Building a rod with a butt diameter of .680 . Should I use the eva rear grip with the bore diameter of half inch or the five eights? Thanks

Bill,
For myself, whenever I build a rod, I ream the grip - what ever the material - to match the od of the blank at the location of the grip installation.

So, in your case, I would use an EVA grip that has a smaller hole than .680 and ream the grip to match the size and taper of the rod blank.

Some folks prefer to stretch the blank over a grip. I do not like to stretch anything. I don't stretch EVA, I don't stretch nylon, I don't stretch cork, I don't stretch wood. No reason for myself to ever stretch a grip to fit a blank.

Ream it and then glue it up.

Take care

Butt diameter isn't as important as the diameter where the grip ends. I've stretched lots of close diameter grips with zero problems.

It is better to ream the grip as Roger suggests but if you don't have a tapered reamer then try the following;
.
Mark the blank where the grip ends at the reel seat and measure the diameter. Drill or ream the EVA for a snug fit to that diameter.

Install the grip, the grip will have a snug fit at the reel end and a tight fit at the butt end.

This will minimize the stretch of the EVA.

Have fun


.

Thanks. I have a set of cork reamers. Just didn't know if you could ream the EVA.

It reams just fine.
Norm

See #20:

[www.rodbuilding.org]

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Thanks for the help.