Bottle stopper question

[GBusardo]

Hi, I glued up some corian to make a bottle stopper. I drilled my usual hole 11/32nds I am pretty sure, but I could not get the threaded mandrel into the hole. I use the mandral sold by CSUS. Obviously, this is the first time I am trying corian. I do not want to crack it. Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks

 

[Ron in Drums PA]

Did you buy threaded bottle stoppers? If so, the threads are 3/8-16TPI and you drilled an undersized hole.
Which is good if you plan on tapping the corian. You will need to use a bottoming tap in the blank.

If you purchased unthreaded stoppers, you may have a problem with the mandrel, but I am only guessing since I don't know what mandrel you have.

You might want to think about making yourself a 3/8" pin chuck, which means you will need to drill a 3/8" hole in the corain to match the 3/8 shank on the stoppers.

 

[GBusardo]

Hi ron, I use dowels and cork. I was wishing I had a pin chuck, it seemed like a good alternative. How would I go about making one?

 

[mwenman]

check out a small article posted by Fred Holder titled

"A Pin Chuck to Hold Bottle Stopper Blanks While Turning"

http://behemothtools.tripod.com/id6.html

Another option would be to get ahold of Bill at Arizona Silhouette and see what he has or could come up with similar to a closed end pen mandrel which could probably work.

 

[Ron in Drums PA]

Also Check out this issue of Woodturning Design, my friend Dom has an article on bottle stopper mandrels

 

[GBusardo]

Hey thanks guys, Mike, thats a great little article. I could not wait, so I ended up just gluing the dowel in and mounting it on my chuck. I used a live center to take off some of the pressure and then just cut off the top with a paring tool. That was the way I used to make wood stoppers all the time, until I got fed up with some of the dowels breaking. I am going to make one of those pin chucks though. Thanks again