Guys,

Another question for all of you, I am currently finishing up the cork on a couple of rods with split handles, I turned grips on a lathe (used mandrels to turn the cork on) and I used the rubberized cork for the butt end, depending on the blank butt OD the hole I currently have at the end of the rubberized cork cap varies from 3/8” up to little bit over ½”.

Here is my question, how do you guys go about making a “plug” for the rubberized butt end? Do you have a special tool or technique that you use in order to make the plug a perfect circle?

Thanks again

Carlos Vergara

Carlos,

I have modified hole saws that I use to cut cork circles. I have thinned the outter walls as thin as possible and they work just fine. Comprimising the temper on the saws was not a big deal being that I was going to be cutting soft materials. I picked up the saws at Harbor Freight and put them on a friends lathe and filed the outter wall to about a 32nd of an inche. They work just fine.

Tight lines,

John Hernandez

Carlos,
I think that most people use a butt cap so as to protect the end of the blank and the cork at the end. If you prefer to not use a butt cap you can find very inexpensive cork plugs of varying sizes at many hardware stores.

This has become indeed a problem. I build a lot of rods with either cork or burl cork, and a rubberized cork ring as a butt cap. A number of the suppliers used to sell plugs for the holes; these plugs were 1/2" thick and tapered, from a little over 1/2" to about 3/8". It was easy to butter them with Rodbond and push them in as far as possible. When the glue set, you could cut them off, then sand them flush, and most of the time you couldn't even tell there was a plug there.
Unfortunately, I don't know of anyone selling them anymore. Bob M. at Mudhhole told me they don't have a source anymore. Now, I have to punch out a plug from a rubberized ring and taper it down by hand. Much more work! Anytime I can these days, I'll use a cut down fired pistol cartridge instead.

As Emory said, if you have regular cork as the final ring, you can go to Micheals and get a big bag of plugs, all sizes, for a couple of dollars.

Carlos if you have a lathe you can easily eliminate the need
to have the hole in the rubberized cork.
The method is to shape the grip, ream it to fit the blank, then glue on the rubberized
cork ring and final shape. Slide it on from the butt end.

Here's how I do it.
- Glue up your cork rings and shape your grip so it is slightly larger than you want.
- Ream the grip out to fit the rod blank, as you normally would.
>> You are going to need to slide the grip on from the butt end. Normally it will fit without additional reaming
- glue your rubberized cork ring to the end of the grip. I use a Stanley "quick grip" clamp.
- Now finish shaping the grip & rubberized cork. Add masking tape on the mandrel so it fits snugly.
>> I find #60 sandpaper works very well to rough sand the rubberized cork down.

This way no hole is required in the rubberized cork.

You can buy rubberized cork without a hole (Mudhole) or if the hole is not too large automotive panel fastners (auto supply store) work well.

I recess all by butt ends with a crafty's cutter then usually use a coin, button etc glued into the end recessed appx 1/32 to 1/16 of an inch.. The possibilities and assortments from craft or sewing shops are virtually endless.

Ron Weber

I mix matching cork cork dust with 5 minute epoxy and plug the hole. I then clean up and smooth out with rag dampened with alcohol before it sets completely up. No sanding needed.

steve

Like Ron said

Carlos,
I have read all of the previous posts and have built rods with all of the afore mounted suggestiongs.

However, I am now using a different method that works wonderfully well.

The ideal solution is to buy a tapered plug cutter so that the large part of the taper would be larger than the largest part of the hole.

But, if you don't want to do that, simply take a piece of cork and cut a piece out of it, that is larger than the largest hole size.

Then, take a small drill bit, about 3/32 or so, and use a standard 1/4 inch drill and slowly turn the bit into the cork - the idea that you want the drill bit to grip and hold the plug. So, you don't want to clear the hole, you want the small drill bit to grab the plug, but only go through about 1/2 the thickness of the cork, so that you don't end up with a hole in the cork.

Then, using a belt sander, and the 1/4 inch drill turning in the direction to be in the opposite direction of the running belt, shape the piece of cork into a slightly tapering plug. Keep an eye on the size of the plug, so that the plug will be tight into the hole when it is inserted about 2/3 rds of the way into the hole.

When, complete, use 5 minute epoxy to glue in the plug.

Then, just take a disk sander and sand the end of the grip flush - including the plug. When finished, you will not be able to tell that you ever put a plug into the hole.

This is really a very quick and simple procedure. Assuming that you have a belt sander, drill and drill bit, you can shape the plug and have it glued into your rod handle and have it sanded flush in about 10 minutes.

Be safe
Roger

Guys,

I really appreciate all of the good ideas and suggestions, I believe I am going to follow up and buy me a set of tapered plug cutters.

Thanks again

Carlos

I do not. I glue a rubberized cork ring with no hole to the bottem after the handle it turned. I then turn and shap it or do so with a file. If the grip is too long I will turn the bottem 4 inches seperate from the rest and glue together and finish sand on the blank.