I am building my first rod ever, and have decided that I really like the Eva grips with heat shrink "X" pattern over them. I have the grips sanded down and Heat Shrinked so that the gimble and reel seat line up flawlessly. The problem I am having is on the front grip, where the end of the grip is and the first guide, how do you hide the heat shrink? To explain more, I am sanding the top of the grip to have a flat top angled downward so that the line doesn't cut into the grip when loaded. I cannot find any winding checks that have a flat top, or is wide enough to cover the heat shrink, but not to wide to stick up past the grip/shrink on the flat top.

Paul

If you have more shrink tube, I would think about cutting off the present shrink and slide a new piece of shrink and have it over hang the front of the grip.
When the tube shrinks it will fold down over the front of the fore grip. Trim the end and fill the void with epoxy. It may wind up being be small enough of a diameter that you could fit a winding check.
If the fill in with turns out ok I would paint it and leave it be.
Shrink tube can be a problem to trim evenly because it is pliable. A trick I learned,if possible place the assembly in a freezer and wait until it freezes hard, then it is easy to trim with a razor blade, x-acto etc. before it starts to warm up.
If it dosen't fit in a freezer try a can of cold spot (an aerosol can) used in checking circuit boards.
Good luck.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I have left it long, then trimmed so that about 3/8" is sticking over after it is shrunk, then, I heat it again , and press it down, and get it tucked correctly, then I press down on the end of the foreground onto a cool granite counter, and move spots ever few seconds for about 2 minutes, the granite is cool from the AC, and absorbe the heat, and then the shrink wrap forms nicely to the foam, easy to hide behind a winding cheek.

This isn't really my problem though, my problem is, is that the winding cheek is to large of diameter at the top. I really need a winding cheek that is flat on one side of the outer diameter. I think I need to post a picture to better illustrate what I am talking about.

A MS Paint photo that better illustrates what I am looking for can be found here.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Make your own winding check. Can use a piece of a polyurethane foam shim of an appropriate diameter; it can be easily shaped, coated with a tinted structural epoxy and wrapped to match your guide wraps.
Norm

You could also sand that foam foregrip down like the top all the way around so the front of the grip bevels down to more of a point instead of just having the top beveled . That would let you use a much smaller perfectly round winding check . Dunking the shrink under a cold water faucet or spraying the shrink with a spray bottle of cold water immediately after heating it will instantly harden it if needed .

I remove and reapply shrink all the time if i'm not happy the way it turns out .