Help creating drying jigs and cork lathe

[sanctyphillia]

I've finished a few rods thus far and definitely have the bug (I have three blanks on my bench waiting to be finished). I've decided to upgrade from using my father's 40 year old wrapping stand and drying rods via manual rotation to building my own motorized wrapper, dryer, and cork lathe. I went ahead and ordered a bunch of slow RPM motors from a surplus store (5 rpm, 40 rpm, 60 rpm) as well as I have an old bandsaw motor that does about 3500 rpm that I figure I can use for a cork lathe (as opposed to my drill). I was wondering if anyone had any insight on how to create some sort of jig to connect motors to a chuck to hold the blank in the case of the wrappers and dryers as well as to a spindle to hold the cork grip when turning? I have googled myself silly on the subject, and the best I can deduce is some sort of taped concoction that doesn't appear to be robust. Does anyone know of a well articulated instruction set for creating these things at home (as opposed to shelling out 100 bucks for one that consist of $3 of parts?) Any insight on what homemade chucks work best - PVC cap with foam, pvc with screws, etc? Any thoughts on the cork lathe would also be appreciated. If people want, I can try to record and publish instructions once the project is done. Thanks in advance.

[Kaboom1]

I made a chuck for my rod dryer out of a PVC pipe cap and 3 1/4-20 thumb screws. It is attached to the motor with a short piece of round stock. The round stock is threaded on one end for the chuck and the other end is drilled for the motor shaft. The round stock is attached to the motor shaft with a little JB Weld.

Brad

[No-tye-much]

I use a drill motor for my lathe. I put a sewing machine foot peddle on it so I could have hands free operation with speed control.
I bought pullies from McMaster-Carr, some are available at the large hardware stores in the sliding glass door section. Finding o-rings to fit the pullies was the hardest part.
I made my roller frames out of 2" angle aluminum and some barstock. I have enough for both finnishing and dirty cork lathe work.
My drying motor is a 12vdc gear reduction motor powered by an adjustible ac to dc adapter which also gives my speed and direction control.
Anyways, big hands require bigger grips, which can not be bought. Same pretty much goes for afordable good natural cork.

[sanctyphillia]

The JB Weld is a good idea. I guess for the lathe I could attach a drill chuck to round stock (in turn attached to the engine with JB Weld) and attach the mandrel to the chuck as needed. I was planning on using a bearing mount for the other end of the lathe.

Thanks for the thoughts and agreed on the grip/cork observation. That is the best outcome of custom finishing, the one grip I turned so far fits like a glove and its my favorite rod simply because of that, plus the cork is like velvet - such a difference with high quality cork.

[MontanaMoose]

I made a simple stand for the motor and
if I'm turning the cork on the blank, I leave
the butt cap/permanent fighting butt off and
use...how to call them..arbors?..spuds?..made
from fuel line, short bolts/machine screws, a
flat washer and a nut.

Slide fuel line on bolt, then the washer and then
the nut. Bolt needs to have enough threads left
over to securely chuck.

Short piece of fuel line to match OD of bolt/screw,
ID of reel seat open end then tighten till it's a light
press fit inside the seat. Turn ya cork !

Of course you'll need supports for the rod
butt if you do it this way, but that's easy. The
best part of turning corks on the butt section
is that you can take it off, assemble the rod
and try the fit.

Cheers,

MontanaMoose

[hackleman57]

Gee whiz, folks. It took me 19 years to get a motor!!!! I just did them by hand. Roger, the inventory of Flex Coat Rod Finish, would say that if you can only buy or make one tool for rod building, make it a drying apparatus.

There are many ways to improvise and I would always give Kaboom's suggestions a try. Enjoy!

Ron