I'm interested in making my own grips and was wondering if you think the grizzy hobby lathe tool would fit the bill? Looks like its a new item. Just not sure what features i need in a tool like that to make cork grips. thanks, mark

The Grizzly unit that mounts the user's power drill has been around for a good while and many, many rod builders have used it to shape cork and EVA. It generally receives good reviews from all that have used it. Very economical way to get started turning your own grips.

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Excellent. Ill give it a try. thanks!

[www.grizzly.com]

This will work just fine.

Be safe

That's the one i was looking at. I imagine all I will need to go with it are steel mandrels and a drill of course?

Yes

I have had that lathe for about 15 years. I have a set of steel mandrels and do all of my cork and eva work. Very good product for the money. One thing to know is that not all drills will fit the lathe. It is best to order the drill with the lathe. The collar on the drill has to be long enough to clear the width of the clamp otherwise you will clamp down on the part that holds the mandrel (the chuck). It only took me 20 minutes to think of that word. I'm 75 but still building rods.

Ellis beat me to it....I was going to warn you that you might need to purchase the drill at the same time. None of my drill had the required collar dimensions and I just didn't need to add another drill to my collection so I went the drill press attachment route.

John

I'll add to what Ellis said. Grizzly used to have their own 1/2" corded drill that was a real workhorse, and fit the collar perfectly. They discontinued it several yrs ago, and I picked up a second one when they were closing them out. Been using the second one for 3 or 4 yrs. I did buy the Dewalt 1/2" that they show, as backup. It doesn't fit the collar as well, and required some grinding to get to clear the collar...it's not as high speed, either.

Ii've been using that grizzly for a few months, and it's working OK. The drill was the difficult part. I tried 3 dewalts, and all had so much runout on an 18" mandrel that they provided very inconsistent results.
My recommendations would be:
1. If you will only be turning grips, go to your favorite tool retailer with a mandrel and try before you buy. My local lowes allowed me to try several drills before I found a skill 1/2", 2800 rpm vs drill that had minimal runout. High rpms are better imho, and when I need to dial it down, the vs allows me to do that. And as stated by other posters, make sure the drill collar fits in the head clamp.
2. when you are turning the grip down with your tool of choice, be sure to rotate the grip on the mandrel, with the power off and holding the chuck, to ensure that any runout you do have is mitigated and you'll get a more concentric grip once you get to the final finishing with sandpaper.
3. Use the appropriate mandrel for your grip. The shortest mandrel for the grip you're turning will lessen the amount of runout you have on the end farthest from the chuck.
4. You may need to shim the tailstock and/or tweak the drill-head clamp to make sure everything is lined up every time you tighten the chuck.
5. If you think you'll want to turn anything other than grips (winding checks, seat inserts, anything requiring tighter tolerances), you might consider spending a few more bucks for a midi lathe. $60 for the grizzly unit, another $60-120 for the drill, and you are close to the cheapest grizzly, harbor freight mini lathe. That's what I wound up doing, as the drill lathe couldn't do all that I wound up wanting to play around with.

Lots of good info here. I probably should take a look at lathes too. Been wanting one for lure projects anyways. thanks, mark

If you want to consider a lathe, this one that is the same lathe as many others; just with a different name and paint color represents an excellent value.

It is tough to beat the cost/performance of this lathe.

[www.harborfreight.com]

Of course, before you are finished, with accessories, you will likely have more money into the project. One should really have a 3 jaw chuck for the head stock and a jacobs style chuck for the tail stock. Also, a couple of different live tail pieces help as well.

Good luck

Also look at the 'how we do it' flexcoat videos on youtube.
They turn grips using a drill as power source.

This looks to be almost the same model offered at Rockler. I've seen it on sale for the same price as the harbor freight model at times.
[www.rockler.com]

one thing i'd like to ask, and Bryan mentioned it first... what is "runout"?

eric
fresno, ca.

Eric
Runout is the amout of wobble in the chuck. If you put a mandrel in the chuck and clamp a dial indicator to the shaft if it has any movement that is what is considered run out. That movement could either be in the shaft of the drill or possibly in the chuck.

Pretty hard to check on a hand drill mostly used to check drill presses and lathes.

Tom



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/20/2015 12:36PM by Tom Wewerka.

Eric,
Yes, you are correct. I own the Excelsior lathe from Rockler and it works very well for me. But when I had stopped over to harbor freight, I found their lathe to be essentially the same lathe. I think that there is a switch mount that is different, but other than that, the lathe is about the same unit. I think that there are several different brands out there that are essentially the same lathe made by the same over seas company, with different paint and or colors on it.


By the way, in addition to Tom's comment, you can clamp a hand drill into a vise. Then, put a long straight shaft into the drill chuck and see if there is any wobble on the end of the shaft when the drill is turned on. As Tom stated, if there is wobble, that is the runout that you really don't want to have.

I find if I rase the RPM's on my drill lath any wobble goes away Never measured it but high speed and handles come out nice

Bill - willierods.com

eric zamora Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This looks to be almost the same model offered at
> Rockler. I've seen it on sale for the same price
> as the harbor freight model at times.
> [www.rockler.com]
>
> one thing i'd like to ask, and Bryan mentioned it
> first... what is "runout"?
>
> eric
> fresno, ca.

I have this same lathe as well. Waited & got lucky with a $200 sale price on Amazon.
I also ordered Jacobs chucks (instead of a 3-jaw) because I turn on mandrels. A live tail stock & some turning tools.
I have used it a lot in the last year without any issues.

I started out with that unit and it works fine within is light duty lilitations.. I think you
get it to start off with and direct the rest of your budget toward a good set of mandrels.
Threaded rod will assure you get wobble and runout. If a proper mandrel is not
available a piece of drill rod supported at both ends should be very close. In the
beginning human error is going to be your biggest problem.

Runout:

[www.youtube.com]

[www.youtube.com]

[en.wikipedia.org]