i am using the hypalon grips and have cut and glued the different colors together
using the dap weldwood contact cement. did exactly what the instructions in the faq
section said to do for installing grips.
my problem is that while sliding the grip in place the bottom of the grip grab hold of
the blank and curled under itself. could not get it to turn back out without tearing the
grip. had to cut it off. can i heat the grip to stretch it or will the contact cement turn loose?
that was 30.00 down the drain. cant afford to experment at those prices any help
would beappriciated

david williams

No, no, no. You cannot put grips on a rod with contact cement - you did not read that in the FAQs or in the online library here.

You must mount your finished grips with something like a two-part epoxy, following the instructions on the FAQs page. Epoxy, properly placed, will tend to lubricate the blank and allow you to easily slide the grip into place. Contact cement bonds instantly - and there is no way you'll slide that grip into place if you're trying to bond it to the blank with contact cement.

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The Faqs page article says to mount the grips with 2-part slow cure epoxy like Devcon or Rod Bond. Even the Rodmaker article on making the grip inlays says to use Contact cement ONLY for assembling the grips and to use epoxy to mount them on the blank. Sorry you had a bad experience but sometimes it pays to read carefully. Remember the old carpenter's rule, "measure twice, but once!" We all learn from out mistakes.

David, Use the contact cement to assemble the checkered grip, then use rodbond to glue the grip to the blank. Good Luck! Ed

Mounting HYPALON or EVA Rod Grip Material
(taken from the RBO FAQs Page) [www.rodbuilding.org]
[http://www.rodbuilding.org/faq.html#20]

20. How should I go about mounting EVA or Hypalon grips? Should I heat or boil the grips to make them stretch?

There is absolutely no need to boil the grips nor is there any reason to use any sort of lubricant to install them. Neither is required if you put your adhesive in the correct place. Do this -

1. Drop your grip over the rod tip and let it come to rest. Mark the spot where it stops.

2. Remove the grip and apply your epoxy mostly ABOVE this point. Trail a bit down the blank to the intended resting place, but again, most of the epoxy should be above the point where the grip stopped.

3. Bring the grip down over the blank and epoxy and twist and turn it so that the inside of the grip is fully coated with epoxy. Now grasp the top edge of the grip with your thumb and forefinger and squeeze it as if to create a seal around the blank with the top edge of the grip. Now slide it into place, holding that seal the whole time.

4. As you approach the final resting place (within maybe an inch or two) switch your hand hold from the top to the bottom edge of the grip in order to "pull" the grip into place and restore it to its original length. Pushing the grip on tends to compress it and shorten its length, this motion will restore the original length.

5. Clean up the blank with denature solvent alcohol.

That's about it. You can usually get a grip to stretch its inside diameter about twice the original size in the smaller ID's and about 1.2 to 1.5 times on the larger ones. Always opt for a grip with an ID just smaller than the OD of the blank where it will reside, if possible.

Re: eva grip Tom Kirkman (Moderator) 01-02-2005 09:51AM
The installation process on the FAQs page is easy, quick and insures a permanent mount. No muss, no fuss. And you can stretch a grip ID a really long way. The key is where you put your epoxy, not how much. EVA or Hypalon installation should be a 30 or 40 second task at best. Lubes, push-boards, compressed air, etc., really aren't necessary unless you just prefer using them.

IF you or anyone else plans to glue up different colors of Hypalon or EVA in a grip - make sure teh grip is reamed to fit teh blank with minial stretch. IF you force teh grip to stretch, you run a good chance of it splitting. Gluing Hypalon to Hypalon with WEldwood is PERFECT, the seam is much less noticeable than with EVA. EVA to Hypalon - I tried this once, and didn't like how it came out as some parts of teh grip split - but I'm going to try it again with 2 more Eagle Inlays which were done on EVA, I'll put that in the middle of 2 pieces of Hypalon and try to get that to work.

Not that anyone cares, I'm bored & babbling.

That's good advice and it was also contained in the RodMaker article on making custom EVA grips. Too much stretching is going to distort the grip and may even split or ruin your joints. Glad Billy brought this point up.

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