handle question

[cal thelen]

I made a hollowing tool at work using a piece of 1/2 inch round stock 24" long and milled one end flat and tapped a hole to mount a triangle metal lathe cutter. I tried it out with out a handle it works fine but hard to control gripping only the 1/2' round stock. so now I need to turn a handle. my questions are is a piece of 3/4" copper tubing okay to use as a ferrule? and do I need to flatten the round stock that will go in the handle or is it okay to just epoxy the round stock as is? also how far in should the tool go into the handle?
thanks in advance

[Reed Gray]

Tools are generally inserted into the handles about 2 inches. A 3/4 inch ferrule would work, but I tend to over build mine, and would want 1 inch inside diameter. Half inch bar is good for about 6 to maybe 8 inches off the tool rest. You can go more, but it tends to require more fine contrl.

robo hippy

[cal thelen]

Also what about material would cherry be strong enough?

[David E Keller]

Everything Reed said... I'd be tempted to cut about 8 or 10 inches off the handle end of the rod before you stuff it in the handle since you won't need 24" of 1/2 inch steel between tip and handle.

[David E Keller]

Also what about material would cherry be strong enough?

Should be fine... Any good hardwood would work.

[Doug Thompson]

The rule of thumb is double the diameter of the tool so a 1/2 diameter tool will use a 1 inch ferrule.