What do you guys do when you glue the cork rings together to make a grip on ha a steel rod in the middle. Do you wax the metal, so it is not glued together with cork and makes it possible to retract after the epoxy/glue has hardened?

What I use is a Teflon rod, I glue and stack the rings on the Teflon rod and then mount the assembly in my home made cork compression clamp. You can buy one of these clamps from many of the sponsored vendors or make one yourself..

When the adhesive is cured I can pull out the rod with little effort.

If you want to use a metal rod, then wax or some non penetrating release agent is recommended. I would not use grease or oil unless you intend to ream out the bore to final fit the grip. The bore should then be cleaned with solvent (DNA) to make sure no oil or grease is present.

Another method is to stack and glue the rings directly on the blank and turn the grip on a lathe , power wrapper, or a electric drill jury rig.

Have fun.

I drill my rings to 5/16 ID and use a 5/16 threaded rod for gluing them together. By drilling to 5/16 I avoid some reaming that I would have with 14 ID. I carefully apply epoxy to the rings avoiding the rod (with most rods that inner area is going to be reamed away, so no need to go near the ID with epoxy or other adhesive). I don't use any wax and the glued rings come off the rod easily. I've never had a glued ring failure on a rod.

Swipe some paraffin wax up and down the mandrel. the cork rings, if snug, will be tight enough for turning, but a quick twist will "pop" the cork cylinder loose.

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Just don't let the paraffin wax get onto the surfaces you are trying to glue.

The wax is a solid, not a liquid so it's not at all hard to keep it on the mandrel.

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Terje,
Graduate to epoxying the cork rings right on the blank - eliminates a lot of issues. The biggest is not having to ream the grip which avoids voids between the grip and blank.
Herb

Terje,
Most likely, you will be turning / sanding the rings on the mandrel after glueing them together. You will find that the stiffer the mandrel is = the better. I have found that thin-wall PTFE (Teflon) tubing over a threaded rod (solid rod is stiffer but more difficult to clamp the grip) provides adequate stiffness while releasing the grip very easily after being shaped and sanded. Determine the smallest diameter of the blank where the grip will be mounted and purchase the next size down (OD) of PTFE tubing and accompanying threaded rod. McMaster Carr is a great source. This will allow for the stiffest (largest diameter) threaded rod while also minimizing the amount of taper-reaming required to actually fit the grip to the blank. No possibilities of contamination from wax or release agent and the tubing and threaded rod can be used numerous times.

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

I do exactly the same thing as Michael with one exception.

I use a drill or reamer or both to size each cork ring to the size that matches the rod blank at the specific location where the cork ring will be located on the finished rod.

Then, I use the largest size threaded rod that fits into the smallest hole that I have reamed into the tip end of the rod grip.

Then, I use masking tape on the threaded rod to increase the size of the threaded rod as I move back toward the butt end of the rod.

Finally, I go ahead and glue everything up with Titebond III glue. This is a water proof glue that is water soluble which makes clean up a snap. Also, the Titebond III glue is much less expensive than any epoxy.

Then, I put a large fender washer on each end of the threaded bolt and nut and make them tight. Now with the excess titebond squeezing out between the cork rings. I take a wet cloth and wipe all of the wet glue off the surface of the cork. I let the grip dry over night. Then, the next day, I remove the nuts and washers from each end of the threaded rod. Since the glue has not cured on the inside of the cork ring, It is easy to pull out the threaded rod built up as an arbor. I wipe the glue off the masking tape and threaded rod and work it back and forth through the center of the cork removing all excess glue that is in the center hole of the cork grips. I wipe down the arbor each time that I work it in and out of the cork grip.

Then, I lay the grip down and let the inside of the cork grip dry since it needs air to cure.

The end result is a grip that is well glued together, but has an interior size that is almost perfect to slip over the rod blank.

Finally, I take the threaded rod, which I have previously drilled a 60 degree centering hole on each and and put it into my wood lathe for shaping. By using the largest size threaded rod possible, many of the threaded rods are either 3/8th or 1/2 inch. As a result, there is next to no flexing with the threaded rod used as an arbor when it is in the lathe. I shape the grip on the lathe and then, remove the grip and arbor from the lathe, and then remove the threaded rod from the inside of the rod grip. Then, using a tapered reamer, I do a quick final clean up on the inside of the cork grip which takes very little time since it is mostly just a matter of cleaning out any hardened residual glue plus a tiny bit more.

Now, the grip is complete and takes its place in line for being assembled as part of the complete rod, with very little reaming needed on the inside of the grip, uses inexpensive wood glue, and uses inexpensive threaded rods for arbors.

The only downside of this method is that there is about a 48 hour drying time for the wood glue for the cork grips. If time is a high priority, then it is time to use the more expensive, more difficult to clean up epoxy glue.

Of course, the final assembly of the completed cork grip will be assembled using epoxy since the epoxy glue cures with a chemical bond and not a solvent evaporation bond as is the case with wood glue. Also, wood glue is not a good glue to use on fiberglass or graphite.

Take care



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/12/2021 07:50PM by roger wilson.

What works for me is just get the rings close to the proper ID.
Then carefully glue up on a threaded rod with wing nuts and large OD washers to clamp.
Or use a clamping device like the Flex Coat set-up.
After the glue has set up, just chuck in a drill or lathe and "unscrew" the cork grip.
A final ID sizing to match the blank, and dry fit.
Then I have assorted mandrels made from broken blanks to chuck up and then finish the OD.
What makes this appealing to me is that I can make up the grip in a small area compared to swing an entire blank with the grip already mounted.
And, if a blem is found or mistake made, better to do before mounting to the blank.
Also, pretty economical to do equipment-wise.
Hope this helps,

Best wishes,
Ron Schneider
Schneider's Rod Shop
Mountain Home, Arkansas
[www.schneidersrods.com]
mtnron40@yahoo.com
870-424-3381

I ream out the ID close to the blank size. Then I glue them up with a very thin coat of epoxy on a scrap piece of blank. The I put them in a cork clamp and tighten it up making sure the all are lined up. The cork rings are then tight in the clamp so I pull out the piece of blank. A little bit of reaming is needed to fit the blank. I then put it on a mandrel and turn it down to size.

I do what Ron Schneider does. If you glue cork rings to the blank and then turn them on your rod wrapper you are going to create two problems. 1) a mess to clean up where you need the area to be the most clean. 2) the probability of a subsurface flaw on the cork that is only exposed when you turn it to shape or an unacceptable shape/look. #2 can really screw everything up and it has happened to me several times when turning supposedly flor grade natural cork. You also only get one chance at shaping, you can always take off but you can't add.

The original question; I use a long threaded 1/4" bolt with fender washers and wing nuts. I cover the thread linear to the axis with blue tape, just under the length of the grip and also rub on surfboard wax on the tape. Glue up rings with a clear 15 minute set time low viscosity epoxy, let cure, pop them off bolt, mount to turning mandrel using tape if needed to shim and turn / shape. Reem to fit blank and mount. Easy peazy.