I just finished a rod and was putting the reel on it when the cork foregrip cracked. I used a Fuji Tvs reel seat with a hidden thread sleeve and cork foregrip. As I tightened down the cork foregrip it cracked, apparently between the cork rings. When I back off the foregrip the crack in the cork lessens, but if I tighten it down enough to secure the reel firmly it widens considerably. I’ve built several rods on this setup and never had any problems. Any recommendations on what I can use to fill the crack without effecting the look? At this point I’m thinking wood filler unless there is a glue that would work?

Help me visualize how the cork foregrip is impacted by tightening the seat.
Herb

Josh,
In a word, there should be no force on the fore grip of a rod by making the reel seat tight.

The reel seat nut should be handling all of the forces of attaching the reel to the rod.

I would think that the only thing that the cork is being used for is as a reel seat nut enlarger to match the rest of the rod.

If, when you put force on the fore grip to turn the reel seat nut, the cork cracked - it suggest that the cork rings were not glued together very well.

So, if that is the case, then the use of a wood filler could make some sense. Tighten down the grip as tight as possible on the reel so that the crack is as wide as possible.

Then, use Elmers wood filler in light oak color to fill the crack. Use a knife or razor blade to press the wood filler into the crack. Be sure to get the crack fully filled to the bottom, and continue to fill above the top of the fore grip.

Let the filler dry for 48 hours to be sure that it is 100 % dry. Then, use sand paper on a block to insure that you don't put divits into the cork as you sand down.

If you happened to have a full length rod lathe or power wrapper, you could spin the rod slowly - to avoid causing an out of balance problem causing an issue with the rod to quickly sand down the crack.

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Another think that you could do, which would dry very quickly and that would be to use glass micro balloons to fill the crack. Then, use instant glue to completely wet out the micro balloons. Finally, use a heat gun to get the glue to kick or to cure and then sand it down.
By using the micro balloons and instant glue you could get the job done in 5 minutes.

When I use the word micro balloons, this is the product that I am referring to.
[www.amazon.com]

But, if you have some baby powder or talc, that will work about as well.

Or, you could take a couple of cork rings and turn them to dust by use of a sander. Then, take the sanding dust, and combine it with model airplane cement or duco glue and use that as a matching filler for the cork.

When dry, the cork dust and airplane cement sands easily because the glue is of the same hardness as the cork. So the sanding would be much easier using this method, compared to any other method.

Good luck

I can only assume that as the fore grip piece is brought down over the reel foot, it is expanding and thus also expanding the cork piece on top of it.

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

If the crack closes snugly at some point then on it open the crack and apply contact cement and close until the crack disappears.

Have fun

John

Your threaded barrel on the reel seat is too long. Back the hidden thread hood all the way off, and trim the threaded barrel of the the reel seat back about 1/4” or so. Glue the cork rings together again and you should be good to go. What happens is if the threaded section of the reel seat protrudes beyond the hidden thread hood when tightened down, and the reel seat pushes against the cork at the end of the hood and causes it to split. Even a little bit of profusion will cause this problem. So just trim the threads back a little.
Norm



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/08/2019 10:10AM by Norman Miller.

Josh,
I am wondering something about your construction.

Here is an example of the TVS reel seat and in particular the hooded end designed for the application of a cork fore grip.

Since you said that the cork crack when you tight down the fore grip, did you make the front ring on the fore grip smaller than the threads of the reel seat.

i.e. if you tighten down the reel seat nut all of the way, are there threads being exposed in front of the reel seat nut, which is causing the cork over lay to try to split and separate?

Ordinarily, this concern is addressed before the reel seat is assembled and mounted. i.e a reel is put on the rod and then the nut is made tight on the reel to secure. A check is made to insure that there are no threads extending past the end of the reel seat.

Then, the fore grip is constructed with multiple rings so that the cork covers the reel seat nut, and if desired, extra rings are put in front of that with a hole size a bit larger than the rod blank.. That way, the hole in the end of the cork is just a bit larger than the rod blank and provides a finished appearance from the front of the nut. But, because the clearance is checked before putting the reel seat together, there is no issue with the cork trying to separate by fully making the nut tight on the reel foot.

Just wondering.

Be safe

p.s. This is the same thing that Norman posted.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/08/2019 10:16AM by roger wilson.

Norman,
You beat me to it. The threaded barrel is too long on the top end.

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.

Thank you for all the suggestions

Josh

. I just ran into a similar situation but using a carbon fiber thread cover rather than the cork. When I tightened up the locking nut which carries the thread cover ( which you might be calling the foregrip), the threads on the seat pushed on the cover ring. I suspect the threads are what cracked your cork. Had I not posted here and got help, I would have mistakenly glued everything before checking and ran into the same situation you have. The fix was to cut and shorten the threads on the seat.

That may not help now unless you can cut the threads which you may still be able to do using a Dremel. Look at my post for help on cutting reel threads on Apr 1. Good Luck!