I made a bunch of rods a few years ago and am back at it now. I build my handles by gluing cork directly to the blank, and then sanding it down on the lathe. Normally I sand a single ring on a threaded rod to butt cap I.D. size and attach it to the butt end. Unfortunately, I forgot my usual plan and glued full size cork rings all the way down to the butt end. Thus, I have no way to sand the butt end rings because I can't put it in the lathe. Any suggestions? I thought about temporarily putting a smaller blank scrap into the butt end of the blank thus creating a "handle" that could be chucked into the lathe. Not sure if this would damage the blank, though.

Stick the entension in teh buttand spin it (lmao)

Bob -
That's the way I build most of mine. Insert a rod blank and sand away

Bob,
I assume that you are speaking of using a non bored cork ring to make your butt cap?

If so, you can do the following with your lathe:

I picked up a small lathe, just to do this chore.

I chuck a 1/16th drill bit into the chuck on the headstock, and leave only about 1/8th of an inch protruding from the chuck. The purpose of this short point is to simply insure that the cork ring being shaped will not move off center.
Then, in my free rotating tail stock, I chuck in a flat plate, that I had previously machined down to be a bit smaller than the final diameter of the butt cap.
Finally, I insert an unbored cork ring on the protruding drill bit and the flat tail stock plate. I tighten down the tail stock to keep the ring from slipping. Then, I just use routine shaping tools and sand paper to shape and finish the butt cap.

I first use a dial caliper to measure the finished side of the end cork ring. Then, keeping the dial caliper locked to that dimension, I finish the butt cap cork to the diameter of the end cork ring.

After finishing the butt cap and putting a finished edge on the extreme end of the ring, I will take the ring from the lathe and simply use 5 minute epoxy to glue the butt cap to the end rod cap and butt.
I use alcohol to clean up any excess epoxy, before the epoxy cures so that the final appearance is perfect with no glue marks or over or underhanging bits of cork.

Give it a try, I think you will find it to be a very easy, clean and neat procedure to give a nice finished look to your rod.

Take care

Roger

One option would be a rubber butt plug ... [www.americantackle.us].

Bob,
Add the extension and take the end rings down to .8. You can then use one of the preformed EVA, rubber or composite butt cap of your choice.

Robert

Thanks for all the responses. I love this board.

Bob