You can build a very accurate, centered tool to bore out cork grips to fit your rod bank, and it will cost less than $5. Find a piece of a broken rod about 2 feet long and a bit smaller in butt diameter than the the rod you are building. Buy a sandpaper belt for a hand-held belt sander at a hardware store. #80 or #100 grit is about right. Use a box-cutter to cut a continuous 1"-1 1/2" wide strip of sandpaper at least 3 feet long from the belt. Coat the back, non-abrasive side of the sandpaper strip with contact cement, and starting about 4 inches above the butt end of the broken-rod piece coat the rod piece with contact cement. Wait about 10 minutes until the contact cement is "dry". Then, starting just above your glueless "handle" wrap the sandpaper strip in an open spiral to the tip of the broken blank, leaving about a 1/2 inch space between each turn of the sandpaper strip. Wrap each turn tightly and press the sandpaper strip firmly against the blank for good adhesion.Cut the sandpaper strip at an angle when you get near the the tip of the rod piece. In order to keep it in place you will have to tightly wrap and tie some string tightly around the sandpaper strip and blank near the tip of the handle piece. Allow an hour or so for the glue to set up completely before you unwrap the string and you're ready to ream. One sander belt has enough surface to make 5 or 6 different-size reamers, which will work for years.

Great topic!

We made this video some years ago. Making a Power Reamer. Better than any reamer you could buy and it matches the taper of your rods you build.

We have found 36 grit reamer abrasive to be optimal and sell it in 25 ft. and 75 ft. rolls. We have reamers made this way that are well over 10 years old and still reaming.

Here is the link to the video from 2011
[flexcoat.com]

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



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/14/2019 02:59PM by John Cates.

While we're at at - Flex Coat also provides a reverse spade bit boring tool which we wrote about some years ago in the magazine. Much, much better than any reamer (you might still have to ream for a dozen seconds to achieve a perfect tapered fit). They did sell the tools, and the parts if you wanted to make your own. I'll let John fill you in on the availability.

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

All true.

We offer reverse pilot bits and standard pilot bits. We no longer have the kits to make your own pilot bit, but if you give me a call I am always happy to walk you through the process.

Here is a video that features both bits in action.
[flexcoat.com]

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

How can I measure the gap between the grip internal diameter and the blank outside diameter?

A set of calipers work great for these measurements.
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Flex Coat Company
Professional Rod Building Supplies
www.flexcoat.com

I can determine the O.D. of a blank with multiple measurements despite the fact the O.D. constantly changes, but how do I measure the I.D. of the grip since the diameter of the opening must change constantly with depth? Sounds terribly complicated. That's why I use a section of broken blank with a taper close to that of the build blank and glue a spiral of sandpaper around it to ream out cork grips. Much simpler, and presumably more accurate.

You just use the pilot bit to get to your ID to the smallest measurement you need. Presumably the tip end of the grip. Ream the rest of the way. It's a time saver and is way easier then try to power ream all that material out..

That is exactly what we do and talk about in the video on making a reamer. Go to the 2 minute mark about reaming cork rings. Find the measurement by doing the first rings conservatively, go back and forth a couple times and sneak up on the proper ream, NO MEASUREMENT REQUIRED.
[flexcoat.com]

Here is another video that we made about our cork lathe setup that shows the technique with the power reamer and cork rings, NO MEASUREMENT REQUIRED.
Check out 4:30 seconds where we feature cork rings. Again its always a good idea to sneak up on the reaming so you don't take off too much. Go back and forth between your reamer and your blank on the first rings to make sure you are reaming enough, then you are all set.
[flexcoat.com]

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

Thanks. This is the way to go if you build big lots of rods.

...or just one rod.

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