Hi going to try making my 1st custom grips. What should i use to glue cork? Same thing if I’m doing EVA?

thanks for the help!

Francis,

One thing about making grips is to use a glue that sands at about the same rate - as the cork or other material you may be using to make the grip.

Now, I am only speaking of gluing the cork pieces together. For this work, I typically use Titebond III wood glue that is water proof, inexpensive and sands only a bit harder than the cork material.

However, once the grip has been glued together and I am going to glue the completed grip to the rod blank, I will always use epoxy glue.

The fit of the grip on the rod blank should be pretty good. As a result, I have never found it necessary to use a THICK epoxy as some folks advocate. I simply use standard epoxy glue with about a 30 minute cure time to allow for perfect fit and orientation, before the glue begins to setup.

Take care
REW

Normally you'd use contact cement for adhering EVA to EVA. Epoxy for adhering to the rod blank. For cork, most use either a quality, waterproof woodworking glue or epoxy for cork to cork and epoxy for cork to rod blank.

.............

just expanding a bit for other materials such as acrylics, or other that you may use...

EVA to EVA - solvent based content cemener (not the water based)
Cork to Cork (including burl/rubberized) - Titebond III
mixed materials, including acrylics - epoxy - such as RodBond

grips to blank - epoxy

Titebond II is also waterproof, you may notice that at the store, but III is water cleanup also.

West Marine GFlex650
Herb

26/3 Free-Form EVA Inlays Part 1  By Tom Kirkman. 20  
26/4 Free Form EVA Inlays Part 2   By Tom Kirkman. 20  
26/5 Free Form EVA Inlays . Part 3   By Tom Kirkman. 14  
26/6 Free-Form EVA Inlays PART 4.   By Tom Kirkman. 14  
7/3 EVA & Hypalon Grips, Further Techniques: The Next Step - Inserts. 18  
20/2 EVA / Hypalon Plug Inserts. 16  
7/3 EVA and Hypalon, Creating Custom Grips. By Tom Kirkman. 10  
13/4 EVA Cutting Jig By Marchisella. 28  
19/2 EVA Grip Grain Orentation.   By Henry Schluer. 22  
12/3 EVA Grip Inlays, "How To".   By Bernie Cohen. 18  
12/3 EVA Grip Inlays.   By Bernie Cohen. 14  
10/1 EVA Grip Mounting. 19  
20/4 EVA Grip Projects.   By Jimmy Langevin. 22  
11/2 EVA Grip Removal Made Easy.   By Dave Gallagher. 24  
18/4 EVA Grips, Laminated.   By Tom Kirkman. 14  
20/3 EVA Inlays, Advanced.   By Darya Lentz. 14  
15/3 EVA or Wood Ellipticals.   By Billy Vivona. 14  
20/5 EVA Stock, Lathe Roughing.   By Tom Kirkman. 22  
21/3 EVA Techniques, Inserts, Part 1.  By Tom Kirkman. 16

Lots to read.

Tight Wraps & Tighter Lines. 

I remember Ralph's method, who was an epoxy genius, saying to use rod bond. He said to coat each surface of the cork ring then essentially scraping it off each surface causing almost a zero seam thickness then clamp together. My .02

Michael Ward Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> just expanding a bit for other materials such as
> acrylics, or other that you may use...
>
> EVA to EVA - solvent based content cemener (not
> the water based)
> Cork to Cork (including burl/rubberized) -
> Titebond III
> mixed materials, including acrylics - epoxy - such
> as RodBond
>
> grips to blank - epoxy

For mixed materials would any 2 part epoxy work or rodbond specifically?

Any 2 part epoxy adhesive will work, takes very little, I butter it on than I can scrape it off to keep the mess and glue line to a minimum, doesn't take much.

I have always used epoxy. It sands well and I have never had any problems. Just about any good epoxy should be fine. My go to is Titebond as many have suggested. But I also have not tried some of the techniques mentioned that I just may have to try.