Turning Custom Screwdrivers - Survey

[Timberwolf]

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Do you drill the hole for the shaft before or after you've turned the handle?

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Another way to ensure absolute concentricity is drill a hole for the shaft in the rough stock, epoxy the shaft into the wood, then grip the shaft in the lathe chuck, and using a center on the other end of the handle, turn the handle to the desired shape. On the shaft end, turn the tenon down to fit the ferrule...

I bought stainless steel stock and turned my own ferrules on my metal lathe to the size that was appropriate. You can do the same with brass stock on a wood lathe, but don't try steel..

When you use epoxy, you dont need the "wings" so I just grind them off, leaving the steel shank rough.

[Timberwolf]

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OOPs I did not look at the date.

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Me either.... but no matter...

[MichaelMouse]

Couple of points.

1) Drive the shank, then drive the ferrule to hold it in place. No need to glue anything.

2) Unless you plan on chasing them a lot, leaving a flat spot or two from opposite sides of your blank will keep them from rolling too far.

[AHill]

This is still a useful thread to those considering making custom screwdrivers. One thing I found with the cocobolo I used, was that the wings on the shaft have a tendency to split the wood when they are driven into the handle. To prevent or mitigate the splitting, I attached the ferrules prior to driving the shafts into the handles. As Jack has mentioned, it's possible to simply grind off the wings and epoxy the shafts into the handle. I might try that in the future. I have some Maccassar ebony I have been saving for my own set of screwdrivers. I will probably also make a template for the three different sizes of handles and use the template to gauge progress. When I did the coco handles, I used a caliper to measure the key diameters and eyeballed the shape from there. I used a parting tool to establish the depths at those key points.

[MichaelMouse]

It is also possible to kerf for the wings and let the ferrule compress them and the shaft. I'd recommend it. Wings on some are in a long down position, but since they drive unaided only into the full thickness part, there's usually no splitting problem.

[SteveS]

I'm assuming you've never made handles from really hard woods like ebony, blackwood or coco. the ferrules will have no ability to compress the wood as you describe. An interference fit simply will not work. Turning the handles and epoxying the ferrules on is the best option for hard wood.

[MichaelMouse]

you mean "dense" woods, I'm sure, since compression has no regard for hardness, merely density.

BTW, yes, I have. On more dense woods, less dimensional loss on the tenon (and kerf) due to compression is allowed.

[Shop Dad]

Would anyone know of a good tutorial or guidelines on offset turning handles with a triangular form? At the 2015 symposium I got hands on with David Ellsworth's tool handles for Robust and they were pretty darned sweet. I'm thinking a smaller version for screwdrivers etc.

http://www.turnrobust.com/product/tool-h...le-system/

Doug

[SteveS]

No, I mean hard. Hardness is in essence stiffness. Compression has no regard for density, merely stiffness. Lead and gold are denser than steel, but steel is much harder i.e. stiffer. A denser wood is also very likely to be a harder wood. Perhaps there are timbers out there that do not have that correlation, but I am not aware of them.

[Timberwolf]

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An interference fit simply will not work. Turning the handles and epoxying the ferrules on is the best option for hard wood.

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+1...Even if there was no danger of the steel splitting the wood, I see no downside to using epoxy, and I have relied on it for well over 45 years. For this purpose, I use JB Weld which I color jet black using the soot from a flame like a candle...It takes less than a dot of soot smaller than a match head to color lots of epoxy and it wont weaken the bond. The color {black} is more pleasing to the eye than the uncolored "gray" of the JB. IMO.

I prep the steel using a bench grinder to roughen it up a bit prior to gluing and inserting it.