I want to use a Pac Bay Channel Lock Fly reel seat as a spinning
rod seat and would like to know how to inlet a cork foregrip to
accept its recessed hood. I don't have a rod lathe.

Thanks
Joe

Joe,

Center the reel seat against the cork (I'd slide both onto something that is of the appropriate diameter to make this easy) and trace the outline with a pencil/pen/crayon, etc..

Take the medium or fine sanding drum of a dremel tool and mark the depth of the recess on it with a black marker. You want to be able to see this clearly as it spins.

Use the sanding drum to core out the grip to the size and depth you need.

Take your time, work slowly. Even so, it should only take a few minutes to do this. Cork is pretty soft stuff.

If you don't have a dremel or other rotary tool, you can do the same thing with the drum held in an electric or battery powered drill.

If you need/want to do it 'by hand', use an exacto knife and first score the diameter to depth (mark the depth on the blade), then use gentle angled cuts to remove the material. Much slower, but it will work fine.

Remember that it only has to be close. It is, after all, only a fishing rod. The epoxy will fill any small gaps, and anything up to about 1/16 inch won't be noticable. If you take care, doing it with any of these methods should be well under that.

Good Luck!

Buddy

Buddy hit the nail on the head. Take your time and use a dremal tool
Bob

If you don't have a dremel tool and are patient and careful, you can make a nice clean inlet with the small blade of a pocket knife. Start by marking the diameter of the inlet and digging out some big chunks working from the bore on out. Then rotate the cork in your left hand while scraping the inside edges with the blade of the knife held in your right hand. Support the outside of the cork with your thumb to prevent a crack in the cork wall. I've done this on dozens of rods and the finished product is indistiguishable from one where the cork was made in the factory to fit. It takes about 5 minutes, just go slow and scrape gently. The PacBay seat you are using has a nice trim ring that will leave a perfectly finished union between the seat and the cork. Extremely low tech and kind of fun. Yes, someday I'll buy a dremel and change my methods.

Hi Joe,

And then there is the extremely low tech, easy way to accomplish your task. Use a Pacific Bay pre-formed cork grip that already has the inlet. The reversed half wells cork grip, our item number RHW7CS-250 has a cut-out that fits that reel seat perfectly and retails for about $19.

The previous posts all offer feasible options if you are choosing to use a grip without an inlet.

Tom S. Brown
Pacific Bay International

Yep, that is certainly the easiest way to get a good fit.

Joe,

I didn't think quite think my answer all the way through, for some reason I was thinking "Fly Rod" when I answered. The grip I suggested is 7 inchs long and unless you wanted that long of a grip you would need to cut it down and also shape the cork to work as a foregrip. Not to cost effective of a solution. Sorry for the confusion, you would be better off using one of the other suggestions for reaming out another foregrip.

Tom S. Brown
Pacific Bay International