First, what a great site- I am a newcomer to rod building and this site has already helped me tremendously.

The problem I am having is that I am building a stand-up tuna rod and have realized (after I spent 6 hours on the butt wrap) that the eva grip (14 inch) is loose in the middle. I used the double-sided tape that is used for re-gripping golf clubs (I believe that this is a common tecnique).

Has anyone had this happen before? If so, can it be saved? Perhaps injecting some kind of epoxy? Please tell me that I'm not S.O.L.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Dan



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/04/2006 05:06PM by Tom Kirkman.

A common fail proof way of installing EVA is in the Library above. No idea what you could do, but I do know if you have to cut it off, the new grip WILL slide right over teh butt wrap if you follow the steps above.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/04/2006 05:07PM by Tom Kirkman.

Injecting epoxy is about the only thing that will help, although it's not a great way to do things. It might save you from having to redo things, however.

Try a mono-jet syringe with steel needle to move some liquid epoxy in there. A little on opposing sides of the loose area.

The golf club grip tape is not too common for use in installing grips, although it is a viable way to do things and some builders do use it for that purpose. But like anything else, you still have to exercise care in order to get a good fit no matter what system you use for installing EVA, cork or anything else.


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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/04/2006 05:21PM by Tom Kirkman.

Thank you both for your help so far. If it were either of you in this situation, would you just cut it off and start over? I just don't want to screw up the wrap.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/04/2006 05:21PM by Tom Kirkman.

If you've already done a nice butt wrap in front of the grip, you'll have a hard time intalling another one over the top of the butt wrap and still get a snug fit beyond the wrap.

I'll toss this out, but it's only a suggestion.

Cut the old grip off. Now go ahead and finish your wrap with epoxy. Select a new EVA grip that will still be small enough to snug down to the blank once it has moved over and past the butt wrap. If you use the procedure outlined on the FAQs page here, the grip will still slide on easily and move over and past the butt wrap with very little trouble. Clean the installation epoxy off your butt wrap just as soon as you've got the new grip in place. It should weather the storm just fine.

This is going to require you to do some careful measuring so that you don't end up with a gap between the grip and tie off of your butt wrap. Remember that on grips that are going to be stretched quite a bit as they slide into place, they tend to draw up just a tad. So I'd cut the length maybe 1/8th inch longer than needed. Once you move it past the butt wrap and into place, draw it back out to recover any length lost through compression. You can't get it all the way back out, but that extra little bit will cover you there.

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Finish the butt wrap as usual. Once the finish is cured, several days, cut the old grip off. Do not use double sided tape - for bonding the grip on use a good paste epoxy such as Kardol or Rod Bond. Using plenty of this epoxy as a lube slide the new identical grip over the butt wrap and into place where the old grip was.

I have had to do something similar when the owner of a rod I was building decided to go with hypalon grip instead of one made of eva. Unfortunately the underwraps for the guides were in place, and the fancy wrap complete. I went ahead and applied the usual two coats of finish to the butt wrap, then slid a new hypalon grip on. After some squishing and massaging the foregrip fit perfectly. I had to redo the two lower guide underwraps. As Tom said you have to consider the length of the grip after it is installed, but if you go with an identical grip there should not be a problem. In my case I changed the material itself, and compensated with a hypalon grip that was alittle longer than the eva. The hypalon did not "shrink" as much as I though it would and wound up covering about 1/4" more of the tie off than the eva. Still, it did not look bad and could not tell at all that a bit of the tie off was covered up....

Lou

On a project I'm close to completing I actually measured and did all the decorative
thread work before the seat and grip was in place so when I installed them the
tie offs were completly covered on one end and the wrap just disappears under
under it. Nice look !

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

What was not mentioned was clean up when using a Rod Bond or similar product. I use a mixture of three parts water, with two parts denatured alcohol and a couple drops of liquid soap, for a cleaning solution. Wash the rod down throughly. Now saturate a rag with denatured alcohol and wash off cleaning solution let dry and complete whatever is left.
Good Wraps Bob

I generally just clean up with a denatured saturated paper towel. No muss, no fuss.

On EVA grips. You genereally don't want a grip that you have to shim to fit the blank (although I sometimes have to do this myself). Try to pick a grip with an id. smaller than the section of blank it will fit over. EVA will stretch quite a great deal, and when using RodBond as a lubricant it will slide right into place with a little persuasion.

Jay