Has anyone ever made a locking nut themselves I’ve seen posts of builds where people have made there hoods out of cork, if possible what is typically needed to open up the cork that much to make it fit a Kdps 16? I realize this might be a stupid question it’s just hood options are kinda weak it seems and would like to make my own.

We've done several articles on this in the magazine. A spade bit held in a lathe tailstock while the cork is spun in the chuck is a quick and easy way to do what you want.

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As someone that builds their cork grips using their power wrapper, and has no tail stock I could chuck a bit up in, you could always bore the center of the cork rings that will actually be covering the locking nut out to the I.D. needed to fit the nut. Then bore out the piece that the blank passes through, out to a specific ID to fit your mandrel, and build, shape and sand the grip to its' final dimensions.

You'd have to build masking tape arbors on your mandrel for the larger ID rings, and slide the grip on and off from a specific dimension. I'd even consider boring your end cap ring out to a dimension smaller, but as close to the ID of the area of the blank it will be passing over, and use a masking tape arbor on your mandrel for that ring (s) as well. It would IMO, make reaming that ring to fit the blank, much simpler. Anyhow ...... while I've never made the type of piece you're asking about, that would be the way I would approach it, with the equipment I have.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/23/2024 01:48PM by David Baylor.

Hmmm okay thanks guys! Maybe I can try it on my power wrapper

If you have a drill press of some type you can also cut the hole using a v-block to insure all are centered and identical than glue them up and turn to shape.

What Spencer says about using a V block along with a drill press to insure that all of your bores are centered in the ring, is a great idea. I'm certainly not going to say other wise. With that said ..... when I first started building cork grips, and I've only built 8 of them thus far, I made a cork ring boring jig like the one I saw Tom Kirkman using in a video on Youtube, and it worked very well. I can't remember if it was on the video, or perhaps a thread on this site, but I remember seeing actual drawings with dimensions and everything. So I made mine to those drawings ......

Anyhow..... as I said it worked very well, but one of the grips I've made was a split grip for a casting rod of mine. I only needed to bore out I think, 10 rings to have enough rings for the both parts of the grip, so I simply held them in my fingers while I bored the centers out with my drill press. No, the rings weren't all perfectly in line, but they weren't off so much that they were still uneven once I'd turned the grip down. I was using rings with 1 1/4" ODs, and turning, shaping, and sanding them down to an OD of 1.06" on one end of each grip. So I was taking off nearly 1/4 of the rings diameter, from rough size, to finish size. It was more than enough to have everything nice and even.

I guess what I'm saying is, you don't really need to use a V block jig to make sure all of the bores are perfectly centered in the ring. You can do without. But .....the jig definitely makes the process easier, faster, and less dangerous. And if you aren't actually turning the grip, with lathe tools, and just using files and sand paper to get the grip to a finished state, then I would DEFINITELY use something like a V block jig to make sure your bores are perfectly centered, it would make ensuring that the grip is concentric with the center bore.

If you're actually turning it with lathe tools, then it will automatically be concentric with the center bore.

I love making cork grips. It is a LOT of fun.

Wow thanks guys I really appreciate the feedback I’ve only done simple tapered grips as of now but I love working with cork it’s a lot of fun. My only worry with trying to make a locking nut hood is the sidewalls of the cover blowing out while getting it to the correct inner diameter any ways to possibly mitigate the risk?? I was thinking just wrapping the outside of the piece with masking tape to kinda hold everything together

The walls won't "blow out" unless you attempt to slide a too small diameter over something. Cork won't stretch like EVA so you need a more accommodating fit. Cutting the bore won't blow out the walls nor will reaming provided you work slowly and carefully. You'll get the hang of it pretty quick.

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This inletting tool also works well for creating cork or EVA locking nut covers:

[voodoorods.com]

We also carry a number of options for the KDPS that may work for you also:

[voodoorods.com]