A Buddy brought me his Albacore rod with a chewed up rear grip. Too chewed up to just cover in shrink tube. By the looks of the way he cares for this, I REALLY don't want to strip and re-wrap it to slide the grip on from the front. I'm not charging for this and really don't want to re-wrap it when the guy doesn't so much as rinse it off after use!

This thing's about .690 at the rear and .550 at the back of the seat. it's going to have to be 1/2" ID material, which I'm NOT looking forward to installing backwards!

Have any of you installed Hypalon from the rear using compressed air? I've heard it mentioned several times, but never seen it done. Is it just a matter of getting the grip started on an epoxied blank, then charging it with air from a blow gun? Any problems with the epoxy getting blown out the front?



Mark Griffin
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C&M Custom Tackle
San Dimas, California

Mark; I made a tapered mandrel that had the same OD as the blank and turned it down to fit into the butt end of the blank and greased it and the blank up with rod bond the same as I would if putting the grip on from the other end. Worked fine for me. You can do this easily with a piece of old blank and fit it with a spigot ferrule to fit the butt.

Man, your work cut out for you.....

Compressed air works, but there's the problem of sealing the end you're applying air into to the air supply itself. I have a pile of various PVC fittings, air chucks, and do-dads that I unsuccefully tried. I solved this problem by using a piece of grip that was 3-4 inches longer than need and slipped the end of the grip onto the air chuck and used a hose clamp to make the seal. Use regular rod finish or paste epoxy (kardol) as a lube.

Have also used a mandrel to do this, but you have to be careful not to split the butt end of the blank while doing this (trust me on this, I split one). For a mandrel I used a piece of pool cue as a tapered mandrel. The thick end of the this "mandrel" I shaped a shallow land that fits inside the I.D. of the butt end of the rod - this helps stabilize the mandrel on the rod blank while you're pushing the grip on - keeps it from slipping off the butt end of the rod.

Warm the grip up some, use plenty of epoxy as a lube, get a send set of hands to help, and once you commit to moving the grip onto the butt don't stop and use one continuous motion. For some reason if you stop it seems like its just harder to get it moving again....

Lou

Or... use a larger ID grip, but build up the area behind the seat with multiple thread wraps until the butt is level, end to end.

.............

Do what Tom, said or go ahead and use compressed air in the method discribed above and risk heart attack and mental anguish. When using compressed air, make sure your tip top has a solid glue bond with no air leaks. The Hypalon will expand with 120 psi of air pressure...breifly....so be quick and sneak it on a 1/4" at a time, then wait for the compressor to recover, and yourself.

Do what Tom said, or go ahead and use the compressor..............................................................................................................heart attack and mental anguish.

Mark;
Some thing that might work as good as a mandrel. Would be to take a marble about the same size or larger then th butt and use a little bit of hot glue to succure it to the but of the rod, grease it up and push over it

I'm glad I posted on this. The times I've heard the compressed air method mentioned, it was talked about like "nuttin' to it". Heart attack and mental anguish are not on my calendar for the week!

Very good ideas from all and I thank you all for taking the time. I’ve got plenty of bent pool cues to sacrifice if it comes down to it, but the marble method sounds like a beauty. This blank is just about the right diameter of that to work and it sounds like the least labor intense of everything discussed.

Tom, on the thread method, I’d have to build this up about .100” (11/16 grips are about .650”) on the low side. I assume I’d have to put a “primer” coat or two on the thread before sliding the grip on to keep it from wicking the epoxy away from the grip?


Mark Griffin
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C&M Custom Tackle
San Dimas, California