I have a bunch of pretty high quality cork discs, 1/4 inch thick and 1 1/8 inch diameter. I need to drill a 1/4 hole in each of them. I don't have a lathe or a drill press. The discs are a little too small to fit in the cork ring holder I got from mudhole. Suggestions? If the answer is just buy a lathe and do it right I can handle that. Don't think I would buy a drill press as I don't see myself using that for other tasks. Thanks for any advice.

1/4 Inch oles are not drilled in cork. They're pressed out.
Get a 1/4" X12" hollow thin-wall brass tube at a hobby shop or hardware store.
Bevel one end with a fine file. If you do it in stages - slightly rotating around the tube you will create a sharp "serrated" edge.
Either twist to cut hole - or use hammer.
Try to be as accurate as possible with centering hole.
I get a good one - and then leave it on the tube to center the next.
Herb

PS - drilling just shreads the cork



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/27/2022 08:41PM by Herb Ladenheim.

I just started turning cork grips, and have only built two thus far, so I am about as beginner as beginner can be. With that said, I would think that whether or not you'll be turning the grip on a lathe or power wrapper, and if you are building the grip to a specific dimension, is going to play into what route you may want to go.

If you are turning it on a lathe or power wrapper before shaping and finishing with sand paper, you'll need to account for the material lost in turning the grip to make it concentric with the center bore. The closer to being centered each ring is, the less material loss you'll have in making the grip concentric. If the finished OD of the grip is going to be close to the 1 1/8" diameter of your rings, I would bite the bullet and get a drill press. I bought one for $89, and am personally glad that I did, because it allows you to do things you can't do, or can do more easily than you can with a hand drill.

If you're not really worried about the grip being a specific finished dimension and you can afford some loss in diameter due to the rings not being perfectly centered, during the turning process, then I would think you could drill them by hand.

For me personally, the grips I've made have an OD of 1.06" +/- .003" on one or both ends, as that is the OD of the trim rings I am mating them to. If the rings are close to being even, then (barring any big mistake) I would find a 1 1/8" ring to be large enough to use for a grip of that dimension.

As for not seeing yourself using a drill press for other tasks, I can certainly understand that, but .... I have used mine to do what you are looking to do, as well as using it to put a mortise in solid cork disk that will accept a tenon on the grip, to make a butt cap. I've also used it with a hole saw on solid cork strips, to make my own cork rings. I have other plans for it that relate to rod building as well as for just fabricating stuff for my work shop and garage.

I agree with David that a drill press is a very powerful tool for rodbuilding. By sinking a small ball bearing into a piece of wood, the ID of the bearing being the diameter of the mandrel you plan to use (I use 5/16 in), you can turn your drill press into a very nice lathe capable of turning softer stuff like EVA, polyurethane arbors, and cork using sandpaper. The wooden piece is clamped to the bed of the drill press and the bearing stabilizes the lower end of the mandrel, the upper end being chucked into the drill press .

I do drill cork, and yes the holes in natural cork are not perfect, but I've not had any problems. The holes in burl are very good quality.

Poly foam reel seat arbors are easily turned by simply turning a drill bit into the hole in them and chucking the drill into the drill press, then sand the arbor to size. Or to the shape of ramps.

They are not very expensive and have so many uses for rodbuilding and everything else that I consider mine indespensible.

Peter,
You have received very good advice above. I often employ Herb’s suggestion of using thin-wall (.014in) brass tubing to drill / punch holes in soft material like cork, foam, felt ect. You will need something to extract the cut-out piece from inside the brass tube; Since the brass tubing is designed to be telescoping, purchase the next size down in solid brass which will serve two functions; 1. To remove the cork “plug” inside the tubing and, 2.to be used inside the butt of the brass tubing to eliminate crushing when chucked into a grill chuck. McMaster Carr is a great source for the material.
Although possibly and relatively expensive, once you have a drill press, you will wonder how you ever got by without one!!! They are indispensable = safer and more precise than using a hand drill. Your budget will determine which unit to purchase. While most rod building operations may not require the ultimate in precision, consider the future and spend more than $89.00 for a Harbor Freight unit = they’re junk.
After obtaining a drill press (or not), purchase a 1.125in hole saw, drill through a .5 - .75in thick piece of wood / plywood, cut a slot from the hole to the edge of the wood (at least 6in) to make a clamp for holding your cork rings. Pinching the ends of the clamp will tighten onto the cork rings.

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.

Mark nailed it.

You indicated that you do not have a drill press.

Do you have a friend who has a drill press?

If so, have the friend make you a jig to hold your cork rings.

Then, with a jig in hand, you can clamp it down and use the jig to drill your holes.

Or another option, since you indicate that you don't want to purchase a drill press, is to go to a friend who has one and work with your friend to get your holes drilled.

A 3rd way to get really nice holes in cork is to use a tapered file, with the file running backward to ream holes into the cork with perfect results.

If you want to drill, you can use a 1/4 inch pilot drill bit. A pilot drill bit does a really clean job to cut holes.

By the way, since it seems that you are using a Minneapolis location on your name, are you in the Minneapolis, MN area? If so, drive up to my place and you can use my tools and jigs to drill all of the holes in your cork that you wish.

Just drop me an e-mail and we can set up an appointment.

Take care
Roger Wilson

I'll have to respectfully disagree with Mark in respect to the $89 Harbor Freight drill press, as that is exactly where I got the one I bought. While I wouldn't consider it a precision unit. it is more than adequate for the tasks I have used it for thus far. I don't have a dial indicator, but it runs true to the naked eye. The table is flat and square front to back to a bit mounted in the chuck, and while the degree indicator scale is not dead on accurate, squaring the table up to the bit is a simple task using a speed square. Is it a super nice drill press ...... no, but it does an adequate job, and is better than drilling by hand.

As far as the idea of using a hole saw to drill a hole in a piece of wood to hold your cork rings, I would suggest against using a hole saw. I have used numerous brands of hole saws and they all have had some wobble to them. I tried the same thing that Mark suggested, but I used a Forstner bit instead. The Forstner bit will cut a much cleaner hole, but ..... a problem arises when your cork ring won't fit into the hole. Yes cutting a slot will allow you to spread the wood, and thereby increase the diameter of the hole, but only in one direction. The ring may not fit in the other direction.

Maybe the wobble of a hole saw will allow rings that are slightly larger in OD to fit in the hole? If you are going to use a hole saw, I would suggest drilling your center hole with a 1/4" drill bit first. Take out the bit that comes in the hole saw and put in a 1/4" steel rod. If you use a drill bit in the center the wobble from the hole saw will cause the bit to make the center hole larger, which lets the hole saw wobble even more. A steel rod in the center of the hole saw results in a cleaner and more precise hole.

Anyhow, since drilling a hole and cutting a slot into a piece of wood didn't work for me, I made a jig similar to this one [www.youtube.com]

The nice thing about this jig is that you can use it on rings with different diameters. You just have to recenter it when you change ring sizes. I have used it with 1 1/4" and 1 1/2" diameter rings. It works great..

David,
I do agree that the typical hole saw is not such a precise cutting device.

However, I do have a set of forstner bits. Forstner bits are very clean cutting bits that are very precise.

I happen to have both a 1 inch, 1 1/4 inch and a 1 1/2 inch Forstner bit that does a really nice job of doing a clean cut.

My primary use for these bits is when I need to cut holes in plywood. On many harwood plywood, the surface veneer is quite thin. As a result, if the veneer is not cut carefully, it rips and looks less than satisfactory.

So, when drilling plywood I drill a very small pilot hole for the tip of the forstner bit. I set the depth stop on my drill press so that when I get to the stop, I am only a bit more than 1/2 way through the wood.
Then, I flip the wood over, and drill the other 1/2 of the hole. Because the pilot holes are small and guide the tip of the bit exactly, normally the top half and the bottom half of the holes line up perfectly with cleanly cut edges on the outside surface veneer.

-----------------
For drilling cork, I simply use the 1 1/4 inch bit ,that I drill into a jig about 1/2 inch - which is plenty deep to hold the cork still for a nice center hole. Then, I use a pilot drill to drill the hole through the cork and the points on the sides of the pilot bit are much like the forstner bit in that it cuts a nice clean hole - even in cork. But, if I need the hole a different size, I use a tapered circular file - with the file running backward to give a nice perfectly smooth hole in the center of the cork.

Take care

Roger, I agree. For precision, a Forstner bit is a much better choice than a hole saw. At first I actually tried what you outlined and just sunk an 1 1/4" Forstner bit about half way through a piece of 1" poplar, and it worked great at holding the cork rings for drilling .... until it didn't. I had several cork rings that were larger in diameter, and they wouldn't fit into such a precise hole. So I bored the hole completely through the board, and cut a slot into it to allow me to spread it open slightly. It didn't work. I still couldn't fit the ring in so I went with a jig along the lines of the one in the video I linked. It works great.

As far as actually drilling the cork, I just use a regular drill bit. Yes it can shred the edges of the holes a bit, especially if you plunge the bit into the ring too quickly, but I haven't found it to cause a problem, even on the 1/8" thick rings that I have bought instead of sliced.

I'm sure as I build more grips I'll learn a few tricks, or come up with a gadget or two that may make things easier. I am really enjoying the process. It's kind of like working with wood and tinkering with stuff all rolled into one. It's a lot of fun !!

Found out that Roger lives about 10 minutes from me, so I will be taking him up on his offer of assistance. I appreciate everyone's advice and am so happy to have such a good group of people to help me.

Peter, that is awesome !!! Based on the pictures Roger has posted of his stuff, you are going to see some cool things !!!

Good deal !!!

You can make perfectly good tapered cork reamers by cutting an old or broken rod blank into pieces 24 to 32 inches long. Cut an 80 or a 100 grit sanding belt in half the short way across so you have one long strip of sandpaper. Stretch out the sandpaper grit-side down and lay it atop a board, place the metal yardstick atop the sandpaper, parallel to the long side of the sandpaper, and 1/2 inch back from the exposed edge of the sandpaper. Press the side of a sharp box-cutter blade against the side of the metal ruler and pull the boxcutter the length of the sandpaper to produce a long, half-inch wide strip of sandpaper. Liberally swab the non-grit (paper) side of your sandpaper ribbon with liquid contact cement, then quickly wind the glued side of the sandpaper strip in spirals 2" or so apart from the tip of the rod blank toward the butt, then immediately unwind the sandpaper spiral and set it aside to dry. When the contact cement on the blank and on the sandpaper has dried tacky (~3 minutes) - leave room for a grip on the thick end of the rod blank and start winding the sandpaper strip, SANDY SIDE OUT, tightly around the rod blank in open spirals toward the small end of the blank. You will temporarily need some tape or string wrapped and tied tightly around both sandpaper strip ends for 10-15 minutes for the glue to set up.

Peter came over today to work together to get his unique cork rings center hole drilled.

I had chatted with a few different folks and although I had one method, decided to try a method that I had not used before.

I have a large wood lathe with a bed extension and I normally use a 4 inch heavy duty machinist chuck on the head stock.

I removed that chuck and replaced it with a 3/4 inch Jacobs chuck that has an mt2 tail piece on it that fits nicely into the lathe headstock.

Then, I took the shank and the 3 jaw taig chuck that I normally use on my power wrapper and chucked it into the keyless chuck on the lathe.

Finally, I took another keyless chuck and inserted it into the lathe tail stock. Finally, I use a 1/4 inch brad point drill bit to do the drilling.

I changed the speed on the lathe to be one less stop slower than the fastest speed on the chuck and went to work.

This system works perfectly. The chuck can adjust from a 1/4 inch side out to 3 inches. We set up markers on the drill bit and on the tail stock shaft to mark the length that the drill bit had to travel to get all of the way through the cork ring.

Then, it was simply a matter of inserting the ring into the chuck, turning on the lathe and then using the screw feed on the tail stock to advance the drill bit into the cork ring for a nice clean 1/4 inch hole.

If you happen to have a wood lathe with a head stock and tail stock chuck, give the method a try. It is slick, easy to implement and gives very nice results with cleanly drilled holes in the cork.

The nice thing about brad point drill bits is that on each side of the bit, there is a sharp ear that protrudes that works much like the cutting face of a forstner drill bit and cleanly slices through the cork with out ripping up any of the cork on the interior of the ring.

Here is a link to the video of the drilling operation:
[www.amazon.com]

Best wishes.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/02/2022 02:45PM by roger wilson.

I added a video to the previous post - illustrating the cork ring drilling operation, using a wood lathe, chuck and a brad point drill bit in the tail stock of the lathe:

[www.amazon.com]