Finally got some free time to work on my first rod. One thing I can't figure out is how I would sand my grip. I don't have a lathe or power wrapper. How can I go about this? My best thought was to just put the cork on a dowel and put the dowel in a drill? If this will work, how would I go about sanding the butt section? I'm trying to make a split grip out of cork rings. The butt section is going to be 1.5" with a piece of rubberized cork on the bottom.

Another question; My dog got to the grip on a rod I own. What would be the easiest way to go about removing a section of cork to replace it? Do I just cut it off as best as I can?

Use a length of 1/4" threaded rod and sandwich your grip between washers and nuts and use your drill.

Clint

Check out these two short videos on our website.

Even if you don't buy our cork lathe set up it is good info and you could rig or build your own.

Makin a Split Grip
[www.flexcoat.com]

Cork Lathe Tips and Tricks
[www.flexcoat.com]

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

Clint

Have built grips both ways, with a threaded rod and home made support for the drill, and with a mandrel and the Flex Coat cork lathe. Unless your rod will be a one and done, the Flex Coat cork lathe and a steel mandrel is the way to go. And if you go the way, I suggest you attach the lathe to a work bench or something that is heavy, straight and flat. I used a scrap length of heavy aluminum to which the lathe is bolted and the aluminum is clamped to saw horses setup on the turn around pad as needed. That keeps the cork dust outside the house. Cork dust goes everywhere and into everything. Wear a mask when turning down a grip.

Clint,
Don't beat yourself up over lack of tools.

If you don't have a lathe, drill or drill press, save yourself the trouble and just buy a prebuilt grip.

Take the grip, ream it as needed and glue it on your rod. No sanding or lathe work needed. There is only about a $5 difference between buying cork rings and building the grip compared to using the premade grip.

Be safe

I know I can buy a pre-made grip, I just wanted to give it a shot making my own. Also I would like to sand the grip to my liking. I will probably end up buying a lathe in the future

Here is some thing I built YEARS ago and works fine Threaded rod to glue rings together and then blank sections as arbors to turn then Starting with a wood rasp flat on one side half round on the other A quick shape then sand paper to finish
[www.rodbuilding.org]

Bill - willierods.com

Hey that looks familiar ;)

Nice job. Don't know why you would need anything else.

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

If you do not want to do anything fancy, you can sand cork with a cordless power drill. I have done this successfully for split grips, just have to be careful in keeping it straight and squared. Glue your cork rings together, you can do this on a treaded rod and clamp them together using washers and nuts, or just stack them together and clamp using rubber bands. After set, the cork on the treaded rod can be chucked in the drill, and sanded, starting with 60 grit, then with150 to 250. I use a 1/4 sheet of sand paper folded in half. I hold the drill in my left hand and the sand paper in my right, turn on the drill and move the sand paper up and down to shape. For rings glued in a stack, they can be reamed to fit the blank and then fitted using masking tape to a metal rod, piece of blank, or dowel as a mandrel and sanded as above. For the fighting butt I have glued a holeless composite cork ring to the bottom of the cork stack which is then fitted tightly to the top of the mandrel and sanded to shape. I know a bunch of people will scoff at this but it works surprisingly well. You can also do this outside, so cork dust is not an issue, but still wear a mask.
For replacing damaged cork in the handle use a fine toothed balsa wood hobby saw or cork saw and cut the damaged area on the inside part of the cork ring glue line. Chip out the cork with a utility knife. Glue the appropriate number of cork rings together, ream to fit blank. The cork stack can be lightly sanded on the end to ge a good fit. Cut ring stack in half longitudinally. Place in the gap and glue in place. Sand down so it's flush. Good to go.
Norm.

John
Got the idea from flex-coat Hmmm

I have done it Norman's way Just hold the open end on some kind of support Cardboard box with a V cut in
Wood may last longer

Bill - willierods.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/10/2016 03:03PM by bill boettcher.

This is a picture of a home made lathe that was on the forum a few years ago.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Be safe