I recently finished a cork cigar grip and was forced to use an uplocking reel seat that of course required a pocket in the cork. I thought about using a spade bit to make the pocket, but decided that I might easily ruin the grip. I cut the pocket using my Dremel. It worked but it really time consuming. What's the best way to put round pockets in the grips? Should I bore out a ring before I glue up the grip?

If you can find spiral cutting bits for your dremel grab yourself some of these. They are exactly the same as end mills used in machine shops, the look like flat drill bits. You can use these to rough out most of the material and then come in with a sanding or burr bit.

Mark

I drilled out the cork prior to gluing up the grip. Since the hole is quite large in relation to the size of the cork I first drilled out a hole in wood to fit the cork (1 1/8" in my case). I then placed the cork ring into the wood and then drilled out the hole for the hood. Now, to affix the ring to the rest of the grip I went to my lathe and turned a spacer that would fit inside the ring. The center hole in the wood space was drilled to fit that mandrel that I build the grip on. To keep the spacer from being glued in I covered the spacer with masking tape and rubbed candle wax on it. This setup allowed me to turn the cork grip on the lathe with full support - very handy.

Steve,
Thanks, that's a great idea. Using the dremel was a total pain, it just took too long. I don't mind spending some time up front to make something reusable that will save me time later.

"It worked but it really time consuming."

and so you see how i find beauty in downlocking cap and ring reel seats for smallstream trout fly rods... ;-)

eric
fresno, ca.

I will use a slide band reel seat any chance I get, but the rod I just built was for a beginner and a beginner shouldn't have to think about paying attention to his reel seat. I would gladly use cap and ring seats if someone besides Struble, REC and Bellinger made them. Putting a $40-$80 reel seat on a $20 blank doesn't compute for me. They should be a lot less expensive that any threaded reel seat, but they're not and part of the problem is probably that they have generally fallen out of favor so not many are actually produced, making the cost per unit higher.

gerry

i hear ya about expensive seats on very inexpensive blanks.. i've been using forecast blanks lately... a $50 bellinger on a forecast? if i had money to throw around, i'd be using nice dan craft blanks all the time! i posed a question recently about supply of inexpensive downlocking cap and ring reel seats. REC carries one for $28 in aluminum. struble makes their teak version in black aluminum for $20. and landmark has nice looking simple ones for under $15, choice of black or clear aluminum, with either rosewood or maple inserts. cortland has some for a nice price, including cork insert seats, both up and downlocking.

and the downlocking style has been nice. i thought i preferred the look of uplocking threaded seats, but once i tried one, closing my eyes and trying to put preconceptions of what LOOKS nice, i'm sold for my small stream under 5 weight fly rods. nice balance for my setups.

also, since i really just started fly rod assembly this winter, and have yet to actually hit the water with a cap and ring (or ANY of the rods i've been tinkering with, practicing, practicing...), i have been impressed with the lightweight, nice streamlined look and seemingly sure hold a landmark seat is showing. actually, i was so impressed, i'm using one for a friend who's also a beginning fly person. of course, i've just been waving the rod and reel around in the front yard to strange stares from the neighbors at odd hours of the night, not actually on the water in action yet, but it has yet to loosen on me.

eric
fresno, ca.
(who's just realized i've been replying to a lot of posts lately even though i'm a newbie. i think it's time for a hiatus from replying here. back to lurk mode ;-)

I'll second the landmark suggestion. I went up to Ron's shop in Loveland, CO last week and picked up a couple of the black anodized down sliding seats. I put one on my forecast 6'6" 2 weight blank and its perfect. $10 for the seat. I would have made my own, but I wanted black. The blank is dark blue and I used black guides, black thread and the black seat makes for a nice "matching" look.


On a side note Gerry, if you are interested in some nice, but not too expensive cap and ring hardware in a few weeks I will be building some sets of Titanium (machined from solid titanium bar, not coated) cap and ring seats. I will still have to do some math the figure out the final pricing but they will probably be around $25-30. Right now I'm finishing up some solid titanium saltwater seats for the fly shop here in Boulder. I'll post more as the time comes.


Mark

i use a forstner bit in a slow rpm drill press-you can usually find one inthe same size as the pocket if it's a machined round hood, or if it has an offset for a stamped one,all you have to dremel is the "bump"-cuts very smooth and has advantage of a flat bottom to the cut.Try lee valley tools if you don't have a local source.

RodBlanks.com makes a special tool just for cutting that inlet in a grip. It's self centering into the grip bore. Nice tool.

...........

Is Rodblanks.com still in business? When I try to go to the site, I get an error that the servor can't be found.