Wine bottle corks

[ssajn]

Has anyone had experience in drilling wine bottle corks? Type of bit, speed etc. I'd like to try using some to make pen blanks. I haven't tried any yet because I don't have a lot of them and don't want to waste them. Oh wait, If I run out I'll just open another bottle.
Thanks
Dave

 

[John Eberly]

Corks

Drill with the same brad point bits you'd drill wood blanks with. You need sharp bits, though.

You can buy new corks by the bagful at home winemaking stores.

You can also make bottle stoppers without the chrome and rubber o-ring kits - just drill and taper a natural cork and use a piece of dowel and a wood turning on top.

 

[bruce119]

Another tip with cork is fishing rod handles. I used to make fishing rods and had a lot of broken rods the cork used for rods is great the grain is going in the rite direction. The wine corks not as nice the grain is in the wrong direction. Try and get a bag of nice cork rings they already have the hole in them. They come in different sizes then you can glue them on you tube. Looks great if you can find the rite size and are careful you can use old fishing rod handles. I turn at high speed with a very sharp skew with a scraping motion.

The attached picture shows a pen made from fishing rod cork. I just stacked the cork on the 3/8 tube glued it and cut it to size. The other pen is bowling ball.



Good luck
Bruce

 

[ssajn]

Thanks for the tips.

I turned the pen today. It drilled nice and clean and I had the best luck turning using a very sharp skew. The cork was too short so I put a piece of wood on either end. What better wood to use than purpleheart. The finish is CA with out BLO.

Dave

 

[bitshird]

Very nice pen, the Purpleheart really sets off the color of the Cork.

 

[ldb2000]

Great job Dave . Almost looks like a burl in the photos . The purpleheart frames it nicely .