I am building my first 2 hander.
On my one handers, my cork rings are epoxied (slow cure) and turned on the blank. By the time I install the section in the compresion jig, and I am cleaning off the excess epoxy from a 7.5 inch grip and 1.5 inch fighting butt, the epoxy is just beginning to get tacky.
I am concerned, that when I am gluing-up a 15 inch grip and a 5 inch butt , the rings in the center of the grip will not be compressed as much as the ones on the ends.

Do those of you that build 2 handers build the grip in two stages?

I get a nice fit with the rings on my one handers - just kissing the blank - I really do not want to ream the cork to a greater degree than I do, to allow eaiser compression, because I don't want all that excess epoxy.

Comments????
Herb

Hi, Herb......Doing a casting rod is pretty much the same theory: butt box, rear grip, seat, and foregrip. I have developed a procedure that lays everything up in one day, and takes overnight to cure. This is a lot like your case, I'd suspect. I do the butt box last, as I use the tail end of the exposed blank to chuck in the lathe. I use 5 min resin to glue the last ring in place, and use plastic shims to cover to the the end of the blank, so the glue clamp will not disturb the last ring. I then lay up the rear grip, with regular resin of the day, but again using 5 minute resin on the last ring.
This means the rear grip need only be clamped for 5 minutes. I make it 10.
Next, the reel seat is Rod Bonded down.
Now the last ring of the foregrip is 5-minuted with moderate clamp pressure, so it will still be tight to the reel seat, but not forced upon it. Then, the rest of the foregrip is layed down with regular resin, and clamped till dry.
In a nice, hot room, that can be as soon as a few hours. But I wait until next day. Then the sandpaper does not get clogged up with damp resin.
To the nay-sayers: where is everything going? Nowhere. The last rear ring is butted up against the (to be) Rod-Bonded butt box, and the other end is up against the Rod-Bonded reel seat,a nd the entire mass of regular-resined corks.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/02/2006 04:50PM by Ken Driedger.

Hi Herb,

If you pre-fit the rings (and number them, or some way to keep the order straight) then you should have enough time to get everything glued up if you are using Rod Bond. I used to use Flex Coat rod builders epoxy but I was having the same problem you were for long grips. The longer working time on rod bond should do it for you.

I use a mandrel most of the time. I used to use Tite Bond III, but it tended to corrode the mandrel so I switched back to rod bond for this. Tite Bond III would not be a good choice if you were mounting rings and turning on the blank.

Terry