My apologies here folks, I have not had the time to put up a web page on it,
but an easy way to make a captured ring tool is to use a cheap chisel. Say
you want a 1/4" captured ring. Anneal the end of a 3/8" or 1/2" chisel.
Drill a 1/4" hole in it centered about 3/8" back from the end. Grind or cut
to the center line of the hole and rough grind the tip remembering to bring
the sides in to the circle. Temper the chisel end. Sharpen by belt sanding
flat and then use a diamond file for touch up. Personally I would replace
the handle with a wooden one but it is not really necessary for this sort of
tool.


--
God bless and safe turning
Darrell Feltmate
Truro, NS Canada
http://aroundthewoods.com
http://roundopinions.blogspot.com
"Prometheus" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 25 Nov 2007 05:33:44 -0800 (PST), Max63
wrote:

Has anyone used a spare allen opener as a captive ring tool?
Seems like you could just grind its end properly after shoving it up
some
HS or even carbon steel rod. and end up making a simple handle
from wood.

The beautiful thing about capitve ring tools is that they don't need
to stay sharp for very long to get the job done- though it's nice if
they do. I used a piece of hammered-flat and ground to shape
galvanized emt tubing for the first captive rings I ever turned, and
it worked fine. Not good for the long haul, but it worked ok. In a
pinch, a guy could make one that was reasonably decent from just about
anything- including that allen wrench you mentioned.