Hello everyone,

This is my first post so I apologize in advance if this has been covered in the past; I couldn't find it while searching the forum.

I am new to rod building and I am also new to a South Bend 9A lathe that I bought a few months ago. I would like to shape some cork handles but need a little help getting started.

I would assume that my lathe's chuck would damage the rod blank so I am thinking that I need to glue all of my cork rings and then turn that cork assembly on a mandrel. After the handle is shaped it can then be glued to the blank just like any grips I would buy in a kit. Am I right?

The turning mandrels I've seen are all smooth -- how would the cork stay in one position while it is spinning?

Thanks in advance for your help, as you can see, I am indeed a total newbie!

-Chris

You could use threaded rod with wing nuts and washers.
Use this to glue up the cork assembly.
Get one a fraction smaller than the rod, they come in many sizes.
Bigger is better here, 1/4 inch can get out of true very easily.

A live jacobs type chuck on tailstock side end and an appropriate head stock.

use electric hand drill to get the rods out by turning it, some strokes with a reamer and you are good to go.
Less you have to ream the better the fit.
Practice lots on scrap as cork can tear out very easily.
You may even want to sand it rather than cut with a skew etc, but that depends on your comfo/skill level.

Chris,
Yes, yes and yes.

If you decide to do a full length rod rod turning with the cork rings glued to the blank you can do it pretty easily.
But, be aware that if you do decide to do a full length rod turn for a handle shape, you need to have adequate supports for the rod blank to keep the blank from whipping.
Thousands of grips have been done this way, but a great deal of care and caution is needed to always start the lathe slowly, and to insure that you have excellent rod rests for the full length of the rod to keep the blank from whipping.
I and many other builders own such lathes. I use rod rests that use ball bearings for rests and then, anywhere that I place a rod rest, I put 2 wraps of masking tape around the blank to avoid blank damage.

To avoid crushing damage from the chuck, I use a piece of solid fiberglass stock that I grind down using a variable speed drill to hold the solid stock and then hold the spinning stock against a belt sander to sand the necessary taper onto the solid stock so that the solid stock will slip up the butt end of the rod blank for a friction fit. This system works very well with no blank damage at all. Remember, when one does this, there is already cork rings glued to the outside of the blank to prevent blank splitting from the slight force exerted from the inside of the blank.

Having said that - once I obtained a good wood lathe, I put away the full length rod lathe and have not used it for many years. There is always the small probability of blank damage from the full length rod lathe as well as the situation, that if a mistake is made by turning too far, everything has to be removed from the blank and the entire grip and reel seat have to be replaced with replacement materials.

But, if you are turning only the handle, you never have to worry about getting damage on the rod blank or the reel seat, since they are not part of the situation when you only turn handles.

With respect to the smooth mandrels.
Many folks glue up their cork directly onto the mandrel so that the grip is effectively glued to the mandrel. This can work, but depending on glue and mandrel, the bond can be so good as to cause handle breakage when removing the handle after it has been turned.
To avoid this issue, many folks use a wax coating on the mandrel, to keep the cork from sticking to the mandrel too well. But, even with the wax coating there is generally enough friction so that the handle does not turn, and is relatively easy to remove. You can also use masking tape to build up the mandrel a bit, if you find that a grip is slipping on the mandrel while turning.

Or, you can go to a threaded mandrel. With a threaded mandrel, you can put the handle in place, add a washer at each end of the handle and then tighten the nut on each end of the handle enough so that the grip does not turn. If you use a double nut, you can lock the nuts against each other to create a locking nut that will not change its adjustment. The locking nuts keep from putting too much end pressure on the handle to deform the handle.

Often when doing this, masking tape is your best friend to build up the size of a mandrel if you need it a bit larger to fit the inside of a handle that has been bored out for a particular blank. Also, some folks like to bore their rings or handle before shaping, which results in a tapered interior. Simple to work with if you just use various numbers of masking tape wraps to fill any space between a mandrel and the inside of a handle.

For cork, sand paper is the general tool of choice to shape the handle. Normally, any sort of gouge or other metal instruments will tend to tear cork out of the ring and make it less than satisfactory. Start with 60 or 80 grit, and use for rough shaping. Then, as the handle gets closer to its final shape go to finer grit paper, for example 100, 150, 220, 320, 400 and 600.
When just starting use a slow turning speed and a gentle touch with the sandpaper. As your experience increases you can increase both the speed and the pressure of the sand paper as long as you have the "touch".

Any time in doubt, go slow with a gentle touch. With the cost of cork these days, better to take 4 times longer to shape a grip, than go fast and ruin $50 worth of cork by trying to shape with too coarse paper or too much pressure on the paper or too much speed on the lathe.

If you do some searches, there are some books out there that do a very good job in answering these questions as well.

Good luck

I think I understand now, thank you so much for taking the time to explain things so clearly!

I think I understand now, thank you so much for taking the time to explain things so clearly!

Christopher,
I really suggest that you use a glue similar or exactly like Titebond III wood glue to glue up cork handles.
This glue works very well, is inexpensive and dries and holds cork well.

Since this is an air dry glue, I will glue up the cork, let it dry overnight. If it is on a mandrel, I will take it off the mandrel and let it dry for another 24 hours.

If you do not take it off the mandrel before shaping, the inner part of the glue joint does not dry well. But, as long as you also dry it off of the mandrel before shaping, the joint will be well dried and solid.


The nice thing about Titebond III is that it is not a huge amount harder than the cork. So, you can sand it down quite easily. Also, Titebond III is water soluble when not cured and the handles can be wiped down with a wet rag to remove nearly all of any excess glue. With the handle tightly clamped in a clamp, the wet rag water does not penetrate the joints to wash out any glue.

You can also use epoxy. If you use 5 minute epoxy, you can actually turn it about an hour after you glue up the handle. The down side of epoxy, is that excess is harder to clean up. If it has not cured, you can clean up excess with denatured alcohol. But, it still will not clean up as easily and as cleanly as Titebond III.

If you do glue up with epoxy and have a "layer of epoxy" on the surface of the handle, you can use a Stanley Surform Planer to quickly cut through the epoxy. But, if you do use a Surform planer, use care and caution. Once you cut through the hard layer of epoxy, the planer will go through the much softer cork like a hot knife through butter. So, only use the planer enough to get through the excess epoxy and possible glue line. Then, switch over to sand paper.

[www.google.com]

As long as you are careful, the file like characteristics of the planer does a nice job of getting the handle round, using a tool rest on the lathe - to shape the cork. The planer does not rip up the cork as much as a lathe gouge or skew might.



Good luck

spiral wrap the tape on the mandrel [ two thickness of tape ] then lots of bees
wax it will make a tight fit but , rings will not stick to the mandrel we hope ,
if you don't push the sanding the handle will stick to the mandrel , an still come off when finished , twist the mandrel from the handle don't push it ,

William Sidney
AK

This is all fabulous information, thanks again!

There was an article in the magazine a while back that said if you use a fairly long strip of masking tape hanging off the middle of the blank it will dampen whipping. I have NO experience with that, just reporting. I use my drill press to shape my components before gluing to the blank, totally finishing handle/grip areas before wrapping the guides. I predrill my rings to 5/16 inch, then turn. I agree that the bigger you can get that hole before turning, in order minimize reaming, the better the fit. If you glue the rings on the threaded rod in advance, I suggest you consider taking the washers off before shaping so you can get the components down to a smaller diameter, smoother looking taper to the blank. This way you may be able to eliminate winding checks and have a really smooth, handsome, transition from the component to the blank.