Metal dowel for Burnisher

[durden7]

Hello.

I am looking to make a Burnisher. I turned a chunk of wood on my lathe and it looks great.

The problem is that I cannot seem to find a place to buy a metal rod to mount the wood. I want to put it in my drill press, ultimately. But I need the shaft to mount the wood to.

Anyone aware of a place to source something like this?

Would the rod be glued in place or is there another method?

Thoughts?

Thanks for helping!

[Tugadude]

Why not just use a large drill bit?  Epoxy it in place.

[Rumrunner64]

or just a large nail

[Colt W Knight]

Lowe's and homedepot sell metal rods. 

[veedub3]

Very good suggestions above, and I have done them all. I have made several versions of DIY wood burnishers over the years. I have sacrificed a drill bit and epoxied it in place. On my very first one, I just hammered in a nail and put it in a drill chuck attached to my adjustable grinder. Didn't even use glue on that one, the wood was so dense, I would destroy the burnisher trying to get the nail out. I made one for a friend once, I just stopped into a hardware store and picked up some metal rod and cut it down to size with my Dremel. Another one, I just cut the head off a carriage bolt and epoxied it in place. 

Plenty of ways to get it done.

Karina

[durden7]

Sounds good, Gang - thank you. 

I suppose I assumed there was something special that I needed to do to make sure the wood stays on the shaft, like a special adapter or something.

I considered a bolt, but there would be threads on the end and using it in a drill press would crush the threads over time. Eventually this would affect the way the burnisher turned. An Old Drill bit is a pretty solid idea too. 

I will buy a boring metal rod and cut it to size, score the metal so the epoxy has some place to grab and give it a go.

In retrospect, I should have done this FIRST as now I have a hole drilled and will need to re-turn the burnisher to make sure it's true. Will be easier to turn these moving forward using the post as a handle in the lathe chuck.

Thanks for the advice and the SPEED of the advice. I posted late last night and this morning I have the direction I need. 

Thank you!

-D

[veedub3]

Glad you now know which direction you wish to head in, but just a bit of clarification on the carriage bolt.

The photo shows the type of bolt I was referring to. After chopping off the head of the bolt, and smoothing the ruff edges on a sander, that would be the part chucked into your drill press - so no threads getting crushed over time. The part with the threads will be the part epoxied into the wood. 

 

 

[durden7]

veedub3,

Ah. Carriage bolt. That is a remarkably reasonable solution. Probably a cheaper solution as well. I'll give it a whirl.

Thanks!

-D