The too tight cork grip thread got me thinking about something I've experienced on my last few rods.

Lately I've built long rods which have blanks with a sizeable butt OD. After setting up the cork grips I ream them to fit, but I notice the taper on the reamer is far more acute than the blank taper at the butt. Accordingly I ream to a snug fit at the fore-end of the grip but a huge space exists between the overly reamed butt end of the cork grip ID and the butt of the blank OD. I've tried to remedy this by adding some tape bushings staggered on the blank in larger sizes toward the butt. That's an inexact science, though, and often when I've rod-bonded it up and pushed the grip on and over the bushings, it creates a high pressure zone between the bushings and pushes the rod bond out of tiny cracks in the cork grain. I sit there and wipe the little toothpaste-like squirts from the exterior of the grip with alcohol so they don't remain and mess with the texture of my nicely turned grip. Sometimes it takes a long time to stop the rod bond fom oozing out those holes. I could let it ooze and then sand it all down again but there's gotta be a better way.

It's the acute taper of the reamer (a popular pre-fabbed one you can buy) that causes this uneven fit from fore to aft under the grip. Is there a better way to do this or should I just make my masking tape bushings a little less bulky to avoid the high pressure system?

Thanks in advance,

Brian

Break the grip up into more than one piece and assemble into one piece on the blank if possible.

Brian,
If you don't like the taper of the reamer, make or purchase a different reamer.
For the handles that I use - I simply use one of several different round files. 5/16, 1/2 and 5/8th.
I also have a long set of various sized drill bits to get the fit that I need.
Generally a couple of bit switches and I am good to go.

If you are getting rod bond oozing out of the grip, it is likely that the fit on the blank and or bushings is a bit tight.
You need to have a nice fit, but you need to have a bit of space for the epoxy to nicely slip over the bushings, blank and under the grip.

Take care
Roger

I also have one of the popular reamers and had the same problem. What I discovered was that it wasn't the reamer itself, but that the sandpaper strip had come loose in spots and was bunching up as I tried to ream the grips. The result was the same as what you describe. I glued the paper back down and the problem went away. This was especially bad when I used the reamer on a drill. All of the paper strip was bunching up towards the big end of the reamer and significantly increasing the diameter, but when I pulled the reamer out it was going back into place so I didn't notice what the problem was for awhile.

Matt Smith
Greensboro, NC

You can make your own reamers from old scrap rod pieces that have less taper. I wish the companies that make these would not put so much taper on them because it makes them harder to use and not get to much reaming on one end.

I use a drill bit to get the closest fit with no reaming, then use a smaller sized reamer while spinning the grip as I go. I usually end up with a nice snug fit at the fore end and near the butt end maybe a mm or 2 off of dead center. If I know I am not using any winding checks, I will turn everything together, but never glue up the top ring to the grip until it is seated on the blank with a cork clamp. This is simply what works for me, and I'm sure others have other methods that work well for them.

i use a cylindrical rasp (there's no taper to the rasp) to remove 'larger' amounts of cork.. when close to the OD of the blank, i switch over to the file.. works well for the last few cork grip rebuilds i've done..

-
Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day..
Teach a man to fish, he'll be broke!

Thanks for the advice all. It sounds like everybody pretty much comes up with their own system given the tools at hand, and makes it work. I like my grips. . .they're just a pain in the arse sometimes. I just needed a reality check to ensure that I wasn't missing out on the perfect solution.

Brian