I was working on a rear grip from @#$%& for a switch rod that failed a couple of times before I finally got it on the rod. Two things popped up as questions:
I use titebond III for most of my cork ring bonding, and the bond failed between 2 rubberized cork rings while I was turning it. I roughed up the surface and rebonded with 5-Min epoxy and finished the grip later. I also was cleaning up the grip after turning and one of the burl cork rings came apart, not at the bond but in the middle. It wasn't too thin from turning, just looked like some areas didn't get bonded during production. I fixed this when I glued up the grip with rod bond. Finish sanded after the epoxy cured while it looks perfect now that it's finally on the rod, I still give it the evil eye until I ship it to the customer next week.

On the rubberized cork bond failure, I'm suspicious I didn't get enough on the ring prior to clamping. This is the only time I've had a problem so I suspect the error was mine. Wondering if anyone else has seen this. I'm going to treat burl rings in grips more carefully in the future as this is the 2nd time one has come apart before I could get it on the rod.

I know the guys that turn grips on the rod will tell me this wouldn't happen in their case and they would be right. I'm just not set up for that so I'll have to be careful in the future.

Comments welcome.

Terry

Titebond may not be the ideal adhesive for rubberized rings. Nor should the surface be overly "roughened" which actually creates a weaker bond. I'd choose an epoxy when working with a variety of cork ring types since it bonds to just about anything along those lines.

Not much you can do about a failure of the ring itself other than to closely inspect each ring before using it in a grip assembly.

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

I agree Tom. Some rubberized rings have more rubber than cork and I suspect these would be best bound with rodbond or other epoxy.

Terry

Terry, have you tried contact cement. Before things come apart it will not be where the contact cement was used,but rather, in some other areas.Contact cement when they bond you
will not be able to pry it from where the bonding was at. Try it first with a couple of scrap cork and see the results.