I have only built a dozen rods, mostly fly rods...so, bear with my amateur rod building ways. I bought a carbon fiber fly grip this time. If I had to do it again, I would have wrapped thread to bulk out the blank slightly for better adherence of grip to blank. Instead, I wrapped just one layer of fiberglass drywall tap around, put Rod Bond on, and twisted the grip on. After it was dry, I realized that the rod bond, and probably drywall tape, was wiped/pushed down to the butt end of the grip, with little at the forward end. This left the butt end glued very securely but left an unglued gap all the way around between blank and grip at the other end, forward end. I can get a small sewing needle down about an inch, maybe more, in this gap. What would be the suggestion for eliminating this "slop"? I was thinking letting a low viscosity epoxy of some type drip down the gap. Or pushing some expanding gorilla glue down there (probably not, too messy and hard to remove). I suppose that I could cut the grip off, buy a new one, and start over but...I want to get fishing! Thanks in advance for any suggestions to fix this.

Mark

The idea of allowing a thin type epoxy to run down into the gap isn't bad all. Something like Flex Coat Rod Builders Epoxy (adhesive not finish) would be idea. Put the bottles somewhere very warm for an hour. Maybe a garage, car, etc. This will thin it yet further (but also reduce pot life). Mix quickly and apply around the area at the fore end of the grip. Keep a towel with denatured alcohol handy in case things get a little messy there. Stand the rod straight up and let gravity work as best it can. Remember, there may be some air trapped in that gap and you won't get a perfect fill, but it should be enough to salvage what you have and provide good use.

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Mask the top of the grip and the adjacent rod butt with masking tape and carefully heat up the top end of the grip and the adjacent rod butt with a hair dryer or some similar device. Then take some just-preheated, slow-cure, mixed epoxy, the thinnest, runniest you can find, and daub or inject it in the crack where the top of the reel grip meets the rod. Chill the grip and adjacent blank as quickly as you can, which will cause the air inside the grip to contract and suck the epoxy in. Wipe off the excess epoxy with a rag dipped in thinner. If you had to destroy a synthetic winding check to do this you can build a tapered ramp with guide-winding thread and epoxy it. It will look just fine.

Partially fill the gap with baking soda tap the side of the seat to level it then add a few drops of crazy glue (NOT GEL) to saturate the baking soda repeat this process until the gap is filled

I saw this process for other repairs on u- tube, check it out.

Good luck

John, i wonder what kind of fumes you get from that reaction..lol..maybe it makes hair grow back?lol..

I concur with using a thin slow cure epoxy with a hairdryer to get it to flow into the gap. To prevent this from happening again, tack the leading edge of the dry wall tape to the blank with a drop or two of superglue before wrapping. This prevents the tape from ‘walking’ when the epoxy is applied.
Norm



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/03/2020 06:22PM by Norman Miller.

Ben I wonder too, I never tried it myself, but I would treat it like any other potential toxic material, work in a ventilated area and wear personal protection equipment. Those interested can get a lot of info from the internet.

I would be cautious of that one. I realize that if it's on the internet it must be true, but there are best practices and there are, well, not so best practices.

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I use drywall tape for build up when needed usually for reel seats. What I have done is do some narrow bands of masking tape that fit the reelseat or grip tight. I place the masking tape at the ends drywall tape in the middle.I then build up the drywall tape so there is a slight gap. I heavily coat the drywall tape with a paste type epoxy and install the grip or reelseat. The grip or reelseat will be aligned by the tight fit on the masking tape. The grip or reelseat will be bonded to the blank my the epoxy which is reinforced by the mesh of the drywall tape. Any slight gap or visible tape gets covered my the butt cap or the winding check. I glue those on with a five minute epoxy that will flow a little down into any gap.Works very well.

In the case of filling a gap get a slow cure liquid epoxy. Heat it up slightly after mixing to thin it. A syringe with a large gauge needle, like a 18 gauge, works real well to inject in down into the gap. Leave the rod vertical for about half hour and try to inject a little more of warmed epoxy.

Thank you all for the great ideas. I see that Mudhole has a slow cure "Optimum Flow" epoxy. I am assuming that it is liquid/low viscosity but have never used it. I will give it a shot. Tight lines.

Mark

Mark, i use the slow cure epoxy for flocking because it goes on very thick..it wasn,t optimum flow even in summer heat..lol..but that,s what i wanted..

Might be better off with a "laminating" epoxy like West systems.

Russ in Hollywood, FL.

Good points. I have a question in to Mudhole about what they have in less viscous epoxy. Some of the crack sealing epoxies might be better since they are almost as thin as water. They are for concrete cracks primarily. I am not sure there is enough flexibility to them. Maybe I will go back to what Tom K and other said about heating regular epoxy to keep it thin.

Mark

Any of the various 30 to 40 min rod building component epoxies will work. Can also use Devcon 2 ton epoxy, it is sold in many local hardware stores, such as Ace hardware, and thus is readily available. It is quite flexible and very strong. Apply it to the gap, heat gently with a hair dryer until it flows into the gap and repeat until the gap is filled. Add a winding check and clean up with DNA. Should only take a few minutes and you should get excellent results.
Norm