Over the years we’ve been asked how do we bore the cork rings safely and quickly. Instead of using a hand drill with a bit holding the cork or reaming them out with a reamer of some sort; we use the cork ring holder system to bore our cork rings before gluing up to shape a custom grip. We use this system especially when boring burl rings which are a bit harder and tougher than regular species cork.  The ring holder only accepts the standard 1-1/4″ diameter rings and is made from ABS plastic.

Specially designed to work with most Drill Press platforms using a couple of C-clamps, although we have bolted the base to our drill press table. There are two parts to this system, the base and the ring holder.

Using a bench top drill press and the cork ring holder we can easily do 14 rings in just a couple of minutes. Using a drill press, you can change drill diameters quickly without having to change any setting on the base or holder. Two most common sizes we use are 5/16″ and 3/8″. You are ready to glue the rings together either on the blank or a mandrel for turning.