Flip-Flops at Walmart

[Bluegill Budd]

Check you local Walmart. The Walmarts in my area have children's flip-flops on sale for 98? a pair in lots of different colors.
They are great for cutting foam cylinders to use as poppers.
$3.00 and I have all the black and yellow I will need for a long time.

[ScottP]

Budd,

Thanks for the heads-up. Do you use plug-cutter bits in your drill to harvest the cylinders?

Regards,
Scott

[Bluegill Budd]

I made my own cutters from a 45 Long Colt case (bass) and a 38 Spec case (bluegill). I use them in a hand drill.

[Uncle Jesse]

Scott, Grab the next wrecked automatic umbrella you find. The staff is hollow metal, either brass or chrome plated steel. You can cut it in length that suit you, I use about 4" and sharpen the edges on one end. Drill several bodies and punch the out with a dowel, long machine screw, etc. More than about 4 get difficult to expel. My favorite was a hexagon shaped shaft, it does great. Around 3/8" is the largest you can do, but I have a 3/4" from EMT.

[ducksterman]

Or you can grind out an opening in the tube....

[Buddy Sanders]

And, for les than $10 you can buy a set of punches at Harbor Freight.

They go up to 1/2 inch, have the plug expelling slot already in them, and will last a lifetime. The thin 1/8 and 3/16 inch ones work great for tails on dragonfly/damsel fly patterns, 1/4 inch and up for ants/hoppers/poppers.

I like to use a drill press, but they work just fine in a hand drill.

Buddy

[Crotalus]

Anyone have an inexpensive, easy to DIY solution for 1" diameter cylinders?

[Bluegill Budd]

And, for les than $10 you can buy a set of punches at Harbor Freight. Buddy

I just checked these out online. Excellent! On my list of things to get Thursday on my trip to the big city.

And I can use one of my 25% off coupons making them even a better deal.

[Uncle Jesse]

Anyone have an inexpensive, easy to DIY solution for 1" diameter cylinders?

I needed some large foam plugs so I used a larger hole saw and glued the plugs together and then sanded them down to size. Some 1" dia. steel pipe of about any description could be used by sharpening the edge and turning by hand on eva foam (flip flop foam). If you have a hole saw saw a plug from a 2" piece and then sand it down to fit in the 1" pipe, put a bolt through the center that will fit in your drill and they will come out a little smoother.

[ducksterman]

Here's some pictures of what you guys are talking about...for the big ones I made the last pictures...hole saws come in different sizes. One of the issues you want to consider is how to chuck them up. My first picture above shows how I did it...as UJ describes but it is sort of a PITA...
Personally I think the simplest is the Harbor Freight approach...price is right and they chuck up....they don't go past 1/2" though
For larger ones the hole cutter saw works...takes some grinding.