I'd like to make a wooden cleaning rod. But how?

[Kev18]

So i noticed antique cleaning rods or ram rods were usually wood. I thought it would be cool to make one. Thing is, I'd like to make mine out of three pieces of dowel. Small enough to fit down my rifle Barrel. And compact enough to fit in a backpack. I already have my dowels but my issue is fitting them all together... On all the old ones they have a brass attachment on both ends, almost like a big Chicago screw.
Does anyone know what that piece is called?
The dowel would fit in one end of the brass tube with a screw attached to it, and the other dowel would fit in the tube with the nut part. ( male and female)

I dont know where to buy these pieces or how to make some. All the ones I have seen have been made one by one on a lathe. I don't have a lathe...

[Winger Ed.]

Maybe you could cut the required connectors from a smaller, multi-piece, metal cleaning rod,
then drill holes in the ends of the wooden pieces, and epoxy it together.
Very thin wall brass tube pieces could slide over the joints to look like period ferule connectors.

If you get a brass tube to fit like ya want in the bore, you may need to carve a little on the ends of the dowel
so they will fit inside.

Drilling holes in the end of a dowel is hard. You can watch one axis looking down as you drill.
A second person can watch the other axis to keep you going straight watching from a 90 degree angle.

Without a lot of machinery, you might want to epoxy the parts together in different steps so it
all gets aligned properly.

Don't get discouraged.
It may take 2-3 attempts as your learning curve improves to make it all come out like you want it to.



I'm probably not explaining it very well, but this might get ya going in the right direction.

[Bazoo]

I believe those pieces would be called threaded ferrules. Wingers idea is real close to where I'd start. If you got the extra parts already, you could use shotgun adapters for the female ends and the threads from a shotgun brush for the male ends. If your rod was the same diameter as the adapter It'd look clean once assembled.

Pretty neat idea.

[Moleman-]

In a hurry to shoot two does in the same group with my 50 hawkens (which I did) I broke the ferrule off of my ball starter. Once I got the broken off wood pieces out of the ferrule it looked like there were threads cut inside of it and sure enough a bolt would screw in. Sanded down the ball starter rod a little bit to match the shoulder where it broke off and screwed it into the ferrule. That was over 20 years ago and it still works fine. Perhaps if you're going the cleaning rod to ferrule route you could cut off the ends so there is at least 3/4" of solid metal left and have someone with a lathe drill and tap them. Or, if you have a drill press, you can get pretty close. Get a thick chunk of aluminum or steel and drill a cleaning rod sized hole in it about half to 3/4 of the depth. Then switch over to whatever would be the drill size for the tap and drill the rest of the way. Cut a slot with a hacksaw from the edge across the hole (not all the way through the chunk of metal) and add in a cross bolt which closes the cut when tightened. Drop the cleaning rod section in the "jig", tighten the screw and drill the pilot hole using the small hole as a drill guide, Flip the cleaning rod section over retighten and use it to hold the cleaning rod section while you tap it with the tap held in the drill press (no power, turning by hand) which should help keep it straight.

[Kev18]

Im not sure where to start. I looked up: brass screw joints.
Those are pretty much what I need. Turns out people who collect flags, or have small flag poles use these. They are what I need except the smallest they have is bigger than an inch. They also run for about 50$. So that wont work.

Someone mentioned cutting the ends off a metal cleaning rod. Which I think could work. Now my issue is finding the center of my dowel! I dont know how to do that perfectly. Everything needs to line up.

[garandsrus]

What diameter rod are you making?

[BNE]

What size bore are you cleaning?

You might be able to use brass from a smaller caliber bullet.

[Shawlerbrook]

If you search there are brass ferrules available.
https://www.google.com/search?source...t2ndAwvR5mvHM:

[poppy42]

So i noticed antique cleaning rods or ram rods were usually wood. I thought it would be cool to make one. Thing is, I'd like to make mine out of three pieces of dowel. Small enough to fit down my rifle Barrel. And compact enough to fit in a backpack. I already have my dowels but my issue is fitting them all together... On all the old ones they have a brass attachment on both ends, almost like a big Chicago screw.
Does anyone know what that piece is called?
The dowel would fit in one end of the brass tube with a screw attached to it, and the other dowel would fit in the tube with the nut part. ( male and female)

I dont know where to buy these pieces or how to make some. All the ones I have seen have been made one by one on a lathe. I don't have a lathe...

You need to go to a woodworker supplier. Try Rockler.Com. I know they have cane hardware but a cane is two thick for your purposes. Possibly pen hardware would work.
Good luck

[poppy42]

Im not sure where to start. I looked up: brass screw joints.
Those are pretty much what I need. Turns out people who collect flags, or have small flag poles use these. They are what I need except the smallest they have is bigger than an inch. They also run for about 50$. So that wont work.

Someone mentioned cutting the ends off a metal cleaning rod. Which I think could work. Now my issue is finding the center of my dowel! I dont know how to do that perfectly. Everything needs to line up.

What you need is a centering jig. It’s come shaped with a point on the inside. Slide it over a round object and the point finds the exact center. Comes in various sizes to except various size round objects

[country gent]

Look at wood crafters, and wood working supply stores for the ferrules. Mist of the ram rods and cleaning rods were hickory and soaked in linseed oils for several days up to a week to finish. The wood cleaning rods I have here are shotgun rods ( no rotation and fitting thread sizes). A cleaning rod for a muzzle loader or BPCR rifle would be do able though.
The brass ferrules will sit over the ends of the dowels. most were glued and pined or crimped to the dowels. Look for straight grained hickory dowels, 5/16 would do 38 cal bore barely. The ends of the dowels will need to be turned down shaved to a snug fit in the ferrules. and fitted to the shoulder so there are no sharp edges. One section needs to be a few inches longer for a handle to fasten on to it. On a wood rod keep it as short as possible to maintain strength.
A groove in the wood half way down the tenon glue on and use an old dull tubing cutter ( a cheap tubing cutter with the cutter polished to a flat .010-.015 wide does better for this.) at this point on the ferrule to roll it into the groove while epoxy is still wet. when cured drill and fit a 1/16" pin.

[Bazoo]

Pennstateind.com might have what you need, or maybe woodcraft.com or leevalley.com

[country gent]

You can find center of a dowel with n adjustable square. Set it to half the dia of the dowel and draw 4-6 lines from points around the outside edge where all the lines intersect is center. Holding the dowel in a vise or clamped to something solid makes this easier.

[Bazoo]

For a short piece of dowel, if it's small enough, you can chuck it in a drill and spin it. While it's spinning touch a pencil to the end and it'll give you a centered ring.

[Kev18]

The dowel diameter is .365. Id like to make it for my Winchester 1886 in 40-82. The bore is .406 so I have a bit of wiggle room. I tested it and it slides up and down fine. Il try to figure something out. Im reading everything you guys are writing.

[William Yanda]

A good Hardware Store or a big box store will have the threaded ferrules too.

[georgerkahn]

Just a thought... I wanted to do similar (for a non-shooting project) and hit upon the idea of buying an using the ferrules purveyed for hooking together fishing rods! I bought mine mail-order from NetCraft in Ohio. Other fishing tackle rod-making supplies all carry them, too. To find the center of a dowel, for me, I drill a teeny hole in a piece of aluminum, and then use it as a guide to drill allllmost through with a drill who's diameter just fits your dowel. Then, insert dowel in aluminum block, and drill down through teeny hole. NOT "machinest perfect" -- but close enough for "my government work".
BEST!
geo

[Kev18]

Here's what I have so far. Im happy with it, but I would like some brass or copper sleeves where the rods meet to make it meatier and abit more solid. The wood is pretty thin around the edges.
I had an old cleaning rod that came in a big Winchester kit that the handle broke off, so I jsut cut the male and female parts off and inserted them into the dowels. The big problem was drilling center in that small of pieces of round stock but I managed with a weird bubba setup and a drill press...

[JimB..]

You say that you have your dowel. Was it produced by splitting or cutting? If you don’t know, the issue with a cut dowel is that the grain doesn’t necessarily run through the length of the dowel, so you’ll have weak points where the grain shifts. Best to split a piece of straight grained lumber and then trim/shave it to size, same as if you were making rungs for a wooden ladder.

[Kev18]

You say that you have your dowel. Was it produced by splitting or cutting? If you don’t know, the issue with a cut dowel is that the grain doesn’t necessarily run through the length of the dowel, so you’ll have weak points where the grain shifts. Best to split a piece of straight grained lumber and then trim/shave it to size, same as if you were making rungs for a wooden ladder.

I bough them at the dollar store. So lets assume the worst possible.