Hi

This is my first build so go easy on me!

I've made a mistake in reaming too large a hole at the base of a preformed cork rod handle. When it is pushed down the blank to its final position, the hole at the base is too large by around 3mm. There is a fair amount of play I would guess as much as 3 or 4 inches up the handle.

Is this recoverable?
so far ideas are:
- glue and masking tape around the rod to fill the gap
- pouring down the saved cork dust to mix with epoxy and tape
- cutting three or four slivers of cork from an old rod to stick down and plug the gap

Will any of these work to stop movement on casting?
It's a four weight 9foot Batson Rx7+

cheers all
Will

I'd wrap with fiberglass dry wall tape; dry fit; coat with rod bond and call it "good to go"

I'd just wrap some masking tape around the blank to snug it up, glue it and you will never know the difference.

Steve Bro
(BroCo Custom Rods)

I did that once and just criss crossed a few layers of thread wrap on it. When it was snug I worked the rod bond down into the criss crosses so that I could get contact with the blank and it turned out real well.

D.....All of the above.

Nuff said,

In other words Will, we have all been there. Trust me. Any of the fixes will work just fine.

John

thanks all- have built up with a couple of small masking tape arbours. Took off one wrap at a time and have achieved a nice snug fit- not too tight and not loose.

I'm even holding off gluing til tomorrow as I get the feeling I will end up with a much better result if I slow down

Plenty of time to get it done for March 2nd season start for brown trout in south Wales
cheers
Will

You could order a new cork grip & use the one you have on your next rod build.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/10/2011 03:05PM by Bryan Burbank.

All the above suggestion will work great. What you do not want to do is leave any gaps with tape or cord wrap. The fit should be snug all the way threw. If you leave gaps, when the cork gets wet, it will feel like a spong

Good Wraps Bob

I agree with what Bob said and i think Ken's suggestion will work the best. my .02

Paul@soonercustomrod.com

Thanks Paul! At least I wrote something today that someone understood ::)))

Good Wraps Bob

Actually, a suggestion.
Basically any type filler will work just fine to space out the handle on the rod blank.
It is certainly convient to use an adhesive based tape like masking tape.
One post suggests not leaving any gaps in the tape. I have to suggest, that you want to leave small gaps in the tape if you put on bands of tape on the blank to space out the handle. When gluing up the blank, just insure that you have a nice fill of epoxy in these small gaps between the tape bands. Even if something should happend to the tape which is not likely, the bands of epoxy will securely hold the handle to the blank.

Good luck
Roger

Good point Roger. Small 1/4 inch gaps are fine anything larger, I believe you would have a problem

Good Wraps Bob

Paul Lindsey Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I agree with what Bob said and i think Ken's
> suggestion will work the best. my .02


+1

A couple weeks ago I did a personal rebuild of an old Team Daiwa rod where the finish was cracking like mad, one guide cracked but I loved the rod, so off it all came but the reel seet. I just didn't have a pot deep enough to boil it and get the reel seat off and the heat gun wasn't working either. So to put the cork back on I had to work from the bottom up to the reel seat. The fiberglass mesh dry wall seam tape works great to fill the gap and to help hold the rod bond in place.

Put a 1/4" tape arbor around the blank at about 1" in from the end. Get the handle to fit snugly. Epoxy.
Also depending on if you are putting some kind of end cap on the handle ??

If that is the end, You could mix some of the same cork in with glue and fill any gap at the end.

Bill - willierods.com

No matter what method you use = this is CORK. Do not leave large voids between the blank and the cork. If you do it will most surely crack

If it is an inletted grip for the reel seat, that is going to somewhat stabilize the butt end of the cork , so with some spaced tape or any other you choose to use, you should be just fine. 1/4 inch tape spaced no further than 1/2 " apart with an adequate amount of epoxy should do the trick. there isn't too much concern with the cork cracking there because the flex there is very minimal.

Ron Weber