Hey Everyone,

Quick question. I'm putting together a light saltwater rod for a friend. He wanted an all EVA butt grip, exposed blank reel seat and EVA foregrip. I have everything bored out to the proper sizes and am ready to glue it all into place. But it appears that after I'm done putting on the EVA butt cap then sliding the EVA butt grip up against it, I will require a little bit of sanding to get the two to match seamlessly. Problem is that the chuck on my wrapper will be in the way of this connection between the butt cap and butt grip. So, how do I go about shaving this section down ? Can I build up a section of tape on the tip section of the blank and just place that in the chuck ? It seems like that would put more stress and flex on the blank tip than I would like. Any suggestions ?

Thanks very much, Jeff

If its a power wrapper how about cutting the eva on both sides again to get a flat surface on both. If I am understanding the question right you need for them both to mate seamlessly. I always cut them on my lathe with it spinning as fast as it will go with mono stretched between my fingers. If you do it like that it will be straight every time. Just be careful not to wrap the line around your fingers when you stretch it as it could cut you if by some chance it gets stuck. Billy

Hi Billy,

Thanks for the suggstion and I'm sorry I wasn't clear in my original post. I have already created a completely flat surface on both the EVA butt cap as well as the EVA butt grip, but the area where they will be connecting will have a slightly different OD between the two pieces, so I'm trying to figure out how to make these two outer surfaces completely smooth. Thanks, Jeff

I've had this problem myself, it's a pain to do if you want to do it right. Ideally the EVA butt cap would be smaller OD-wise, this way you could grab teh end of the cap in your jaws, and just sand teh grip down. SInce I know that's not the case here, I don't knwo what to tell you, lol. I threw all my pre-formed EVA butt caps out, and now make my own with an unbored square EVA block. I have also turned a regular piece of EVA grip and plugged the hole with a round "disk" of EVA, then trimmed flush. I just did htis yesterday, I'll try to post a pic tomorrow.

Sorry I have no answer for you, but I wasn't able to figure something out that was suitable for myself using this component.

Heres an Idea. But since I don't do EVA might not work.
But I have done it with rods that I had left part of the handle off for a reason.
Cut the center plug out of the but cap and run another shorter or piece of a rod up inside the blank you are working on. Wedge in
there firmly so it won't move. So that the insert piece sticks out about 6 inhes past the blank. Now chuck the extended piece in your lathe. When finished remove and put a plug back in the end cap.

Solid chunck of foam, longer than you need. Glue it on the end. Chuck and form to shape. Finally, do a parting cut thru the chunk to your final overall length.
Now iff you have a 'real' three jaw chuck, you could just put the rod thru the chuck, clamp the jaws down further up the handle, and simply form and finish without the parting cut.

What I have done is to notch the end of the grip (the same way the pre-made grips come notched for the reel seat) so that the pre-made EVA butt cap can be pushed on tighly. I then took a shaft long enough to fit the grip with the cap attached and taped it up so they can fit snuggly. You can then put it on a variable speed hand drill to allow you to sand down for a smooth finish. Be careful about speed and pressure since the end you are sanding is not supported.

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Well, I do it one of two ways. In the first I drill a hole in the butt cap (for me that's usually black EVA) and then use a wooden dowl with some tape and stick it in the end. Put that in the lathe (or wrapper) and then sand the result. When done, I use a plug of EVA that I make with plug cutters from a block of EVA foam and then epoxy that in the hole and then finish sand that with a small 1" sanding pad chucked into a hand drill. The second way (which works on blanks that aren't too big in the butt) is to run the rod backwords through the headstock of my wood lathe (so tip is inserted through chuck and headstock and exits the back of the lathe) wrap the blank with some tape to protect it from the chuck jaws and then lightly tighten the chuck. If the handle is long then I hook up a steady rest towards the back of the handle to add support.