Hey fellas,

I'm thinking about turning some acrylic and making some rings to add into handles. I'm trying to think through the best process and have a couple questions... I was thinking that i can turn the acrylic and drill and cut into rings first. Then i would glue up the handle in whatever order/combonation of cork and acrylic that I desire. At this point i would have the acrylic sanded to a pretty high grit so i would just need to sand the whole handle down to shape. My concern is that the cork might be removed much faster or more than the acrylic. Is this something you just have to be careful and take it slow? Or is there a better way than what i am thinking. Thanks!

-Chase

Your concern is correct, the cork will abrade faster than the acrylic. I suggest you stack the acrylic rings on a mandrel and turn/sand until the OD is to size. Then assemble the cork and acrylic rings and carefully trun/sand the cork to the same diameter as the acrylic.

I am not comfortable with combining materials with such a great difference of composition and hardness. But if done carefully it will be awesome.

Good luck



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/2020 05:21PM by John DeMartini.

To avoid having the cork abrade below the surface of the acrylic, have the sandpaper backed by something flat and solid. I use a piece of a paint stirring paddle I get from my local hardware store. Even with this, care must be taken to keep the two very different materials level.!

John's suggestion above works well.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/2020 11:56AM by Phil Erickson.

I only build fly rods for performance now - no heavy grip components.
But when I did I used some sort of medium density ring between the stabilized wood and the cork to act as a buffer. Most of the time is was exotic cork - a dense composit. I don't think that would look very good with acrylic and cork though. Maybe you can think of something.
Herb

Couple thoughts. Perhaps turn the acrylic undersized by a fair amount. Assemble and turn the cork as you plan. Then tape off the cork on either side of the acrylic ring. Do a few coats of rod finish over the acrylic to bring it up level with the cork.

Other thought comes from a rod I built make a fair number of years. Clemens offered various lengths of small cork sections. They had a collar on each end that was sized to fit a small nylon trim ring between the cork sections. The outer edge of the cork section had a nice beveled edge. The trim ring sat below the surface of the cork. Made for a nice real nice feeling grip and looked fairly sharp as well. The nylon rings could be dyed whatever color you wanted with RIT dye.

I build all of my grips with burled cork and acrylic. I glue up all of my grip pieces comprised of blocks of birch bark and burled cork and bands of acrylic . I then use lathe tools to get the general shape I'm after and then spend some time sanding with various grits. After final sanding, I buff my thin acrylic bands by rotating the handle at a very slow setting and run my dremmel tool with small buffing wheel counter direction to the lathe rotation. I then apply grip oils/stains and sealants to the grip.
Point being, you can shape all of these different materials together during the grip turning process.

Thanks for the great responses. Looks like i am headed down the right path especially with your suggestions. I'll just have to try a few and see how they turn out!