Hello ,

Looking to purchase a 9/16" steel lathe turning mandrel, approx. 16-18" long with a 60 degree live center at each end. Can someone please direct me to where I can purchase these . Mudhole and others used to carry but no more for some reason.

Thank you!

A local machine shop can easily make them for you

Thomas,

Thanks for response. These used to be available via rod builder supplier shops I deal with ,not sure why they stopped carrying this size. Local machine shops where I live are very busy and costs to produce one or two will probably be high . Might be able to find one online.

Learn to turn your grips directly on the blank.
Won't have to worry about mandrel.
Herb
CTS

How is this done Herb? My rod grips include a mixture of cork and acrylic. Can you turn hard acrylic on your rod blank? This is what I use my nice variable speed lathe for. Also l turn all my grips from cork block so I can match them up to the acrylic block and also ablebto size them to each clients hand. I make a clay model of their hand and then use this to cut the grip. It's a technique I learned years ago from this forum.

Russ
I have used the FlexCoat cork lathe for past 20 yrs.
Have never used a mandrel.
I epoxy each ring - cork or very hard stabilized wood from Wood Stabilizers Intl.
Theie wood was impregnated with acrylic - very hard.
I turned grips, upper and lower, for two handed fly rods of 13.5 feet.
I used a red handled rasp from Japan Woodworking.
Small little thing- but aggressive.
The FlexCoat lathe uses a common corded drill as power. Mine turns at 2800 RPM. Fast enough to turn anything.
I also turn custom sized grips. I send samples to customers - or they have me create their own grips by sending me inch by inch dimensions.
Advantage of not using a mandrel- no voids under grip.
If your email is hidden - send your email address or cell to Hladen@hotmail.com.
I'll send pics
Herb

Very nice grips Herb!! Got your email and shared some of my grips back. If I didn't have a wood lathe I would probably try your approach but so invested in my wood lathe turning now . I see that your approach also saves redrilling which I have to do to fit my grips to rod blank after turning. Good to see this option and like I mentioned I have an Alps rod lathe that can turn up to 3000 rpm

The 9/16 and larger mandrels are a niche market with the reductions in blank diameters over the last 20 years.

You can purchase 9/16 SS rod on Amazon and countersink the ends using your current lathe

Heavy duty for those deep drop rods.

Russ,
Where are you located?
If you are in a city, there is a good chance that there is a steel yard nearby that would carry the 9/16th steel bar - in either cold rolled or hot rolled
Do you have a lathe to do your grip turning with?

If so, do you have a drill chuck that will fit into your tail stock.
If so, purchase a length of 9/16ths steel bar and insert it into your head stock chuck If it is a full sized lathe the 9/16th bar will slide all of the way through the head stock so that you can just have an inch or so sticking out of the head stock.

Then, if you have a drill chuck that fits into your tail stock you purchase a set of "centering drill points" and insert an appropriate one into the drill chuck.
Then, turn the lathe down to its slowest speed and use the tail stock to advance the centering bit into first one end of the 9/16th rod and drill the 60 degree centered depression into first one end of the 9/16th rod and then the other end.

An example of a centering bit:
[www.amazon.com]

Note:
A suggestion was given to use a piece of stainless steel rod for your mandrel. That will work, but it is very difficult to machine stainless steel. Thus, my suggestion to use either cold rolled or hot rolled steel.

-----------------------------------
If you have a graingers near by, you can get 9/16th rod from them. If you don't have one nearby, you can order the rod on line from Graingers.com

[www.grainger.com]