I am going to try and build a Maniform Style Fly Grip but I need to Inlet the reel seat. I was told that you use a Dremel to do this--What type of bits or any suggestions would people have. My main concern is getting too thin on the cork and having it chip off
Thanks
Dan

Dan

We use a drill press. Check out the video link below.

[www.flexcoat.com]

Flex Coat Company
Professional Rod Building Supplies
www.flexcoat.com

The Flex Coat method will work very well if you have a round hood, if not you will have to do some routing with either a file, or Dremel tool using either a coarse sanding drum or a grinding/cutting burr. They are not as complicated as it appears. Do a little practice on some wine corks.

I use the small drum sander head on my Dremel for inleting. Trace an outline of the mating piece and go slow, testing often.

Use my Dan Craft cutter, a simple job.

I like the idea of testing things on a wine cork. I have the handle already. i was thinking about wrapping the area of the handle with string to keep a reinforcement on the outside- hopefully this will keep the cork from shattering out. It seems like the smart thing to do is to go pretty slow with many small bites to get to the end of the job.
What is a Dan Craft cutter?

To reinforce the cork use a wide plastic cable tie. Tighten it down and there ya go!

Dan Craft Ent. used to be a sponsor, had an adjustable cutter that piloted in the grip's center hole, powered by a drill motor. Think it was called Crafty Cutter.

DRY fit your cork handle { NO GLUE YET] dry fit the handle [ no glue ] draw a line on the cork [ thin ] of the hood outline take apart an use a burr tip on a Dremel then enlarge the the unwanted part up to the thin line [ use masking tape or sharpe to color it to set the depth on the shaft of the burr , use a sanding drum to smooth your your cut out dry fit the hood in the handle, the lip on the hood will cover the line , if it comes out it is a little to deep don't worry , I use a DIAMOND BURR or a RASP BURR booth work fine , work slow don't try to take all
at one time , good luck ,
PS if you want " DO " a cork ring by it self just to carm your nerve's

William Sidney
AK

I bored out the Maniform and it turned out OK. I hand reamed it using drill bits until I maxxed out at 1/2". Then I wrapped some sandpaper around a dowel and slowly opened it out. The walls are pretty thin so I took my time andI was able to keep it pretty concrentric. I'm putting this on a SC III 4 weight rod. I'm using H & H single foots so it should be a very light rod.

I use a forstner bit in the correct size to the reelseat hardware. Perfect circle and has a flat bottom just like a factory grip, this way your hardware can make adhesion to everywhere it can.

reaming out the cork handle as you can see there are many ways to do it an they all work , in the end it comes down to 2 things
# 1 how many rods are you going to do in your life time ??
# 2 how much $$ do you want to invest in a tool / tools, to do your rod building
some of us have lots of tools [ not every one ]
so its your choice on how to ream out a cork handle to fit the hood of a reel seat
all of the above ways work an very well , when you get finished with the inleting
no one will know how you did it but you , some will take some more time than others to get the job completed ,

William Sidney
AK