Turning curtain rod finials?

[angboy]

So since I'll be moving into a new house soon, I'm trying to figure out window treatments. On some windows I just want to hang curtains. I've started obsessing about the curtain rods that I want and told my SO that I want to have the coolest curtain rods ever. So then I started thinking that what would be super cool would be if I could turn the end pieces, which I think are called the finials. I was thinking that basically it'd be like making matching wine bottle stoppers for each end, and then I could use some of the funky acrylic blanks and have super colorful curtain rods. Has anyone ever done this? If so, how did you attach the turned bottle stopper thingy to a curtain rod? I just tried to disassemble the curtain rods hanging in myre tnal home and thought the ends would just screw off of the rod, but while they turn forever, they don't actually come unscrewed in any way, so now I'm not so sure of the mechanics of how curtain rods work. Anybody ave any ideas?

 

[John Den]

My Curtain Pole Finials still unscrew!!!

The fixing is a special double ended wood screw but I'm sure if you got yourself a suitably length ordinary wood screw and cut off the head you could glue it into a drilled hole in the finial using Epoxy Resin. With a Pilot drilled into the Curtain Pole I'm sure you could then screw the finial in satisfactorily.

My Finial/Pole Dimensions are:-

Pole Diameter 1"
Finial Length 3.5"
Finial Maximum Diameter 2.3"
OD of Screw 0.2"
Length of screw sticking out 0.5"
Depth of Counterbore for Pole end to screw into 0.25"
Diameter of finial at Counterbore start 1.7"

Hope all this helps,
If you need any more Info - Let me know.
Regards,
John

Pictures of Finial

 

[wood-of-1kind]

If you use a DOWEL(wood) and attach it to your super cool custom turned finial, you can then drill a hole(same diameter as dowel) in your curtain rod and connect your masterpiece(finial). Glue in your finial to the wood dowel and do likewise to your curtain rod. Sit back and admire your work. : )

 

[PWL]

You can buy double end screws at most hardware stores.
Paul

 

[angboy]

Thanks for the info everyone. Anyone know if there's any sort of mandrel that would work for tunring something like this? I bought a curtain rod tonight just to be able to take it apart and clearly the screw is smaller than that used in a bottle stopper, and John Den's pix and measurements confirm that. So I'm wondering if there's a mandrel for anything else that's already made that I could put a bottle stopper blank on and turn it, so that I'd be able to get it turned down to the right size/finished to right area, near the are where it would screw back in? I thought about just using my bottle stopper mandrel and then maybe putting a dowel rod in the hole, but then I think that the diameter that goes across the mandrel is going to be too wide for the diameter of the curtain rod ending.

 

[randyrls]

Thanks for the info everyone. Anyone know if there's any sort of mandrel that would work for tunring something like this?

You can make a mandrel out of a partially threaded bolt and a washer and nut. Cut the head off the bolt and shorten the threaded portion. Thread the nut and washer all the way up to the end of the threads. Trim the exposed threaded portion to 5/8"+ For an acrylic, drill and tap a hole to match the bolt.Wear a face shield for this and use the tail stock to support the piece as much as possible.

I bought a curtain rod tonight just to be able to take it apart and clearly the screw is smaller than that used in a bottle stopper, and John Den's pix and measurements confirm that.

You can get the hanger bolts with wood threads on one end and machine threads on the other from Rockler. They also have threaded inserts that you can screw into the end of a wooden rod.