I am currently rebuilding an old Ugly Stik surf rod. The reel seat will be retained but the grips are off the rod. What is the best method for removing old, dried adhesive from the handle section of the blank. I don't know for sure what type of glue it is (looks like epoxy), and is as hard as a rock. I have done this on a few rods before by scraping, heating, grinding, etc. but it took forever. Just looking for a faster method if any exists. Thanks.

Why romove it? Just instal another grip right on top of it.

Billy's right, just sand it so that it's relatively level and glue up over it. No need to remove it all to get a good bond. Make sure it is prepared like you would a rod surface by sanding, and you do want it to be relatively level to help ensure good epoxy distribution but it's no problem to do it this way.

Terry

I would do that, but the way the glue was applied, it doesn't cover the entire blank. Approximately 50% of the area that should be covered by adhesive is not, showing the bare blank. And the bare areas are all over the place, not uniformly distributed.

John,
If you really feel the need to get the glue down further to make a semi level surface use a drill, a belt sander with 80 grit paper on the belt and another person to hold the end of the rod.

Take a solid piece of blank, or dowel and taper it on the belt sander, so that it will fit nicely up the inside of the rod blank.

Then, using a variable speed drill, chuck the blank, or dowel into the drill and then insert the dowel or tapered blank, into the butt of the rod. If you can't get a blank or dowel big enough to nicely fit into the butt of the blank , just use masking tape to build up the blank or dowel until the fit is nice and firm into the butt of the blank.

Then, with the other person holding the rest of the blank, so that it doesn't whip, simply set the direction of the drill so that the blank will spin against the direction of the rotating sanding belt on the belt sander.

Then, just slowly start the blank spinning and move the spinning blank up to the spinning sanding belt. Use a very gentle touch. All that you want to do is to remove most of the glue, without removing any of the graphite blank.

Generally, somewhere between 20 seconds and a minute or two is all that is required to grind off the old glue down to the bare blank.

Wipe down the blank, and proceed to glue up the new grip.
By the way, have the person who is holding the spinning rod, wear a pair of cloth gloves. The cloth gloves will keep the spinning rod from burning their hands, but the cloth will let the rod slip nicely without catching on the rod.

Be safe
Roger

I hope this helps and makes sense. I have rebuilt several ugly stiks and they are all the same under the grip. I filed as much as I could down then mixed up some rodbond and filled the voids to make the blank section as uniform as possible. Sand this down, ream the new grip and install.

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Super Tight Lines......Don