When I glue cork rings together for a handle I glue both sides of each cork ring (except the top and bottom of cores) Just wondering if this is overkill. and would like to know how the rest of you do it?? Looking forward to your replies By the way I use wood glue.

I generally only apply adhesive to one cork face, then push it down and give it a turn against the face of the other ring. As long as you see some "squeeze out" when you clamp, you've got enough adhesive to do the job.

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

Good Morning Frank,
I place a thin coat on each side of the rings (excepting the end pieces). I apply it with a small spatula ( an artist's spatula will work fine). I put a very thin coat on the ring. I use Rod Bond for this purpose. This glue will remain where I put it. I then clamp the rings together. If I do it right, only a very small bead of glue will be pressed out when the rings are clamped together. When I apply the glue, I make sure that I don't get any glue near the hole of each cork ring.

You can make a clamp from two pieces of scrap wood (I use a four inch board about six inches long. I drill a larger hole in the center of each piece and two holes on each side. The the diameter of these smaller holes is just large enough for the threaded rod you are using. You can make the clamp easier to use if you use a jig saw to cut a piece out of the center hole so you have a "U" shaped opening. I insert a piece of threaded rod for each of the smaller holes, place washers and nuts on the threaded rod. I use wing nuts for easier use. The total cost will be less than $10.

I hope this helps.

Mike Blomme

Frank,
Here is the technique that I use - especially on long grips to simplify and quicken the glue application:

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Simply put, this is one of my rod wrapping motors made from a DC cordless drill with a foot controlled power supply to be able to vary the speed from 0 - 1500 rpm.

I use Tite Bond III for this gluing for a couple of reasons:

Tite bond is very inexpensive compared to using any sort of epoxy.
Tite bond is stronger than the cork, so epoxy is not needed. But, tite bond III sands much more easily than any sort of epoxy. Thus, the rod grip shaping time is much reduced by the use of Tite Bond III, compared to using epoxy for gluing.
Tite bond, when wet, is water soluble, so after apply the glue to one surface of the spinning cork and temporarily holding the top ring to insure that the glued up cork has made several complete revolutions and then finally clamped in place; is easily wiped off the surface of the cork with a wet cloth, for a glue free surface for simple grip shaping.

I had basically copied this technique from a Sage Fly rod build found on one of the "how do they do it" television channels.
i.e;. by going vertical, and having a drip plate below the grip, there is next to no glue that drips onto the work bench or any where else.

Since Tite Bond III is basically an air cure glue, I let the grip dry overnight. Then, I remove the threaded rod, and let the grip dry for two more days, to be sure that the glue has dried from the inside out.

(If I was against a time deadline, I would use 30 minute epoxy, so that an overnight cure would give a complete glue up and drying in much less time.

I simply use a fairly stiff brush and a glue pot to quickly apply the glue. By using the motor to spin the grip, the glue can be applied in a fraction of the time, that would be required if rotating by hand, and of course, there is no fatigue from gluing up very long rod grips.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/08/2013 11:47AM by roger wilson.

Like Roger Wilson, I have moved away from epoxy and use Tite Bond III for all the reasons Roger stated. I've never had a failure gluing one evening and turning the next morning so 12-16 hours or so seems to be adequate drying time for this glue.

I turn all my grips on a mandrel using a lathe, then fit the grips to the blank. Doing it this way is easiest when you carefully apply just enough to prevent the glue from squeezing inside the ring's hole along the mandrel. So basically I do it just like Michael Blomme described - neatly, with careful attention to detail. I take some extra time to work the Tite Bond III into all voids on the side of each cork. I feel this helps to stabilize the edges of voids when I turn the grip down and expose the voids.

Before I switched 100% to turning on a mandrel, I used to turn some grips on the blank. Doing it that way, I basically did what Tom Kirkman described, except I applied the epoxy to the blank (about 1" above the final resting position of the cork) and then slid a cork ring down with a twisting motion. This assured epoxy wes holding the ring to the blank, and the excess epoxy that was pushed down, would spread out between the two mating surfaces of the rings. Once the last ring was in place, I'd clamp the rings and clean up any epoxy above the last ring.

roger wilson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Frank,
> Here is the technique that I use - especially on
> long grips to simplify and quicken the glue
> application:
>
> [www.rodbuilding.org]
> /photo/17829/title/glue-up-machine-to-save-time-gl
> uing-cork/cat/508
>
> Simply put, this is one of my rod wrapping motors
> made from a DC cordless drill with a foot
> controlled power supply to be able to vary the
> speed from 0 - 1500 rpm.
>
> I use Tite Bond III for this gluing for a couple
> of reasons:
>
> Tite bond is very inexpensive compared to using
> any sort of epoxy.
> Tite bond is stronger than the cork, so epoxy is
> not needed. But, tite bond III sands much more
> easily than any sort of epoxy. Thus, the rod grip
> shaping time is much reduced by the use of Tite
> Bond III, compared to using epoxy for gluing.
> Tite bond, when wet, is water soluble, so after
> apply the glue to one surface of the spinning cork
> and temporarily holding the top ring to insure
> that the glued up cork has made several complete
> revolutions and then finally clamped in place; is
> easily wiped off the surface of the cork with a
> wet cloth, for a glue free surface for simple grip
> shaping.
>
> I had basically copied this technique from a Sage
> Fly rod build found on one of the "how do they do
> it" television channels.
> i.e;. by going vertical, and having a drip plate
> below the grip, there is next to no glue that
> drips onto the work bench or any where else.
>
> Since Tite Bond III is basically an air cure glue,
> I let the grip dry overnight. Then, I remove the
> threaded rod, and let the grip dry for two more
> days, to be sure that the glue has dried from the
> inside out.
>
> (If I was against a time deadline, I would use 30
> minute epoxy, so that an overnight cure would give
> a complete glue up and drying in much less time.
>
>
> I simply use a fairly stiff brush and a glue pot
> to quickly apply the glue. By using the motor to
> spin the grip, the glue can be applied in a
> fraction of the time, that would be required if
> rotating by hand, and of course, there is no
> fatigue from gluing up very long rod grips.




And, as stated on the bottle Titebond lll is completely waterproof once it has dried. So no need to worry about it being in or around water,

Tom



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/08/2013 12:36PM by Tom Wewerka.

My method is different from the other posts since I glue all cork rings directly to the blank and each other. After fitting all the rings to the blank, a snug but not tight fit, I slide them all up the blank and then, one at a time I put a ring of glue around the blank and then slide the ring into place. I continue doing this one ring at a time. I get a thin ring of glue between cork rings and after all are in place, I clamp the rings in my homemade clamp. I use liquid Fusion for all my cork. This makes a nearly indestructible handle. I do all my shaping right on the blank and have for over 40 years.

John P.
Interested why you changed to turning on mandrel vs blank.
Herb

You guys work to hard

I set my rings on a threaded rod with several inches in between them

Mix up rod bond ( regular ) gives more time to work
I had that 8 - 5 with the boss telling me the CUSTOMER is in the offic and needs the car ( ya don't even want to here what I told him ) 32 years of that was way toooo much !!!
Anyway
Take the rod bond put three DABS on one ring The next ring layed onto it Turned it several times Next rig the same
Tightened the wing nuts leveled the rings out as good as could get Tightened them Let dry

Did one of those on the rod shappings -- Almost broke the tip of the rod - Never again Plus if I did not like the handle I made another No need to strip the rings off the blank

Do it your way Just like MacDonaldels

Bill - willierods.com

I apply rings direct to the blank, clamping when complete. I use half hour epoxy resin, mixed and stirred in a 20 CC syringe, X amount each A/B, depending on how many rings. The more grip, the more resin.

Slide ring into position, use syringe to pinpoint application of resin, slide next down and repeat till done. This is a one-face method. No brush to dip, or overage to wipe up, as the syringe is neat.

As regards affixing the first ring in the set: various methods used to make sure the the clamp does not disturb its position. Ergo: on a fly rod, the seat is allowed to set, then the first ring is placed against it using 5 minute resin.

Then the rest with the syringe, finishing with a bushing, to keep the ring from deforming against the clamp. To date, no amount of clamp force has dislodged the 1st ring, squishing it down on the reel seat, or hooping the last ring by the bushing.

Gear rods, much the same idea: first ring up the blank 2", with 5 min, then spacers to mimic the butt box, clamped and set, then the reel seat, as the flyrod, then the foregrip.

Herb Ladenheim Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> John P.
> Interested why you changed to turning on mandrel
> vs blank.
> Herb


Herb,

Four main reasons:

First, was to completely move the dirty jobs, like turning grips, out of my clean area I now use exclusively for wrapping and finishing. I turn my grips on a full sized variable speed lathe with a rear-mounted pattern tracer that I keep on a mobile base. I slide it out of storage when I need it, then tuck it away in a corner when I'm done with it.

Secondly, you get more uniformly shaped grips when you turn on a steel mandrel. When I look at some other people's grips, I usually can tell when they were turned on a blank; they tend to be inconsistent (more mass on one side of the blank) and have subtle variations in diameter especially in grips made from varying material densities; soft materials get overturned, and hard materials get underturned. This is not something everyone notices, and of the people who do, not everyone cares, but being sort of a perfectionist I find that kind of result unacceptable to me. A steel mandrel allows me to apply both more controlled pressure and much heavier cutting forces than you can possibly apply to a flexible blank (unless your talking about a really heavy duty saltwater blank).

Thirdly, I also find it a lot easier to do inlays on a grip mounted to a short mandrel rather than a longer rod blank. The blank always seems to get in the way of positioning it where I need to in order to work on it with handtools. I've also been considering purchasing/building a custom indexing inlay mill/lathe combo machine to speed up grip inlays and this machine will require grips to be mounted on a steel mandrel.

Lastly, safety. Centripetal force in a blank is not your friend. When you have a blank shatter and fly apart at 3000 rpm and the pieces stick into the plaster wall 10 feet away, penetrate ceiling tiles overhead, and send you to the emergency room for stitches (imagine instead of bamboo shoots under your fingernails, graphite shards that find bone...), you'll reconsider turning on a blank also. I know there are full time builders out there who turn every handle on a blank and have never had any problems. I'm sort of like them. I work with woodworking tools all day long for the past 30+ years and still have all my fingers. Many of us do things that are not as safe as they can be and we get away with it. But in all honesty, I can't imagine any professional turner who would turn something on a flexible shaft, they would look at you like your nuts if you asked them to do it.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/2013 01:07PM by John E Powell.