Never worked with this before. Any do's or don'ts?

Assume your referring to finished handles not making your own. Biggest tip I can give is when you go to glue up wrap the grip completely and well with masking tape. The woven texture of the carbon fiber is a pain to get any epoxy whoops' off. Other thing to watch for is if your using a grit coated reamer to ream the grip. The foam core really likes to hold on to any grit that may break loose as your reaming. I always run a steel rod or a blank scrap through the grip before dropping it down the blank to get rid of the grit and prevent scratches.

Michael Sutheimer Wrote:
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> Assume your referring to finished handles not
> making your own. Biggest tip I can give is when
> you go to glue up wrap the grip completely and
> well with masking tape. The woven texture of the
> carbon fiber is a pain to get any epoxy whoops'
> off. Other thing to watch for is if your using a
> grit coated reamer to ream the grip. The foam core
> really likes to hold on to any grit that may break
> loose as your reaming. I always run a steel rod or
> a blank scrap through the grip before dropping it
> down the blank to get rid of the grit and prevent
> scratches.


Thanks for the tip. I can see what you mean about getting epoxy inside all those pores. Actually I was thinking of using both, the factory made as well as the custom made variety.

Take your time reaming them. They ream EXTREMELY easy. And personally I ream them so they're snugging up to the blank at about 1/2" above the point I want them to be when in their final position. I've only used the ones from CFX that are available from Mudhole. One grip that I built myself, using the kit Mudhole has available, and the others that were stock grips.

I love them though. They clean pretty easily. They aren't slick at all, and I even top coated one with epoxy and Perma Gloss so it has a finish like glass. I will say the one I have top coated becomes slippery if you have fish slime or some thing similar on your hands. But it's not slippery if it's just that your hands are wet.

Great ideas here. Thank you very much.
Do you ream the handle to fit the blank before you shape it? Does it matter?

Shape first and ream later when ready to glue it to the blank.
Norm