Closed end mandrels

At the last DUTA, I purchased one of each type of Bottle Stoppers that Jim carries, just to muck around. I asked about mandrals to suit, but none are commercially available in Australia for both sizes. Mcjing have a mandrel for the 1/4"x20tpi, but not for the 8mm.

So I happened to wander into McJing and purchased 2* MT2 arbours. They are predrilled 6mm . . . wacked one in the MT in the Yellow Peril and adjusted the thread to 1/4x20 tpi. I used a mandrel at a mates place and the most annoying thing was the thread wound out every time removed the stopper top. So I drilled and tapped a 1/4 cap screw to prevent this from happening. The 8mm required drilling out to 7mm and tapping. Having a lathe that can do 50 rpm is handy . . . :U

So abit of fun was had and I have the right tools for the job.

First one for the 1/4" mandrel, a bit of scrap myrtle from the pup's chew toys:U