I'm trying to find a way to install a butt cap on some Lamiglas BattleGlass rods. The butt cap that comes on the rods falls off after a little use, it is just glued to the end of the cork handle and is flat. The bottom of the cork handle is expose and gets beat going into and out of rod holders (tube style). I looked at a rubber butt cap that would fit over butt unfortunately the lip of the butt cap would catch on the rod holds. Is there away to cut tenons on the existing handle that is installed on the blank? Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I can get pictures later if that would help.

Thanks,

Matt Hehn

How about drilling both parts and using a dowel or rod piece to join them? It has been suggested here before that the shoe goo works well on rubber. Also sand the surface to be sure there is no mold release on it.

If you have a lathe just turn down the cork to the bare blank - creating the sort of tenon that you mention. Install a brick foam (urethane) arbor to the blank and mount the a butt cap over that. If you do not have a lathe you can still do this with a common wood rasp. You'll want to cut a smooth edge into the cork with a razor blade at the point above the portion you wish to remove, then file off the portion below that.

.......

Matt,
When building a rod, I cut a tenon in the end of a grip all of the time.

If you have a way to hold the rod full length and can spin the entire rod, you can effectively use the lathe type action of the spinning rod to do the same thing.

With no butt cap on the rod, you have an empty hole looking up the length of the rod blank.

Take a piece of solid stock - fiberglass, carbon, wood or any other material that will be in a dowel type format and will fit into the butt of the rod blank up several inches.

Then, use masking tape to wrap on the outside of the dowel/solid stock to form a tapered tight fit on the inside of the rod blank when the newly created tapered solid stock makes a nice tight fit as it is pushed into the open end of the rod blank.


Now, you have your rod, or grip - if working on the grip by itself to hold as you spin the rod, and or grip.

Measure from the end of the grip up toward the tip - to get the distance that you want to have the tenon.

When doing this work on the lathe, or the full length rod lathe lathe, I just use a ball point pen on the spinning blank to mark the location where you want to have your tenon.

Then, I use a 3 cornered file to cut the tenon. Set it on an edge and you get a nice sharp edge on the tenon, then lay the 3 cornered file flat to remove the rest of the stock. If you wish, you can use a flat file to hold on the spinning grip to remove the cork or grip material.

Once set up, this is about a 2 minute operation.

If you have some good rod rests, but not a good way to spin the full length rod, you can use a drill to chuck the piece of solid stock and have a 2nd person hold the drill to spin the work piece or build up a support for the drill and clamp it in place to hold the rod as you are spinning the rod.

You can look at some of the videos put out by flex coat who have an inexpensive drill holder to use to power a full length rod lathe, or to just provide power for a short piece to work on only a handle.

[www.youtube.com]

[www.youtube.com]

[www.youtube.com]

Like Tom said if you file off the cork, one stroke at a time, than move it a bit and take another, you'll be surprised just how centered you can stay. Then any minor adjustments can be done to center the cap before clamping and the expoxy will do the rest.