How far is to far to push eva down a rod blank? Is it better to ream out the eva to close, and then install? I have just failed at installing a Batson rear split grip (I.D. .300) on a cb70mh rod (butt .430 i think). The grip went down to about within twelve inches of the butt, and stopped. I could not budge it and ended up having to cut it off. I installed it per the mud hole tackle vid. Is there another way to to this. I have heard of boiling and reaming. I also have heard of using elmer's glue?? to install eva grips. Anyone else heard of this?

I also have a couple other questions that started popping up in my mind after this:

If you slide a grip down the rod, and it expands to fit, does the butt cap still fit over your eva grip? Will the front grip become too large for the real seat?

Is the Mud Hole vid for installing grips for a less dense EVA? Batson's eva seems to be extremely dense and unwilling to stretch or compress.


Thanks for any help,

Joel



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/18/2011 04:51AM by Joel Barnett.

Batsons EVA is much harder than other EVA. You can ream it easier as well to get closer to the ID that you need. I have installed 5/8" EVA on 3/4" butts and 3/4" on butts with a .91" OD. I just use the 2 part epoxies like ProBond, Rod Bond or Ultimate Gel from RodDancer, start the epoxy above where the grip is and slide down and rotate the grip as I go so the whole inside of the grips gets coated with epoxy and then push down to where it will go. If you don't rotate the grip to make sure the epoxy is all around the inside of the EVA, it will be a royal PITA! I know because I forgot to rotate one of the foregrips I was installing recently and it was a bear to get down! As for the reel seat and butt cap fitting, it will depend. Sometimes it expands a little, other times it doesn't seem to expand much at all.

My guess is that the inside of the handle wasn't fully coated. I have some of the Batson grips to try out soon, I will let you know how they expand!

G'day Joel,

I am just finishing a rod that I used Batson EVA on. The rod is about 12mm at the butt and the grip ID is 9mm, so about the same diference in diameters that you describe. Mine went on with no problem. I basically use the same procedure described on the Mudhole video but I tend to put my epoxy even further up the blank (toward the tip) than they describe. I slide on the EVA, sort of roll it around the blank to try and coat the inside of it with epoxy as best I can and then slide it down. I'm afraid unfortunately I can't be of any further help other than to assure you that the technique will work. There is probably just some minor glitch in your process and once you find and correct it you will be fine.

Cheers

Jason

Hi Guys,
What's wrong with coating the inside of the grip with epoxy before you put it on? Then put some more on the blank, you can always remove the excess if squeezed out. I do and I never have to rotate them to get them down. Don't know what you guys in the States call it but I've used mineral turpentine( thinner for oil based paint) in the grip with the epoxy and it makes the stuff a lot slicker and they slide down a lot easier. It evaporates easily and I've never had any grips come loose when I've used it. I've even heard of people using dishwashing detergent in with the epoxy to make it slicker. You can also heat the grip up and it will stretch a bit easier. If your worried about the density of the Batson eva check it against other eva grips. If in doubt get a slightly bigger i.d. grip or ream it out.
ESFNEM Col

A good installation method can be found on the FAQs page here.

...............

Joel,
If you want to get the EVA inside diameter closer to the outside diameter of the rod blank, no issue at all. Just ream it out to be a bit smaller and it will glue on just fine.

If you do decide to go with a significantly smaller EVA grip, just use a smaller rod or piece of blank to really put a good layer of epoxy on the inside of the EVA grip.
Then starting at a spot on the blank that is significantly smaller than the inside of the blank to its final location, give the entire surface of tha blank a good coating of epoxy. You will have a lot of excess epoxy, but no big deal, it will clean up just fine.
The bulk of the epoxy will be used to easily slide the grip down into its final location. If possible, have the reel seat already glued in its final location.
Then, starting up where the epoxy begins, have the butt of the rod on the floor - if you don't have enough room to stand the blank vertically - do it outside on the sidewalk. But, the idea is that you grab the grip and in one smooth motion - without stopping, quickly and smoothly slide the grip to its final position. Then, just clean up the excess epoxy from the reel seat, the grip and the rod blank and you will be good to go.

Often when folks - using a smaller EVA grip and are wanting to slide it into position - do not use enough epoxy as a lubricant, and get it close to final position, but then all of the epoxy from the inside of the grip has been wiped off, and the inside of the grip is dry and it sticks before getting to its final position. Excess epoxy can be cleaned up. Too little epoxy results in your issue of not getting the grip where it needs to be located.

Good luck
Roger

I guess I'm just getting old but I just can't see busting my butt, or hurting my bad back, trying to force a grip down a blank. It's a lot easier to ream the grip to fit the blank. You do not waste as much epoxy, I know its cheap but they don't give it away, and you do not have to worry about getting a good epoxy film between grip and blank. I've never had a problem with EVA not staying where I put it. In fact I have had a few cases where I have had to remove an EVA grip and mine had just as much epoxy holding as the factory rods and in most cases better than theirs because they skimp on the glue so they do not make a mess to clean off the grip and seat.

Thank you everyone for your advice. I just ordered another rear grip (thank you Utmost Enterprises) and hope this one will go on better. I think I am going to ream it out, don't want to take any chances this time. Again, thanks everybody.

Joel,

Just ream it out as most everyone has stated to a ID that is just a bit smaller than the OD of the blank. Make sure you have epoxy up high enough on the blank where you can make sure you have coated the grip evenly so to assist in sliding into position and also to make sure it stays in place.

Tight lines,

John Hernandez
SoCal

Joel, I had the same thing happen awhile back, I had to cut off some EVA cause I couldn't get it to stretch enough. I posted nearly the same thing here. Someone suggested drilling a hole in a block of wood slightly larger than the blank where the top of the EVA stops. I put a grip on the other day, got it to move by hand about 2 inches and that was it. I was able to pull it off, I then drilled a hole in a board and it slid down all the way, no problem. Huge difference.

I installed a number Batson EVA handles during the last week. I too had trouble with one grip that I could not get all the down. I had to slice it off with a razor. I figured out the problem was cause by my epoxy starting to set up before I got the grip in place. I was epoxying several reel seats and grips on three rods at the same time. On the last fore-grip, I tired to slide it down to the reel seat but it got stuck. The epoxy, which still seemed good, had actually started to set up. Now I just use my cordless drill and run my Batson reamers through my EVA grips before installing them. I also make sure I use a lot of fresh epoxy on the blank before sliding the EVA grip down.