Hi All,

Anyone got experience with using shrink wrap on cork grips? I have never used it before and am considering putting some on a a very high end cork grip while I am building up the rod (so I do not dirty the grip in the process). Do you just hold it over a flame and does just take teh shape of teh grip and fit smoothly over the grip?

Use a heat gun (faster) or blow dryer (slower). Open flame is definitely not the answer. You can find the shrink wrap you need at Mud Hole ... [www.mudhole.com].

A heat gun is the way to got but be careful when you're working with it (shrink) is doesn't take much to blow a hole in it.
The company I work for uses shrink to wrap our boilers when they leave here and it's pretty tough stuff. Good luck.

LIke the others said, don't use a flame. The heat is too concentrated.

With the heat gun, just warm the shrink tube until it begins to contract. Since you'll be removing it later anyway, you don't need it to tightly bind to the grip. Go easy and you'll be okay.

A hair dryer might even provide enough heat to do what you need done.

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

Another low tech method is to use teflon plumber's tape to cover grips and reel seats, etc. while you are gluing, building, etc. It's low cost and easy to use.

Thanks to Putter for this suggestion.

Terry

If your grip shapoe includes compound curves, work the heat gun over the lower spots first and then move along to the high points. In fact, keep the gun moving from one end of the grip to the other, letting it shrink each area progressively - don't try to do the whole thing at once and don't hold it too long in any one spot.

Try it on a practice piece before you do it on the actual rod. Better to waste a little bit of the material than waste the rod itself.

Uncle Russ
Calico Creek Rods

After sliding heat shrink over the grip you could probably get away with applying heat at the ends only-protecting the grip and making removal a little easier.

Chris

The shrink wrap from Mud Hole has a perforated tear strip, so shrink away. It is nice stuff and it provides for a professional finish.

Gavin,
If you have never worked with it before, do yourself a favor and shrink on a few pieces of material that you don't care about first.

It is not a big deal - just use a heat gun or hair dryer to supply non flame heat to the shrink tubing. A flame will certainly shrink the tubing, but you run the risk of having it ignite and or melt. The heat gun and or hair dryer minimize the risk for this to happen.

Normally, shrink tubing will shrink to about 50% of its nomianal size.
So, choose tubing that just fits nicely over the handle, and then you can be sure that you will have a nice uniform shrink around the entire handle.

Shrink tubing is a great way to protect your handles - both during work, as well as during shipment of finished rods. The handle will be protected and look like new and will be new to the client upon receipt of the rod.

Take care
Roger

Thanks Roger