Here’s another DIY project for leftover pen blanks – replacement jump rope handles! I know, it’s not probably something that gets people excited, but it kept me occupied during the COVID-19 lockdown.
So my wife started using the jump rope (or skipping rope if you prefer) a lot since the lockdown, and the cheap plastic handles were just no up to the task. When I saw the broken handle, I quickly volunteered to turn a pair of replacement handles on my wood lathe.
A quick measurement told me that the original jump rope handles were as long and wide as my acrylic pen blanks. Making the handles any shorter would make it hard to get a full grip.
I could have switched to using 1″ wood dowels, but I really wanted to get rid of acrylic blanks that I bought for making custom acrylic pens. Now that I stopped making pens, the more plain-looking blanks need to be used or thrown into the trash.
Turning The Jump Rope Handles on My Lathe
I had to make the best of the entire blank, so I turned the blanks between centres until it was round, then used my 4-jaw Nova Chuck.
Next, I drilled a hole about the same diameter as the rope. Initially, I wanted to drill a hole right through the other end but quickly realised I didn’t have a drill bit long enough for that.
I know I could drill holes from both ends, but it still didn’t look like they would meet in the middle. Also, I wasn’t confident that the holes would line up perfectly anyway. Instead, I drilled only half way through, and planned to use epoxy later to secure the rope in the hole.
For this particular acrylic pen blank, I decided to paint the hole, similar to how you would paint a pen blank to prevent the brass tube from showing through.
I sanded the handles up to 600 grit, then switched to 0000 fine steel wool. I feel that steel wool works much better than sandpaper on acrylic. It cuts material instead of abrading it. The result is a nice smooth finish with zero scratch marks.
I buff and polished the jumping rope handles on my shop-made lathe buffing jig. This completely removed all the fine scratches.
I used 15-minute epoxy to glue the rope into the hole. The completed jump rope handles now looks a whole lot more expensive and cool. I have a feeling the epoxy may eventually give way, but it’s a small problem I can fix easily.
If you’re also thinking about projects to make use of extra pen blanks, check out these other projects:
I’ll be adding more DIY projects for scrap wood and pen blanks. Since I mostly create small items, these are something I am really looking forward to.
