I just glued the reel seat on a Fusion (13 foot surf rod) and want to use Xflock shrink tubeing for the grip,I have always used cork tape,I am looking for Ideas on things to avoid and things to do to do it right.

Thanks
AL

Lot of tips here by searching "shrink Tube" or "X-Flock". One just a few posts down.

Something you may want to try is double sided foam tape rather than the Cork tape under the tube. It's a little more comfortable. Swifty offers Rod Armor kits this way if you don't have your tube yet. Put something under the tube though, because it won't have any cushion if you shrink it straight to the blank.

Start shrinking the tube where it butts up to the seat and shrink it away from the seat. Leave the two pieces a little long and trim them after shrinking it.

You can either leave the tube butted to the seat or add a couple of EVA cones to the seat to finish it. A small decorative thread wrap on both sides of the seat in place of the EVA cones looks pretty cool too. You can do a matching wrap on the very front of the foregrip, or use smaller, smooth shrink tube to finish off the front.

Mark Griffin
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C&M Custom Tackle
San Dimas, California