Onepiece Cigar Mandrel

To aid in making the one piece cigar pens, I made this mandrel that I use to turn down the transmission coupler. It also serves as an alighment tool when inserting the coupler into the tube.

The small diameter is a tight slip fit with the coupler, the middle diameter is a tight slip fit with the 10mm tube and the large diameter is 1/2" so the same collet that I use for my bottle stopper mandrel is good for this as well. The small end is center drilled to allow a 60 degree live center to support it.

There is a built in pin chuck that uses a #16 Wire Brad as a drive pin. The shoulder from the transmission to the tube is about the same height as the diameter of a #16 Wire Brad, and useing that as a pin is something easily replaced. I just clip off the head and point with wire cutters.

Eric; That is an interesting bit! I had an idea while looking at it.

If you drilled the 60 degree hole for the tailstock center and then cut 4 slots in the length of the end, the coupler could be clamped in place with the expansion of the slots against the tailstock center. Kind of an inside expanding collet.

randyrls said:

Eric; That is an interesting bit! I had an idea while looking at it.

If you drilled the 60 degree hole for the tailstock center and then cut 4 slots in the length of the end, the coupler could be clamped in place with the expansion of the slots against the tailstock center. Kind of an inside expanding collet.

Click to expand...

I had considered something like this, but got stuck mentally on closed end expanding mandrels and never thought of the much simpler expanding collet idea. A 1/64" slitting saw should do the trick, even one slit might be adequate.