I turned out a few yesterday with few troubles. i tried last night and this morning and couldnt even turn one decent one out. i dont have anything to cut them into circles so i am starting every popper from a square or rectangle. They either start slipping around the toothpick that i chucked in the dremmel because i dont know what else i could use with what came with it. If they start slipping i use less pressure then nothing happens. I am useing sand paper(150 grit) glued to a popcicle stick to shape them. What does everyone use to cut circles and as a shaping tool? What else could i use to chuck into my tool to hold the foam?
I use a piece of 1/2 inch steel tubing that I epoxied a drill bit into so it would chuck up into my drill without any trouble. I think the bit I used was a bit driver of some sort, maybe even a hexhead driver. However, I have never tried to tun my bodies down either, I just use them round and the bass seem to like them. If i want a different shape/sound I make them square cutouts and taper the back edge for a popper, taper the front for a slider. the square face poppers make a heck of a ruckus, and are my current favorite. I’ll try to post a pic later.
in cutting circles from flip flops I use a 3006 case cut off just behind the shoulder, then i drilled out the primer pocket and put a bolt through it, put a nut on the outside and used the bolt to attach the drill. cut a few “teeth” on the cutting edge by cutting into it lightly while cutting off the shoulder. this will give you almost 1/2 inch plugs, you can find larger cases but they cost more.
as a shaping tool I use 10 for a dollar fingernail boards from the dollar store.
Eric
I may be jumping into this a little late - but have you reviewed this article on making Dremel poppers?
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/fotw2/082205fotw.php
cdpaul,
I think you’ve received good information and suggestions for your problem but I wanted to add one serious caution. When you use a needle in your Dremel, make sure that it is a heavy duty upholstery needle and not a regular large sewing needle. The sewing needle is simply not strong enough and it will bend at the collet when turning at a very high rate of speed. I learned the hard way and ended up smacking my thumbnail to where I honestly thought I’d ripped it off. It was one of those times when you hurt your thumb and you just grab it and squeeze as hard as you can to stop the pain and hopefully stem the flow of blood. Then it takes a few seconds before you even want to look at it for fear of what a mess you’ve made. Anyway, you can get the heavy upholstery needles at Wallmart or any fabric store. If you want to get a bit fancy, you might try soldering a small sewing needle alongside part of the upholstery needle. This will give you a non-round needle that will help prevent the popper foam from spinning on the needle when you’re sanding it down. Also, consider using Emory boards for your sanding. They’re cheap and work very well. You can get them at any Dollar store or Big Lots if you have one near you.
Good luck and please show us your poppers when you’ve got some done.
Jim Smith
I have several homemade cylinder cutters up to 1/2" which is a piece of metal thin wall conduit with a wood plug with a bolt epoxied in it. My favorite for 3/8" and smaller are section of automatic umbrella shafts, the next time you see a wrecked umbrella grab it. You and disassemble it and get several in graduated sizes from it. From your remarks I take it you have a Dremel without an adjustable chuck, before buying an adjustable chuck is used a wood screw with the head cut off which would chuck securely in the Dremel. Punch a small hole in the center of the foam cylinder, screw the wood screw into the cylinder and chuck it up in your Dremel. You can get a nice bullet or cone shaped head that way. You can cup the face also. If you want an angle to the face do that after turning it to basic shape with a sanding disk. Although I have an adjustable chuck now, I still use a wood screw, now it’s a smaller wood screw, acturally a straighten L-hook. I also mostly use a B&D cordless tool, you can only hurt yourself so bad with a single cell cordless tool.
Here are a few previous threads that discuss your issue/question in detail.
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/showthread.php?31874-Sheet-foam-poppers
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/showthread.php?36733-Who-s-making-Poppers
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/showthread.php?34668-Dremel-bugs&highlight=dremel
After reading the posts and looking at my mistakes i have figured out that i should get some emery boards. I was using round tooth picks, and figured out that square ones would work better.
Since no one has mentioned this yet, there is a very simple set of nesting borers that can turn out perfect foam or cork cylinder. They are called cork borers and they are used to make cork or rubber stoppers for scientific flasks. Used sets can be purchased on Ebay relatively cheaply. Also get a sharpener. Push the correct sized borer into cork or foam to cut a plug and push the plug out with the smaller borers. Simple. No making your own borers out of copper pipe.
My set is shown below with the wood handled sharpener above the pencil. The pencil is for scale and the set of 14 borers and I plug pusher are sized up to a 14mm diameter cylinder.
They come up for sale fairly often. Here is one for sale just like mine. This 15 pc set will come up often since I got mine months ago so you don’t need to panic and buy this one. Search Ebay under “cork borer”:
I use the squarish toothpicks without any problem.
I actually prefer just to use a small piece of sandpaper rather than having something mounted on a stick. To get started, I try to pretty much make only point contact rather than trying to broadly contact the popper. I then move that point of contact along the body, the same way you would use a chisel to remove stock on a lathe. As you get it down to where you want it, you can make light broader contact to smooth things out.
I also found there is no need to start out with a round cylinder. If you are starting off with a square/rectangle, use scissors to trim off the corners. I think that ends up making an octagon. That’s more than close enough to start turning. Best way I’ve found to handle the foam is to use a table mounted scroll saw to first cut strips out of the flip flops, then cross cut the strips into squares/rectangles.
www.harborfreight.com hollow punch sets are what you are looking for.
Here’s how I go about making poppers. Have done thousands this way.