I usually glue up my cork rings on my rods for the grips and then turn the rod on my rod lathe. They turn out nice but if something goes wrong in the shaping I have quit a process starting over. I have a Jet mimi lathe and a renzetti rod lathe and wanted to try turning the cork on a mandrel. I thought I had seen articles in RM magazine but I can not remember. Do you just glue up cork with rod bond or TiteBond III on a mandrel or on 1/4" allthread and then go after it on the lathe? How do you get the grip off the mandrel? Any advice or direction to the right articles would sure be welcomed.

Morning Will, Yes, thats pretty much it. Build yourself a jig, very easy. mine is 2 pieces of pine, 2" x 4", 3 holes in each. Middle hole is for mandrel, outer 2 holes are for threaded rod. I use wing nuts on the threaded rods. Put some mandrel wax or equivalent (other smarter people than I in here should kow reccomendations) then place cork pieces after boring onto the mandrel. I use the titebond III, glue them up good (twist pieces together) and let sit for 12 hours. Bring to lathe and turn away!

"My biggest fear in life is that when I die, my wife will sell my fishing gear for what I said I paid for it."

I use a stainless smooth mandrel. Glue my rings with Rod Bond and clamp right on the mandrel. Mandrel chucks right up into my Rockwell lathe. In well over 300 rods, I've never waxed a mandrel and I've never had a grip stick to it.

Only way to fly in my opinion.



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Better to have and not need than to need and not have.

I built several threaded mandrels last fall in an effort to reduce and minimize the amount of reaming. I built at least 4 using threaded rods from different sources.

I never got one to turn true. All were off center just a little bit. After you turned the grip down, it would not line up with the reel seat perfectly. It was noticeable by me at least.

I bought a 3/8 and 7/16 mandrel, and they work great.

I use Titebond 3, and you do need to wax the mandrel.

Regards
Bert Nagy

Here's my method, not saying it's the best, just what works good for me:

1) I bought a set of mandrels from Andy Dear years ago, one in each size(I do not think he sells directly anymore, but you can buy through several dealers he now uses).
2) I select the mandrel that is a bit smaller than the blank but as close as possible. For example a 3/8" mandrel to fit on a blank location that is 1/2" is typical. The less reaming you have to do the less chance of an "out-of-round" / crooked fit.
3) Drill out the cork ring centers to the size of the mandrel (or just slightly larger). You want the cork rings to slide onto the mandrel fairly easily, but with some resistance (i.e. they should not slide unless you push them). I use a drill press for this. The trick for me is to drill half-way though and them flip the ring and drill all the way through. This gives you a straight and centered hole without the "blowout" on back side if you drill all the way through from one side.
4) Wax up the mandrel (very important) and glue the cork rings on with epoxy and compress them while drying with a cork jig (you can buy fairly cheap, or make... couple of blocks of wood with long threaded rods and wing nuts). Any epoxy seems to work fine for me. I tried Gorilla Glue once and it glued the cork so hard to the mandrel (even though waxed) it would not come off... totally ruined the grip.
5) Let them cure overnight and then turn to desired shape. I use a hand drill lathe I bought from Grizzly Industrial, Inc (cheap and works great).
6) After turning I slide the mandrel into a hole in the top of an old Black and Decker Workmate Bench (hole lets mandrel through but is smaller than rear end of grip, so it catches) and tap the top end of the mandrel with a rubber mallet to "break" the grip loose. Once it moves, you can usually just pull it off with your hand and a slight twisting motion.
7) Ream grip to final size. I bought a set of reamers some time ago similar to the Extreme Reamers that Mudhole sells. I also have some hand reamers I made from old blanks and those I have bought. Seems like you cannot have to many sizes around.

Since you have a Renzetti you have the best of both worlds to get PERFECT results each and every time. Do your primary sanding and shapin on thewood lathe, but do not go down past 120 or 150 grit. IT is VERY important that you leave the grip slightly OVERSIZED, becaus ewhen you ream it out it might be slightly off center, or when you instal teh reel seat that migh tb eslightly off center. If you sand it perfectly the materials will not match up and ther ewill be a lip that you cannot do anything about.

Once you glue up the slightly oversize grp on the rod, installed the seat & foregrip - now do your final sanding with the Renzetti. Do not try to sand under power to get teh dissimlar materials to match up perfectly, get it close as you can withou oversanding the cork lower than the seat. Using the indexing pin, lock teh blank on teh 0 axis. WIth 220 paper, sand teh cork so it meets the seat PERFECTLY flush. Turn the rod 90 degree and lock it in place, and repeat. Do this on all 4 axis and teh grip will be perfectly flush to teh seat EVER time.

ou can do teh same thing if you instal on the blank, the advanatage doing it this way is less cork dust in your wrapping area. The disadvantage is having to ream teh grip to fit the blank once you get it off the mandrel.

Hope this helps and you cna decipher the typos, lol

I just glue up the rings on a threaded rod Not Much Glue Is Needed Rod bond
Tighten two wing nuts and washers till dry
Then ream out - put on a mandrel and shape
When done size to the blank and glue on

This way if you glue the cork on the blank -- and mess up ??? Then you got to take it off and redo it
makes for a real pain

Bill - willierods.com

If anyone screws up a grip on a blank it's the easiest fix in teh world - sand it down to a consistant diameter then bore out the next grip to fit on that.

Will,
I have made many many rods using my full length rod lathe.
It uses a 3600 rpm buffer motor, a 10 foot long lathe bed and as many ball bearing rod supports to support the rod. Heavier rods can use only two supports, but lighter rods may need up to 5 supports to avoid blank whipping.
I have had the fortune to never have to redo a grip. I just take my time and make sure that I never go too far or too fast when shaping. By using the handle on the blank, with the reel seat already glued up to the blank, it is easy to get a perfect fit for the handle to the reel seat.

If I use my mini lathe to turn grips, I use threaded rod. I simply put a body washer and nut on one end of the threaded rod, drop the rings in place, with glue on them, drop another body washer on the opposite end of the grip along with a nut and tighten the nut until the rings are tight.

Chuck the rod into the lathe and turn to shape. Then, take the nuts off of the threaded rod, chuck the threaded rod in a reversible drill and unscrew the threaded rod from the handle. Very simple very inexpensive and fool proof.

After using the threaded rod, I take a pair of vice grips and hold the nut with the grips. Then, using the reversible drill, I run the nut, full length up and down the threaded rod, to clear all of the threads from any glue build up. Very easy and quick and no other cleaning required.

I generally use 30 minute epoxy to glue up my handles.

Good luck
Roger

I found by accident and scrounging around the shop at work that a shaft on a straight shaft weedeater is perfect for .250 hole cork. the shaft measured .262. just enough to hold it. I got 1/4" locking collars at the hardware store and apply pressure on the top one to lock it in. I like the shaft because its hardened. I tried threaded rod but either bends too easy or flexes too much. Just throwing another idea out there. Many hands make easy work.........or was that too many chiefs and not enough warriors,lol

I followed Mike Barkely's idea and modified a clamp to glue up my rings on a mandrel. Once it's clamped I remove the mandrel before glue sets up, it's very easy. When the glue dries, I place it back on the mandrel and cut to shape on the lathe. I try and ream out rings to at least 3/8" depending on blank size before I glue up. If I have to, I shim the mandrel with tape to it holds the grip well while turning. That way nothing gets on the blank that shouldn't be there, no glue, scratches, etc. Here's a pic of Mike's modified clamp. It's very easy to make.
[www.rodbuilding.org]

David Dosser
Coshocton, OH