SpudFiles

I have a short piece of 3/4" Type L copper barrel tubing that I adapted to chuck in my drill press for cutting corks to barrel size.

Can you suggest a method of mounting a 1/8" drill in the tubing that will drill a centered hole as the cork is being cut?

IOW It would look like the usual hole saw for wood but it would be the exact size for my barrel.

Solder a pipe cap on the copper tubing and adapt it to a hole saw arbor. It should not take too long to transfer the pattern from a hole saw onto a pipe cap and dremel it to size.

I remember seeing this tool when you 1st posted about it, clever idea...

Since your cutting cork use a warsher to center the drill bit and dump a 1/4" deep worth of epoxy into the pipe to glue the bit in and let it cure, remove the warsher and your done.

You could take a regular hole saw with the right size bit in the middle. Make sure its big enough to fit your 3/4" pipe inside, and glue the pipe in... I should work but I've only hole saws with 1/4" bits in the middle...

deathbyDWV wrote:You could take a regular hole saw with the right size bit in the middle. Make sure its big enough to fit your 3/4" pipe inside, and glue the pipe in... I should work but I've only hole saws with 1/4" bits in the middle...

1/4" is exactly twice what is needed and it will not center the nail.

I have been experimenting with a 2 step solution.

Drill a hole approximately centered in the cork.

Place the cork on a nail that is centered under the drill press and locked in position.

Cut the cork with the homemade copper barrel hole cutter.

That is a good method but how do you know if you are cutting it in the center?

Solder on a female threaded end then use reducing bush fittings to reduce this to a 1/8" compression fitting. Drill through the compression fitting so the bit will slide straight through then use the compression olive to hold the bit in place. That should be good enough for cork.

If you can drill centred, it would be more compact to just use a cap then tap that for the compression fitting.

Gun Freak wrote:That is a good method but how do you know if you are cutting it in the center?

You drill anywhere close to the center.

It doesn't matter because the next copper cutting step centers it if there is enough 'meat' to cut.

this is what i would do

1. clamp a piece of wood or cork to the drill press
2. drill 1/8 hole
3. remove 1/8 drill bit
4. put in copper pipe bit/cutter thing
5. cut out cork
6. take out copper pipe bit/cutter thing
7. remove cork circle
8. glue 1/8 bit in cork
9. glue cork/bit into pipe
10. epoxy it all for strength

Whatever you decide to do, make sure you have some access at both ends of the copper. Otherwise, you may find it difficult to remove the cork.

ramses wrote:Whatever you decide to do, make sure you have some access at both ends of the copper. Otherwise, you may find it difficult to remove the cork.

I use a 1/4" thick piece if cork with a spring behind it to expel the newly cut cork.

BTW I found a new method that is very accurate.

Drill a tight hole near the center of the desired length cork.

(I am experimenting with cork lengths between 3/8" to 3/4")

Push a nail through it and use hot glue to adhere the cork to the head of the nail.

Chuck the nail point in a drill press and shape an axial cone near the head by using a rasp file.

Using my copper tool, cut the cork from below.

It will self center.

The result is a nicely shaped dart head with the exact barrel diameter.

It take about 1 minute for the entire process.

Try it, you may like it.