Neckerchief Slides

[brey]

A few members recently donated some acrylic, wood, trustone and corian scraps to an effort I'm undertaking to make a large number (hundreds) of neckerchief slides for Cub/Boy Scouts and their leaders.

Original thread here:
http://www.penturners.org/forum/f156/1-5x1-5-acrylic-scraps-127610/

Wanted to post the pictures of the first set all finished up.

A big thanks to those that donated and to such a generous and helpful community! These will be going to Cub Scouts and to Cub Scout leaders as thank you's for all they do.

 

[Edward Cypher]

Thanks

Awesome. Thanks for doing this for scouting.

 

[ironman123]

Many thanks for your generous offers to a good cause.

 

[Turned Around]

Very cool. I was at my nephew's cub scout meeting last night and saw that all the kids had the same ones on that came with the uniform. This is a cool way to get the boys to express a bit of individuality. Might have to look into those corian style ones.

Did you have a rough profile to go off of?

 

[Edgar]

Those look great - what size hole did you drill in the blanks?
Our church just took over the sponsorship of a cub scout pack & I'd like to try my hand at making some of those for our scouts & leaders.

 

[brey]

Those look great - what size hole did you drill in the blanks?
Our church just took over the sponsorship of a cub scout pack & I'd like to try my hand at making some of those for our scouts & leaders.

Great to hear that you're sponsoring a Pack!

5/8" and 3/4" tend to work best for me for neckerchief slides. I drill the hole and then put it on a corresponding size of one of these and put the mandrel into a Collet Chuck.
WoodMaster Game Call Mandrel | Projects | Craft Supplies USA

Turning is then super easy. I'm able to turn one every 10 minutes or so (with another 3-5 minutes spent in drilling, cutting, etc.).

If you have any other questions feel free to post here or send me a PM and I'll answer as much as I can.

 

[Turned Around]

What's the typical OD and height you went with?

 

[brey]

Very cool. I was at my nephew's cub scout meeting last night and saw that all the kids had the same ones on that came with the uniform. This is a cool way to get the boys to express a bit of individuality. Might have to look into those corian style ones.

Did you have a rough profile to go off of?

I tend to work to have each one 1-1.25" in diameter (I prefer the wider end of that range personally), with a 5/8" hole. My general steps for corian are as follows. Step 3 is skipped if I have a round acrylic blank as the corian samples someone gifted are 2x2" squares that are 1/2" thick.

1. Drill hole using drill press. Go nice and slow to avoid chipping on exit. I use a 5/8" bit although 3/4" would also work.
2. Use a small piece of cardboard I cut into a 1.25" diameter. Place on top of center of drilled hole and trace with sharpie.
3. Use a bandsaw to cut away extra material at edges and corner, being careful to cut to the outside of the sharpie so I don't make it too narrow on the cut. This isn't absolutely necessary, but makes turning go faster and dulls my turning tools less.
4. Place on an expanding duck call mandrel the same size as my hole (5/8" in this case). I often wrap a thin piece of paper around the mandrel as a shim if the drilled material is too loose on the mandrel. Mandrel found here: WoodMaster Game Call Mandrel | Projects | Craft Supplies USA.
5. Place mandrel in chuck collet on the lathe's head and snug up my live center at the other end.
6. Turn down to round, using a cheap pair of calipers to get it roughly the diameter I want.
7. Finish by wet sanding with 600 grit and then 1500 MM and then using Novus 3 and then Novus 2.


Hope that helps a bit with the process. If you have any other questions or are interested in pictures or video let me know and I can work to put something together.

 

[brey]

What's the typical OD and height you went with?

My preferred OD was 1.25" (or just a hair bigger), although that can be sized to taste.

The corian was 1/2" thick in the samples I was gifted. That was as thin as I'd go. I prefer the 3/4" thick a bit better, which is around where I cut the acrylics to. Even though the 1/2" corian was a little narrow, it was AWESOME to not have to cut the thicknesses and know that each one was the exact same height.

 

[Edgar]

Those look great - what size hole did you drill in the blanks?
Our church just took over the sponsorship of a cub scout pack & I'd like to try my hand at making some of those for our scouts & leaders.

Great to hear that you're sponsoring a Pack!

Thanks - I'm really excited about it. One of our local Packs recently lost their church sponsorship & since the leader is a member of our congregation, he came to us first. Several of us on the church council have been involved in scouting ourselves, so it was a slam-dunk to approve his request.

5/8" and 3/4" tend to work best for me for neckerchief slides. I drill the hole and then put it on a corresponding size of one of these and put the mandrel into a Collet Chuck.
WoodMaster Game Call Mandrel | Projects | Craft Supplies USA

That's what I was guessing - I have some Eggoscope bushings that take a 13/16" hole so I'll start by making a couple that way & let the leader try them out. If that hole is too large, I'll just make some smaller bushings.

Turning is then super easy. I'm able to turn one every 10 minutes or so (with another 3-5 minutes spent in drilling, cutting, etc.).

If you have any other questions feel free to post here or send me a PM and I'll answer as much as I can.

Many thanks & thanks for your contribution to scouting also!