. After that, I quickly go down to 150, 180, 220, 320 and 400 grit paper.

After you have done a bunch of handles, you will only spend about 5 minutes or so to shape a handle.

As is the case with one of the posts mentioned above - having a template to shape to - is a very big time saver on the handle work.

-------------------
Also, with the quality of today's cork, I will generally sand down to about the 220 level and then stop. At that point, I use my air compressor with my blow gun and high pressure air to blow out all of the dust from the shaped handle, as well as to blow out any loose cork that might be part of the handle. Then, I will use cork filler to fill any voids and or cracks. After letting dry, I go back to 180 grit paper to knock down any high spots from the filler, and then continue on down to the 400 grit paper.

After doing all of the handle shaping on the lathe and mandrel, I will then ream or drill the handle to accommodate the blank.

For most of the cork handles - I will generally just drill them full length with a constant diameter drill bit. I have many 24 inch drills of various sizes, so it is pretty simple to just take the appropriate drill and drill the handle full length. . Then, I will shim the blank as necessary to get a nice fit of the handle to the grip. Most blanks have very little taper in the area of the handle, so typically shimming is very
minimal. Drilling is many times faster than reaming.

Good luck
Roger

Not to hi-jack the thread but does anyone have some links showing grips being turned. I'm purchasing a lathe as soon as I can find the right deal on one and have zero experience at turning cork/wood. As they say a picture is worth a thousand words.

Thanks Roger for your detailed response confirms most of what i had thought but wasnt to sure about the speeds to use will just practise
ans see how i go.No pressure on me as the first few are just trial grips.Going to be interesting later as i want to use the VSS reel seats and
they will need to be cut out to fit the reelk seat not sure how i will attack them.Do you use a spade bit to drill out bigger diameters and do you
put an arbour on the drill to keep them running true any help welcome.

Hi Joel best advice i can give you is buy some cheap cork rings and give it a go.Just follow the advice here and you cant go wrong.Well thats
the theory of it anyway.

cheers

Ray Balmforth
Figtree
NSW
Australia

Thanks, Ray. Thought I was going to get a Delta 46-460 this week but I' m having to replace a cam sensor on my truck this week. I'm sure that I'll go through a few hundred rings before I turn something worth putting on a rod but I guess I've got to start somewhere!

Hi Joel,
Cork is pretty easy. I have a drill powered lathe as I haven't got the room for a proper one and I'm happy with what I've done with that. After one go you will make stuff that is more than acceptable. Filler, for small holes and cork sealer will make them look ok, even with cheap rings. Probably the most difficult bit is deciding what size and shape suits you best. When you find it do some measurements so you can replicate it. Lots of stuff you can do with eva etc on a lathe and there is plenty of help here when needed. Good luck with finding a lathe and making some grips.

ESFNEM Col
Port Kembla, NSW
Australia

Joel,
I've turned many grips including long switch/spey grips on a homemade simple drill powered lathe. Rod Bond works fine for gluing cork rings including composite and rubberized cork. Just use a very thin glue layer on the faces of the rings and there will be little glue squeeze out and any excess epoxy can be wiped off with alcohol. I pre ream the rings to just undersize of the blank before gluing up. The cork cylinder is mounted on a piece of drill rod with masking tape bushings and it is easy to get it to run concentric. Will be even easier with a lathe. I start turning the cylinder with 80 grit carbide mesh strips to get it trued up. Then use coarse to fine sandpaper for shaping finally finishing with 220 grit. You will see almost no glue lines when using minium epoxy for ring glue up. With good grip fit up to the blank and good epoxy coverage in the joint you will never have a grip come loose or see rings come unglued.
The hard thing is finding good cork at less than wallet busting prices. Nice switch/spey grips especially can become the most expensive component in your build. Yeeeow!

It does not look good Drill has been changed --- but works well All adjustable Does cork Eva And if careful some wood

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Bill - willierods.com

A couple of other tips in addition to what's been discussed here.

always use epoxy for any rubberized cork rings. Titebond is not a good choice for these.
If you do use epoxy, scrape most of it off to reduce any glue lines.
Tom uses a round nose scraper for rounding. I have best luck with a very sharp oval skew chisel.
Sand paper for shaping. I'll also use a round file to put sharp cove features at the ends if needed, then finish with sand paper.
Start with 80 grit, then 150, 220, 320, then 400.
If I'm filling, then the same process as someone else mentioned above.
I run the lathe at 2500 rpm for cork work.
Just for reference, I use a midi lathe with 17" between the centers, and turn on a mandrel.

Terry