What is the best way to hone out the cork. I watched a Flex Coat youtube which showed honing only a few pieces of cork at a time. Then they were all glued together. The issue I see is that you now put a standard 1/4 mandrel in to glue them up and it would be loose. Seems to me that nothing would line up and you would end up to honing a again. Am I to technical about this? I like the idea as it seems if something breaks at least it is not a start over mess.

I use two different size mandrels depending on the diameter of the rod. I use threaded rods not true lathe mandrels but the same idea holds. I bore out each ring, glue them together as I slide them onto the threaded rod. Each ring is bored out more or less to the mandrel size. Once the glue dries I shape the grip and then I use Dream Reamers to bore out the drip to the final size of the rod I'm building. So basically I do "bore twice". Always works for me.

Thank you Quinn! So much to learn...I am doing mainly spey rods, so big diameter blanks.

Hello Mark.

I glue mine up on a mandrel, once dried I then hit the grip with my reamers to size.

Tight Wraps & Tighter Lines.

Bob,

New Bern, NC.

Any issue with longer grips fracturing?

When working with cork rings we try to keep it simple. In our videos we ream the cork rings either on a power reamer that we build from an extra or old blank that matches the taper of the rod we want to build and some reamer abrasive that we offer in 25 foot or 75 foot lengths or ream them one at a time with a rat tail file so that they slide down in place on the rod blank.

We then glue them together on the rod blank. No trouble with alignment and no need to go through two steps of glueing for one handle. Once cured we shape the handle by sliding a mandrel into the end of the butt of the rod with masking tape bushings to match the taper of the ID of the blank (3 bushings will do). This can be chucked into a hand drill, our cork lathe set up, or a lathe. Support the end of the rod with a buddy holding it loose in their hands or if you have our cork lathe set up, it has roller supports that hold and lock your rod down. Shape the cork with sand paper to a custom design. This is how we do it and we like things uncomplicated.

Here are a couple videos on the subject:
[flexcoat.com]

[flexcoat.com]

[flexcoat.com]

[flexcoat.com]

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

Mark,
I find that it is much easier to ream cork, one at a time, before any gluing is done. So, I ream each piece of cork to a size that will match the location on the blank where the ring will be placed.

Then, I take a threaded rod that is of a size that is as large as possible so that the smallest cork will just fit. Then, I use t ape on the threaded rod to build up the rod so that each ring is a nice fit. Finally, I put a washer and nut on each end of the group of rings after applying glue and use the threaded rod to act as a clamp.

I use titebond III for gluing cork. Titebond III is an air cure glue. One of the main reasons that I like to use titebond III is the cleanup is water and a rag. So, no solvents, no fumes and low cost compared to the use of epoxy. Of course I use epoxy to glue the finished grip to the blank.

So, I let the glued up grip sit for 12 hours to let the glue on the outside of the grip set. Then, I remove one nut from the threaded rod, chuck the other end into an appropriately sized variable speed drill and back the threaded rod out of the grip. The glue on the inside of the grip will still be uncured. So, I take this as an opportunity to run the build up arbor back and forth through the inside of the grip to remove any excess glue. Then, I will set the handle aside - with nothing on the inside for 24 hours to let the inside of the glued up handle set. At the same time I take a wet rag and remove any wet glue from the built up arbor so that there will be no glue on the arbor when I go to use it.

Then, after drying for 24 hours, I slip the glued up grip back on the built up arbor, put washers and nuts on each end and tighten just enough to keep the grip from slipping and shape the handle.

After shaping, I will remove the grip and check for a fit on the blank. I may have to run a slight clean up reamer on the inside of the grip for the final fit on the blank but that only takes a minute or two.

The advantage of doing it this way, is that each ring is perfectly centered and each ring only takes a few seconds to ream. To ream a ring at a time, I just use a long tapered reamer in my drill and quickly ream out each ring to size. Never any issue about having a long grip and trying to get each part of the grip to match the blank.

Just another technique to easily and more quickly build up a rod.

p.s.
By the way, most of the threaded mandrels will be either 5/16th, 3/8ths or 1/2 inch - In these larger sizes there is no issue with threaded rod flex, even though threaded rod is not as stiff as a piece of drill rod of the same size.
But the advantage of the threaded rod is that there is no issue to remove a rod from a glue up, due to the fact that it can be simply unscrewed from the grip. There is never an issue with the grip slipping on the threaded rod, because if it begins to slip a bit, one of the nuts at either end of the rod is tightened just enough to keep the grip from slipping while shaping

Best wishes

What is an acceptable tolerance between the outside diameter of the blank where the grip will go and the inside diameter of the grip channel - or is "close" good enough?

Mark
I do the same process as Robert (above). For longer grips you can make up 2 / 3 / 4 / ? shorter sections and then glue the sections together on the blank after they are reamed to fit the blank.
Rog

Phil,
Make it as close or as loose as you wish. It is your rod, your choice. If you have too much clearance and fill the gap with glue you may pick up quite a bit of extra weight.

Good luck

I do spey grips on 1/4 inch threaded rod , 18 inch long all the time , it works for me , I do make sure the grip is move able on the rod before shaping grip , not loose but it can move ,
PS I use BEE's wax not candle wax , it is sticky-er

William Sidney
AK



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2019 05:46PM by Bill Sidney.

John Cates Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> When working with cork rings we try to keep it
> simple. In our videos we ream the cork rings
> either on a power reamer that we build from an
> extra or old blank that matches the taper of the
> rod we want to build and some reamer abrasive that
> we offer in 25 foot or 75 foot lengths or ream
> them one at a time with a rat tail file so that
> they slide down in place on the rod blank.
>
> We then glue them together on the rod blank. No
> trouble with alignment and no need to go through
> two steps of glueing for one handle. Once cured
> we shape the handle by sliding a mandrel into the
> end of the butt of the rod with masking tape
> bushings to match the taper of the ID of the blank
> (3 bushings will do). This can be chucked into a
> hand drill, our cork lathe set up, or a lathe.
> Support the end of the rod with a buddy holding it
> loose in their hands or if you have our cork lathe
> set up, it has roller supports that hold and lock
> your rod down. Shape the cork with sand paper to
> a custom design. This is how we do it and we like
> things uncomplicated.
>
> Here are a couple videos on the subject:
> [flexcoat.com]
> plying-epoxy-glues
>
> [flexcoat.com]
> ps-and-tricks
>
> [flexcoat.com]
> t-grip
>
> [flexcoat.com]
> ting-butt
John, thank you for the input. I have seen the videos.
A few questions though.
If you are building a fly rod with the reel seat at the end of the rod, I like to slide it down the tip as to have a tight fit. With you way, I assume you hone out the seat to slide on the butt side?
How many rolls of tape do you put on the exterior of the blank to keep it from marring?
For a real seat that has to be attached before gluing, do you cover the seat with tape before sanding? I think that is what you video looks like in the sanding video?

Mark

Great question. You can put the reel seat on before or after. We always put in on before building the grip and slide on from the tip with a reamed reel seat arbor. If I put it on after the cork grip then I would use masking tape bushings and slide it on from the butt.
Put on two layers of tape to protect the blank and reel seat.
Yes, cover the reel seat and other areas that need protection.

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