Here is my tip. I have made a pretty specific purpose jig, but it would come in real handy if you have a lot of wine corks to split. I make cork boards and found that you need 98 corks per square foot. So, if you can split them, you can double your yield! A split cork has the added benefit of being a flatter surface for both the glue up side and the finished product side. But the big question I had was how do I split all those corks in a timely manner?!
I had a couple thousand to split my first go around. With some trial and error, I came up with the jig that is shown in the attached photos. It works like a champ. I can now split about 750 corks in one hour! The round PVC tube that the corks get fed into centers the cork so the split is right down the middle every time, even during fast feeding. I was amazed how evenly the corks are split. The feeder bin enables me to load up a couple hundred corks at a time enabling me to focus on feeding the corks into the splitter. I use an old broom handle as a ramrod, which needs trimming every so often. The outfeed table enables the corks to be collected into a waiting bin.
This jig has allowed me to produce a 4′ x 4′ Pinto’s Pub sign pretty quickly! I’ve made dart surrounds and other projects with our corks. I now have a team of people collecting corks for us, which gives me an ample supply for my projects.
Keep up the good work with your magazine. I’ve been a longtime subscriber.
Cheers!
-Frank Pinto
