So I've made my grips for my centerpin with a mixture of burl cork rings, rubberized cork ring and stabalized wood. Now I've put these together on a quarter inch mandrel and need to Reem them out. Anyone have any suggestions on how to bore out these grips? Will a regular cork reamer work or do I need to do something different because of the stabalized wood? Any suggestions will be helpful. Thanks in advance

Patrick,
If it was my grip, I would just drill out the grip so that the hole is as large as the largest part of the blank. Then, build up the blank with masking tape to get a good fit on the inside of the grip.

The drill bit will easily handle all of the different types of material in the grip.

Be safe

Generally I bore the rings to the same or close to the same diameter as that of the blank at the forward location where the grip will ultimately reside. Obviously you have to match this to the closest mandrel available. Once assembled and turned, only a small bit of turning is there required to fit the grip to the blank taper.

Stablized wood is pretty hard and a standard cork reamer will work, but it'll take some time and put a lot of wear and tear on the reamer.

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

Comments deleted



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2016 04:31PM by John E Powell.

In hindsight, it would have been better to bore the piece for a larger mandrel than 1/4", something slightly smaller then the blank at the upper end of the grip, then as Tom mentions there is only a small amount of reaming needed....................next time. LOL

As mentioned above a reamer will work on all three of your materials, just slowly on the stabilized wood. I use the reamer in a hand drill (rotating counter clockwise) and being careful so as not to overheat the reamer.

some people ream the wood out an but a arbor in ,then glue up the grip , then ream to fit the blank after the grip is glued , hrard to ream the wood out with cork reamers, just an Idea ,

William Sidney
AK

Hello All.

Just a quick question or three, When you first bore for the mandrel couldn't you bore them enough to fit onto a graphite arbor?

Then assemble them on the arbor, ream arbor to fit, that way the weight drops drastically and it is easer to handle & mount right?

This procedure would work on bark rings too wouldn't it?

Tight Wraps & Tighter Lines.

Bob,

New Bern, NC.

Robert, yes of course. When doing this, it is nice to assemble pieces of the grip that are about the same length as the arbor. That way, you can glue up one arbor's worth of grip and ream it to size.

Then, try to use as large as mandrel as it fits the smallest hole in the arbors. Then, use masking tape to build up the mandrel in the areas of the grip where the grip is loose on the mandrel.

Glue the grip together. Then, place the mandrel in the lathe and shape the grip. Then, remove the grip and it should slip nicely onto the blank for final glue up with little to no further reaming.

Be safe

Hello Roger.

Thanks a lot.

Tight Wraps & Tighter Lines.

Bob,

New Bern, NC.

I do it slightly different than Roger. I bore the pieces to 20mm, which is the size of some reel seat arbors available. The exception is the end pieces which I bore to the size of the mandrel I intend to use. As I only build fly rods the mandrels I use are usually 5/16 or 3/8". I then assemble the pieces, gluing them up on the same size "all thread rod." When set, I transfer the unit to the mandrel and turn on the lathe.

Additionally, I usually bore the reel seat recess on the end piece before gluing up.

Depending upon the make up of the grip, I find it easy to work with things like Birch Bark, woods, etc. in small groupings for the large bore.

All my reaming for fitting to the blank is done on the finished grip.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/11/2016 01:28PM by Phil Erickson.

Comments deleted



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2016 04:31PM by John E Powell.

When I'm inlaying wood pieces in grips, I overbore them and install a foam arbor. Then it reams just like the cork. I couldn't imagine having to ream a piece of stabilized wood.

In this instance, I would cut out the wood pieces, core them, then reassemble.

Thanks for all the replies here, I just bought the dream reamer and I plan on hooking that up to my lathe and reaming that way. In the future though I'll definitely be boring out the stabalized wood and gluing a suitable product inside that can easily be reamed out before gluing all the pieces together on the mandrel!

Never heard of one putting a reamer in a lathe, usually a hand dril. Be sure you have the reamed going counter clockwise, if you go clockwise it can tend to jam it's self as the grit strips act like screw threads in the material being reamed.I have seen grips exploded by turning it clockwise.

10-4 on Phil's comments.

I personally think that putting a reamer in a fixed speed right hand turning lathe is not the best idea.

Rather, put the reamer in a variable speed drill and ream the handle using the hand drill with the drill turning in the direction that does not screw the reamer into the grip.

If you screw the reamer into the handle under power, you will likely either break the handle or the reamer.

Often, I do a lot of my reaming at very low speed on the drill. i.e. 50-100 rpm.

Good luck

To add to the above comments, if it is a standard wood lathe the turning direction is the wrong way for the reamer as well as more than likely too high of speed for it unless it is a variable speed lathe. You will most likely find yourself trashing the reamer quite quickly. I have used 1 of my lathes to ream with, but it is a
machine lathe that is reversible, and speed can be controlled. Secondly if you only have your grip bored to 1/4" that means you are going to have to start with the smallest reamer, and it is not really recommended for any type of power reaming. Since stabilized wood is resin impregnated you are going to find that the resin will become actually mold itseff to the reamer grit and loose its ability to ream along with the heat build up causing the grit paper to also dislodge itself from the reamer.

Ron Weber

Patrick,
For your particular situation with the grip already glued up, you might use one of the reverse pilot bits to enlarge the center hole size to one that is closer to the sized of your blank.

Slip the pilot bit all of the way through the grip and then with the variable speed drill turning in the correct direction to drill . Slowly work the drill back and forth, frequently cleaning the chips out of the bit.

Also, as you drill hold the grip with a cloth glove, so that you can let the grip slowly turn. By letting the grip slowly turn, and by holding the grip in the area of the cutting bit, you can keep the grip from coming apart.

You should be able to drill through the various types of materials that are in your grip without breaking up the grip.

[www.mudhole.com]

As you can see from the picture, the drilling with these reverse bits is done with the top of the flat portion of the bit - rather than the normal tip of the bit.

By drilling this way, and by having the drill rod be essentially the same size as the hole in the current grip, the drill rod keeps the hole centered in the grip as you drill.

Be safe