jbswearingen
Member
I have one of Capn Eddie's bars. Now to make my first handle. I have the process down but don't know what size to drill the hole. 3/8"?
Help?
Help?
What size hole to drill for 3/8" bar stock in handle?
- Thread starter jbswearingen
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hanau
Member
What size is the bar tang?
Drill a hole in a scrap piece of wood and see how it fits. You would want it a little bigger so the epoxy will fill the hole around the bar.
May also want to rougher up the end so the epoxy will have something to grab a hold of. The ones I make I put a groove around the bar so the epoxy will have something to hold to. Think there is a few listed in the classified that I make that you can see what I am describing.
Drill a hole in a scrap piece of wood and see how it fits. You would want it a little bigger so the epoxy will fill the hole around the bar.
May also want to rougher up the end so the epoxy will have something to grab a hold of. The ones I make I put a groove around the bar so the epoxy will have something to hold to. Think there is a few listed in the classified that I make that you can see what I am describing.
csr67
Member
He has a whole You Tube tutorial on making the handle. I think it is 3/8" but I can't confirm that on my mobile device right now. Here's a link:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dNI1dkMMP20
randyrls
Member
Brad; If the bar is round, put a flat in it and glue with epoxy.
If square, measure across the opposing corners. Make the hole just slightly smaller than that and as suggested above, roughen the surface and clean it good with acetone or Denatured alcohol. Put a ferrule around the end and you are set.
If square, measure across the opposing corners. Make the hole just slightly smaller than that and as suggested above, roughen the surface and clean it good with acetone or Denatured alcohol. Put a ferrule around the end and you are set.
monophoto
Member
For a 3/8" round bar, I would use a slightly larger bit - V if you have one, or 25/64 if you only have fractional bits.
If the bar has a square cross-section, I would use a 17/32" (slightly larger than the diagonal dimension of the bar). This approach requires more epoxy to embed the bar since you have to fill the gaps between the flat sides of the bar and the round sides of the hole. Some peoplemake the handle in two sections routing a 3/8" mortise in each section before glue the two halves together so that the two mortises form a 3/4" square hole.
In some instances when I've made tools using square bars with round holes, I've glued popsicle sticks on the sides of the bar, and then after the epoxy has cured, rounded over the wood to give the portion of the bar that fits inside the handle a round cross section.
Others have pointed out that the hole needs to be slightly oversized to allow for the epoxy. I would make one other suggestion - dril a 'breather hole' through the side of the blank into the hole near its bottom so that as you press the bar into the hole, there is a way for air behind the bar to escape. The diameter of the breather isn't important - I use a very small numbered bit for this. The hole will fill with epoxy (or whatever glue you use to hold the bar) so it won't interfere with the smoothness of the handle, but it will prevent compressing air in the hole behind the bar that will try to force the bar back out of the hole.
In a few instances, I've used a dremel to grind a mortise in the side of round bars to provide a path for compressed air behind the bar to escape. That works but it's much more work than simply drilling a small breather hole into the side of the recess in the handle.
If the bar has a square cross-section, I would use a 17/32" (slightly larger than the diagonal dimension of the bar). This approach requires more epoxy to embed the bar since you have to fill the gaps between the flat sides of the bar and the round sides of the hole. Some peoplemake the handle in two sections routing a 3/8" mortise in each section before glue the two halves together so that the two mortises form a 3/4" square hole.
In some instances when I've made tools using square bars with round holes, I've glued popsicle sticks on the sides of the bar, and then after the epoxy has cured, rounded over the wood to give the portion of the bar that fits inside the handle a round cross section.
Others have pointed out that the hole needs to be slightly oversized to allow for the epoxy. I would make one other suggestion - dril a 'breather hole' through the side of the blank into the hole near its bottom so that as you press the bar into the hole, there is a way for air behind the bar to escape. The diameter of the breather isn't important - I use a very small numbered bit for this. The hole will fill with epoxy (or whatever glue you use to hold the bar) so it won't interfere with the smoothness of the handle, but it will prevent compressing air in the hole behind the bar that will try to force the bar back out of the hole.
In a few instances, I've used a dremel to grind a mortise in the side of round bars to provide a path for compressed air behind the bar to escape. That works but it's much more work than simply drilling a small breather hole into the side of the recess in the handle.
Last edited:
Falcon1220
Member
I do not want to hijack this thread but was wondering if Gorilla Glue wound work
monophoto
Member
Isak
The best choice for gluing bars into handles are epoxy and polyurethane (eg, Gorilla Glue). They will adhere to metal as well as to wood, and are reasonably good at filling cracks.
I would not use CA even through it does adhere to metal. For one thing, its expensive, but more importantly, cured CA is brittle and a good catch can fracture the acryllic bond allowing the bar to work its way out of the handle.
The best choice for gluing bars into handles are epoxy and polyurethane (eg, Gorilla Glue). They will adhere to metal as well as to wood, and are reasonably good at filling cracks.
I would not use CA even through it does adhere to metal. For one thing, its expensive, but more importantly, cured CA is brittle and a good catch can fracture the acryllic bond allowing the bar to work its way out of the handle.
Fish30114
Member
I made the handle for mine by running a 3/8x16 die over the bar, and tapping the hole in my wood handle (I turned with a 5/16 hole in it) ran a little epoxy on a dowel and slathered up the hole and screwed the threaded bar into it--a little overkill perhaps but it's solid as a rock!