Stopper Question

[Doug Miller]

How do you chuck your bottle stoppers? I got a 3/8" pin chuck but when I drill a 3/8" hole the blank just spins around on the chuck.

[Don Carter]

Doug:
I use a 3/8" bolt with the head off and threads toward the stopper plank. I screw a nut all the way to the end of the threads as a stop. I drill a hole just under 3/8" in the blank and screw the blank on to the bolt up against the nut. With some woods I tap the hole with like threads as the bolt, some soft woods I do not.
I hold with a PSI collet chuck.

I hope this helps.

All the best.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I use a bottle stopper mandrel....about $8 but you could just as easily use a 3/8 - 16 TPI bolt. As suggested cut the head off off the bolt. I chuck my mandrel into a jacobs chuck with a #2 MT. Use a drawbar to hold the jacobs chuck in the headstock and turn away. What ever you use, make sure it is held on the tailstock. After chasing my jacobs chuck, mandrel and blank, I figured out what the hole was for in the jacobs chuck morse taper. I went to a local hardware store and bought a piece of 1/4 -20 all thread, a nut, a wingnut and washer and made a drawbar. I drill the blank and thread it onto the mandrel and turn away. Before you drill the blank square up the ends of the blank. I use my CMS. If the surface isn't perpendicular to the drilled hole, when you screw on the turned bottlestopper it won't seat all the way against the bottle stopper shoulder. DAMHIKT.:o
Have a ball! They are a fun, quick project!

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Doug drill bits make oversize holes as a norm, I don't know if you want thread in your stopper, but if not, you could get a 9mm drill bit, it is about 20 thou (.02) smaller than 3/8", when drilled, the hole will be a tight fit on your chuck, HTH

[Steve Trauthwein]

Take a 3/8" piece of round steel stock about four inches long and grind the end to a wedge shape /\. Then flip the rod ninety degrees and grind a V in the wedge. This will leave you with two prongs, /V\, that can easily be driven into your turning stock to turn your bottle stopper.

Regards, Steve

[Ron McKinley]

Are you using the 1/8" dowel rod on the flat of the pin chuck? .....Ron

[Bernie Weishapl]

I do the same thing as Don does. I cut a 3/8" bolt head off and chuck it up. I put a nut on the threaded end and made a washer the same diameter as the stopper end that screws into the wood. That way the end of the wood will match the stopper.

[Roger Wilson]

Here is a link to a Ruth Niles tutorial on making a mandrel for bottle stoppers. She also sells a variety of stainless steel stoppers as well. It's very simple and can be made from a carriage bolt and a wood scrap.


http://www.torne-lignum.com/make_stoppers.html

[Larry Gottlieb]

When you use a bolt either in a collet chuck or in a mandrel as described by Ruth Niles, be sure to use a 16 TPI bolt. The coarser thread of a carriage bolt won't be compatible with the threads of the metal stopper.

I drill 23/64 and that works with the bolt.

Larry