Turning Bottle Stoppers

[terrymiller]

This a question for all the pros out there.

I tried turning bottle stoppers for the first time today. The first one I tried was drilled and then I inserted a 1/2" cherry dowel rod into the hole and tried turning it. The dowel rod immediately snapped. The second one I tried I drilled the hole then turned a piece of hardwood down to fit into the hole to give me more room away from the chuck for turning. Do most of you guys use one of the mandrels or like I did with the waste block. Can someone give me some kind of tutorial or help with some kind of link.

Thanks

Terry

 

[LanceD]

Take a look at this link. It shows different ways to chuck stopper blanks.http://www.yoyospin.com/stopper2/

 

[vick]

I use the mandrel. Prior to getting the mandrel I cut off a piece of all thread and used that chucked in my drill chick.

 

[gerryr]

I got the mandrel from AZ Silhouette. If you buy one, be sure to also get the bottom tap because screwing the mandrel into a piece of birds eye maple is not a lot fun. Plus the mandrel isn't very good at cutting threads.