I have my lathe setup and all accessories attached and I glued up my first grip tonight. Plan to turn my first cork grip tomorrow! Looking for some cork grip shaping tips. I have a profile drawn out of the grip I want and planned on using a template to get the shape I want. Also, Id like to make a spey rear grip. In the past the ones ive purchased had a tenon and a matching end cap. What are some ways to make a rear grip? Not sure if i should make a tenon and an end cap or if i should make the grip and install a solid ring on the end. Kind of hard to explain so I hope Im making sense. thanks, mark

Mark, take a look my photos and find the photo of the grip "profiler" I use. Also read the comments below the image. It is very easy to make these yourself and they not only save time, but also make for consistency of shape.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/18/2016 11:19PM by Phil Erickson.

I mostly build my grips and fly rod fighting butt right on the blank - not using mandrels - including Spey, switch, and TH rods used for overhead casting.
But on occasion I build a one piece boat rod that has to be turned from the butt. So I build the butt cap separately.
The last one I built I glued-up a but cap from two 1.5" X 0.5", X 0,25 bore rubberized cork rings and one 1.5" X 0.5" X no bore as the cap on a solid 3/8" aluminum bar as a mandrel. I reamed a Flexcoat 15mm rigid foam arbor to fit the aluminum bar and turned the whole thing to size and shape to match the mating cork of the one piece blank.
At the same time I tapered the arbor to fit the end of the one-piece blank and epoxied it in.
I faired the butt cap and cork on the blank in the lathe using a slip-on friction chuck so as not to damage the butt cap.
Forgot to mention this was a re-build and customer wanted lower grip 2" longer. That was reason for aluminum rod
Herb



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/19/2016 10:05AM by Herb Ladenheim.

One of the board sponsors has free templates that can be used for shaping grips. Click on Custom Fly Grips LLC.......you can print them as a reference or print and then cut them in sections to design your own......

Mark,
For many years, I would build rear grips and put a tenon in the end of the grip to slip a butt cap over. Basically with the finished grip spinning in the lathe, I use a pen to mark the spot near the butt of the grip for the extent of the tenon - or undercut edge. Then, I just use a file held flat to cut the tenon and to make it as deep as needed.

At that time, for butt caps: I would use the rubber chair leg tips. Easy, simple, inexpensive. I would use a short mandrel, built up with masking tape if necessary so that the cap would be a tight slip fit onto the mandrel. I would start with 60 or 80 grit paper and a backing board to begin to grind away the rubber of the chair leg tip. I would first do the end of the cap to make it flat. Then , I would work on the sides to get the bulk of the taper out of the cap.
I would measure the finished size of the butt grip, so that I could end up with the finished butt cap slip nicely on the step that I had put into the butt section of the grip. When, I would get the cap to the correct dimensions, I would use a razor knife to slice off the front edge of the cap to make is shorter and to also have the perfect fit of the cap onto the butt grip. Then, I would slip the cap off of the mandrel, check for fit, and at the appropriate time, epoxy the cap to the grip.

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However for the last recent years, I no longer use rubber butt caps. Rather I use a rubberized or burled cork ring for the butt cap. I bore out this ring so that it has been bored to the same size that matches the size of the butt end of the rod blank.
Then, this ring is glued to the rear grip, at the same time as all of the other rings are glued together.
I use a matching rubberized ring or burled ring with no holes in the ring to make an appropriate sized plug for the hole that has been bored into the end of the rear grip.

I use one of these plug cutters to cut the plugs:
[www.harborfreight.com]
I will cut a plug that is just a bit larger than the size of the hole in the rear grip. When the grip is finished, I will use a tapered reamer on the end of the rear grip to enlarge the rear of the grip as necessary to accommodate the starting size of the plug cutter. When I glue the rear grip to the rod blank, I also glue in the rear grip plug - letting the plug fit tightly, with the plug sticking outsize of the butt of the rear grip by a small amount.

After the rod has been finished, I will take the rod to my disk sander, and if appropriate - use my cross vise that is attached to my disk sander to hold the rod perpendicular to the disk sander. Then, I will use the cross vise to advance the rod but to the disk sander. I will continue sanding the rear of the rear grip, until all of the protruding plug has been sanded off - leaving the perfect perpendicular edge on the butt of the rod. This is accomplished in a few seconds with the spinning disk sander..

If a client wants a rubber butt cap, I will go back to my older method of using a rubber chair leg tip - sized for the perfect fit, on a mortise that I have put on the end of the rear grip.

Good luck

Excellent info everyone. Im taking notes...Thank You!