Making a mandrel for turning cork, foam and balso bodies.

[P.Dieter 0]

great thread!!

 

I will be exploring the world of cork and balsa soon I hope.

 

Two thoughts:

 

The needle idea. I'm thinking of taking a big upholstery needle and cutting off the butt end of the eye so then I'd something like a marshmallow fork. That might take care of any spinning issues.

 

How do you guys deal with the cork, balsa dust? Me, I'm going to just move my vise base back off of my vacuum port and turn the popper above it so it sucks all the dust away. Want to know WTF I'm babbling about?

video of vise vac

 

I need to make a new video of this to show some changes.

- Foam lined box has made the noise level a non issue

- separator is gone as it didn't work well with such light materials (I'm gonna miss it with dust though)

- there was a clogging issue with the conduit bells facing the wrong way but reversing the assembly fixed that.

 

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Dieter, I keep forgetting to pass by the Tandy Leather Company store near my house to pick up a Glover's Needle. It is a tri-lobel needle for sewing leather. They cost a few bucks for a pack of two or three, so, they're not as cheap as the home made nail mandrel but they should work pretty well. I've got to tie a yellow ribbon round my finger to remember to go by there!

 

As for dust, I work outside when sanding. A lot of the dust accumulates on the sand paper, but a lot goes into the air, on my pants, shirt, face, etc.

 

Thanks for the tips, I'll have to check out your video.

 

Kirk

[P.Dieter 0]

Dieter, I keep forgetting to pass by the Tandy Leather Company store near my house to pick up a Glover's Needle.

 

that's funny, I have several of those from when I used to stitch footbags for Kanga...in my younger hippier days.

 

[perchjerker 0]

For those who use a Dremel and for whom it has a much higher rpm than you desire, you can make a great rheostat for it for about $10.00, All you need is a light-dimmer switch, a metal switch box, a foot or so of electrical cord and both a male and a female cord connectors. You simply make a very short extension cord with the dimmer-switch wired into it. Plug the cord into an outlet and plug the Dremel into the cord and you are in business. Dremel motors all have brushes in them, so there is no concern about 'burning them up' by controlling their speed with a rheostat. They will go from 0 to max. speed with a flick of the wrist!

 

In his now-out-of-print book, Fly Tying and Fly Fishing for Bass and Panfish, the late Tom Nixon devotes an entire chapter to the making of cork bodied bugs, which also applies to balsa, that should be read by anyone who even contemplates making these bugs! He has engineers type drawings (he was a mechanical engineer) of a jig for holding the cork bodies to both cut the hook groove and to put a slope to the front face, in addition to numerous other tools that you can make. I dare say that a read of this book will answer 90+% of the questions posted here, plus some others. If your local library does not have it, get them to order it on Library Loan for you. You may have to pay a nominal fee to cover the shipping costs both ways. My local library only charges $1.50 for this service. With a nominal deposit, say about $150.00, I MIGHT consider loaning my copy out. Nah, on second thought, forget it!

 

Cheers!

[Harold Ray 0]

Thanks for mentioning the book, Fly Tying and Fly Fishing for Bass and Panfish, by the late Tom Nixon. I found and bought a copy for myself. I'll be checking out that chapter as soon as it arrives.

 

Thanks again!

 

Ray

[P.Dieter 0]

The needle idea. I'm thinking of taking a big upholstery needle and cutting off the butt end of the eye so then I'd something like a marshmallow fork. That might take care of any spinning issues.

 

my rough exercise at this seems to work very well. Probably has popper length limitations though but I'm not experienced enough to know.

 

 

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Dieter, cool idea!! I think you can find those with pretty long "eye" sections that may give a little length. I've got a pack I bought for threading rubber through popper bodies; I may have to give it a try. I haven't really had much trouble with the body spinning per-se as much as the occassional one that want to work its way off the mandrel.

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

Kirk

[Harold Ray 0]

I've got two packs of those big needles; I am going to cut the top of the head off, as you did, and use them the same way. Great idea!!

 

I got my copy of Tom Nixon's 1968 book, Fly-Tying-Fishing-Bass-Panfish, today. I can't remember what I paid for it, $75.00 I think, but I may be wrong. I buy a lot of books and can't remember the prices from one to the next!

 

If you all are interested, the title above is a live link to Amazon's list of Nixon's book.

 

This is a nice book, folks, and its loaded with all kinds of information. Mr. Nixon has Chapter 3, pages 183 to 240, devoted to nothing but a discussion concerning his method of building poppers, 57 total pages of text detailing how to do it and images showing you how to build everything he used (jigs and forms) in making his popper line. I didn't know what I would be getting for my money when I purchased this, but it turned out to be a great buy, in my opinion. It reads so well I began this morning between patients, and I didn't want to put it down.

 

Ray

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Harold, very good book. Reminds me of my early days of bass/bream fly fishing in the late seventies.

 

Kirk

 

[P.Dieter 0]

Resurrecting this thread to add something new.

 

My upholstery needle worked OK but ultimately the tines bent. I also continued to have slipping problems with just a needle (must be doing something wrong) and felt I needed more heavy duty stock for the cork.

 

Trim Head Screws. I happen to have stainless but they come a couple different ways. The 2" ones I happen to have fit the dremel very well at the shank. I just cut off the head and it slips right in. Has a very nice self drilling tip. For smaller pieces I cut one down and filed a sharp tip to it, the wide threads do all the work anyway.

 

This seems to do the trick for me

 

 

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Dietr, I like the screw idea! I may try that for the larger heads.

For the smaller and even larger heads, the Glover's Needle works really well for me. Not sure if the Glover's needle is the same as the Upholstry needle or not. The Glover's has a triangular cross section, which gives three edges to help pierce the leather; this also works great for piercing the foam or cork or balsa heads and the three flat sides keep it from spinning off.

Speaking of spinning off, I think the spinning off will happen with almost any type mandrel used if you apply to much pressure to your sanding medium. Also, if you move the cork head forward and backward across the sandpaper it will pull the head off.

The speed at which you turn the head and the pressure have a lot to do with it. With the right speed and pressure, I can use a round needle and taper a head without having it spin.

Thanks for bringing this back up. I hope you found some useful popper pictures in the links I sent you.

 

Kirk

[P.Dieter 0]

Kirk,

 

Yes the links were helpful, I'll share the final product next week.

 

Yup I put too much pressure when I'm turning the cork/balsa. I also haven't used the Glover's for this (although I've sewn with them) I'm sure that would work. I've also been going beyond the sand paper and using a knife point like a wood lathe tool on the cork (not the ridges on the scrap piece on the right) cause that's how I roll. Works great and I like the control.

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Dietr, look forward to seeing your finished presentation.

 

Damn, a knife and lathe! Must be one sharp knife.

 

Kirk

[bigfoot 0]

While googling for trilobal needles I ran across this web site sewingmachineplus.com and looked at their needle section and ran across a twin needle and a triple needle for sewing. I belive this will work great for a mandrel for balsa cork and foam. The needles look like a pitch fork with only 2 or 3 prongs. I think I am going to give them a try. If you're interested in them go to sewingmachinesplus.com and scroll down look to the left and hit the needle button and they are in the bottom right hand corner. I am in no way associated with the web site just found a great product to pass along. BF

[Robert M 0]

The needle idea. I'm thinking of taking a big upholstery needle and cutting off the butt end of the eye so then I'd something like a marshmallow fork. That might take care of any spinning issues.

 

my rough exercise at this seems to work very well. Probably has popper length limitations though but I'm not experienced enough to know.

 

That is the only way to go for spin shaping foam.