Probably a stupid question but I am going to ask anyways. I read about rod builders gluing up their handles on the blank and then turning the blank to shape the cork. Well to day I did that and it turned out great. Now I want to glue a piece of dark burl cork on the end of the handle (this will act as my butt) and turn that down to match the rest of the cork. My stupid question is - how do I spin the blank without putting a hole in the end of the burl?

You can turn it to shape first and then glue it to the end of the grip, or depending on your lathe and how long the blank is you can reverse the blank, making sure that you don't damage the blank with the jaws of the chuck and then turn it on the blank just as you did the rest of the grip.

Kerry, Check the How To Videos on the Flex Coat Co. web site. Roger shows an easy way to make those butt pieces as Randolph suggests.

Kerry,
I used to do exactly what you are talking about doing. i.e. making the handles, gluing them up and then making and gluing on a butt cap.

I used all of the methods described above.

Yes, one can go through all of that process and have it turn out very well.

But now, when I make a grip, I glue on the appropriate grip onto the end of the grip and turn the butt cap along with the rest of the grip on my lathe.

After the grip has been turned, I will use a reamer to taper the hole in the back of the butt cap. Then, I use a commercial, or make a matching plug for the hole in the butt cap. Many times when one gets cork, one can get appropriate plugs for the cork at the same time at little additional cost. Otherwise, one can use a plug cutter and a drill press to cut appropriate plugs for the butt cap.

I will then size the plug appropriately for the hole in the end of the butt cap.

Now, I will glue on the grip to the rod, and as I do it, I will glue the butt cap plug into the grip at the same time - leaving the plug extending from the end of the butt cap a bit. Finally, after the glue is dry, I take the glued up grip and blank to my disk sander with an attached cross vise to keep the sanding perpendicular to the rest of the grip, and sand the butt cap smooth and perpendicular to the blank. Normally one can not even see that there is a plug in the end of the butt cap.

I find that this method saves a huge amount of time, compared to cutting a cap separately, fitting it to the rear grip and gluing it on, without having a bit of clean up.

Lots of ways to do the same job.

Be safe

Kerry

Here is the link to our video on fighting butts which is the technique that you could use

[www.flexcoat.com]

and our cork lathe video

[www.flexcoat.com]

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

I do grips Off the blank so if any thing goes wrong I can fix it easer then on
I glue the rings together put it on an mandrel shape then glue it on If the dryer will not take the but I still have the hole to put a scrap piece into the rod to hold

Then when the rod is done either fill the hole with glue and butt dust or a plug

Bill - willierods.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2015 05:15PM by bill boettcher.

Here is a set of inexpensive plug cutters that work well for cutting plugs.

[www.harborfreight.com]

If you have an old scrap rod, cut off the butt section.
Make a few tape arbors on the tip of your new rod and insert it into the scrap butt section.
Now you can put the scrap, butt in the winder's chuck and turn your butt cork.

Gary

You think like me. That is exactly how I ended up turning that solid piece of burl cork I glued on last. No butt plugs and no tape under my cork. Turned out great.

I turn cork on a lathe off the blank. Natural cork will sometimes have flaws that you can't see until it is turned. Also sometimes it will be there but just below the surface where you can't tell. A weak area that can crack through with just a little pressure. The act of reaming the finished cork will usually expose this in the fact that it will break in these areas before it is mounted on the blank. I turn the butts in similar fashion as the Flex Coat video but I use the lathe and shorten my mandrel and build up with tape to fit the butt piece. Here is a good starter lathe for this and you can get mandrels with a live center off Amazon or @#$%&.

[www.harborfreight.com]