As with anything else that's new that I try to do, there's a bit of a learning curve. I tried to make my first carbon grip the other day. Pre-bored foam not here yet, so built of a pre-formed cork grip.

- First mistake: Failed to take into account that the grip would get bigger. Grip was designed to fit the inside a casting reel seat, after coating and epoxy just ended up with a funky shaped grip as it wouldn't fit inside any of my reel seats any longer.

- Second mistake: I used the West Systems 207 epoxy. Using the heat shrink tubing, I ended up with a dull finish with some carbon fiber sticking up in just one small spot. Not know what to use for a top coat, I used some threadmaster. Ended up with bubbles all in the finish.

- Third mistake: the epoxy glued handle to blank I used for a mandrel, and was near impossible to remove.

- Fourth mistake: Not using gloves like the article said. Since I was using the heat shrink, thought I didn't need them, didn't realize how fast epoxy works right through the fiber when epoxying on the sleeve.

Questions:
1. Easiest way to figure out what size to cut for reel seats and butt caps?
2. I saw somewhere that Tom prefers to use a Urethane finish I beleive? What's a good finish for the top coat (not sure what finishes are urethanes)? If there's fiber still exposed, should I be using another coat of West Systems and then topcoat or just go ahead topcoat?
3. Easiest way to keep the fiber on tight bends? Thought about superglue, it doesn't like to hold flat against the ends of the handle when pulled tight.
4. Article says to take leftover fibers and push inside. This worked OK for one end (the end that glued itself to the blank), but the other end the fibers were kind of loose and glued themselves into a nice covering of the hole going through the grip that would probably have to be drilled to be penetrated.
5. I want to order the expanding foam, but US Composites can't ship it USPS. Stationed overseas, can only receive via USPS. Is there another company that has this stuff that may ship via USPS. Is this stuff volatile? Not sure why I can get things like Threadmaster or Permaglos shipped but not this or the West Systems Epoxy.

I've got about another month to regroup, so if I order some things now, they may actually arrive around the time I get home. Thanks.

Cured carbon is kinda sandable and cutable so if there are some mess ups you can repair them. hope that makes sense.

cut your foam 1-2 mm diameter smaller than the intended size you need the grip to end up being. 1mm being very thin finish coatings on the carbon. 2mm being a thick coating ie: using threadmaster heavy as the final coat. you need a caliper for this.

There was nothing wrong with putting threadmaster over the dulled surface (its just expensive) it will come out perfectly when applied correctly, its pretty tough/scratch resistant. Tom uses Helmanns (sp?) spar urathane for a top coat available in local hardware stores.

Threadmaster heavy does hold bubbles since its rather thick especially if the air is coming from below it (from under threads) and releasing slowly nothing can be expected to release bubbles after it has set up a bit also cold makes this much worse. Threadmaster is very good with heat you can cook the stuff and it still cures fine. If your having trouble, purposely mix in alot of bubbles spread it on a test blank then put heat on it a little at a time till it thins out so much its starts to drip and watch every bubble disapear instantly. You shoudlnt have to do this if the conditions are right in the first place but you can rescue yourself out of a mess this way.

I used Saran Wrap on my mandrel (pencil) so it would not get stuck to it.

using 5 min epoxy will quickly grab the carbon and hold it in place around tight corners if you need to. I would just use the push in hole tech. to get the ends to do what you want.

if the end comes out looking like poo you can just cut it with a hack saw then sand the edge to get it nice and flush up to something.

Phil,

I'm guessing you haven't read the entire article - every single one of your concerns was fully addressed in it. The part about the finished grip being larger than the core and by how much, top coatings, etc. It's all in there.

I use the shrink tubing and bind the ends of the sleeving to the mandrel and allow the shrink tube to compress the skin around the end of the grip. But, you then have to put the grip on the lathe and use a parting tool to release the grip from the mandrel and square the ends. And, you'll have some core showing there that has to be covered by the seat, check, etc. Andy's method puts the skin all the way around the ends of the core. Ream the core to fit the blank first, and then it's not hard to deal with just that little bit of skin left in the ends.

I sand my skinned grips so that they're smooth and then coat with Helmsman Spar Urethane. That gives me a gloss, but at very little weight compared to putting on a lot of epoxy.

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