What’s the best way to ream fighting butts? I’m gluing up cork rings and want to build some handles this weekend. It just always takes forever to read fighting butts by hand. Is there a faster way? I’ve heard of some people starting it off with a drill bit...
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I've tried a lot of different reel seat and fore grip combos in rods and still haven't quite found the perfect setup for me. Specifically, I place my entire hand in front of the spinning reel. Would like whatever seat/fore grip gives the best sensitivity and it light weight. Currently the best setup I've found is to use one of the contoured American tackle aero seats BACKWARDS, or up locking
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I remember reading about using titebond for a cork handle build, which one is best. Thanks in advance.
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Cork Butt grips with rubberized cork ends are always a drill, grind, ream, file guessing game for me. How do you ream down to the rubberized cork dead center while leaving the rubberized cork end in tact...and do it for a snug fit on any blank??
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I'm preparing to build and turn my first cork ring grip on my mini lathe. I've read on here and elsewhere about building grips and it seems like most builders favor various epoxies and Titebond. Is there any harm in using regular Elmer's Carpenter Wood Glue? I used to use it a lot for furniture making and it works extremely well in that capacity but I'm curious why I don't read more about it bein
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Has anyone tried these yet? I have some and I was thinking of using them on my next build. I have everything fit and sized up but was wondering how I should epoxy them on. I was thinking of epoxying them on the blank in place first then after the epoxy dries put the reel seats on. I thought I would check here first to see if anyone has used them.
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Hello. I am just starting to make my own cork grips. I wanted to get opinions on the best method to glue the rings. I have seen both wood glue and epoxy being used. Does anyone have experience with both methods and if so which do you prefer? Thanks.
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I am ordering a 8’10 20-40lb Batson 1089 blank and would like to put cork grips on it. The butt end has an outside diameter of 0.790” and the cork grips have an inside diameter of 0.375” so I will definitely have to ream out the inside, but the problem is the reamer with the largest diameter that I can find has a diameter of only 0.550” - 0.700”. This reamer is the CRB extreme reamer. Any suggest
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Guys, Need some advice on how to center my cork pieces when reaming them out. I use a drill with the Alps reamers and do it by hand with each piece. However some of them are not centered, making my job of shaping handle more difficult. ANY advice would be helpful!! Thanks "Bent Rods to ya" Darrel from CA.
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I am looking to build my first rod and it will be a Centerpin / Float rod. In doing the individual cork rings, I have watched videos where they put them on a mandrel,glue them together and after sanding ream out the whole handle. I have also observed each individual ring get reamed and fitted on the blank,then the blank itself get spun for sanding the handle.What are the opinions of each techniqu
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Can't seem to find this through search, but probably out there. I'm building a couple inshore spinning rods and want to use the Aero comfort seat. I turn my own grips, but never done one to fit into an odd shaped reel seat, which appears to be the case with the Aero. How do I create the tight fit shoulder/tenon in cork? I know I can buy pre-made, but want to know how to do this myself. Than
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I'm sure this has been asked many times, but what is the best cleaner before applying epoxy on the rod so I don't get the dimples? Also another question What cleaner to remove the excess epoxy when installing cork handles.
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Hi all Have been building for many years I have had the opportunity to use all the different color preservers out there if you think I am kidding I am not do you remember when the only color preservers around were plain clear lacquer or Elmers white glue thinned with water . And the finish was spar marine varnish ??? With that said This is what I have done or used over my time building rods
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Been reading a few posts about reaming handle material and wanted to add this question. How important is a close fit of the cork to the rod blank? My perception is that the closer the better. A close to perfect fit will require less epoxy and as a result less weight added to the rod. But how important is that? The extra weight of the epoxy is all at the handle end of the rod and not much we
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any one use west system epoxy thank you Jim
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Hi guys while fixing my handle I broke it brought to mind what kind of glue are you using to glue cork rings together. I have been using a combo of either Pro Glu or Pro Paste and I like the results but I was just wondering if there was something else out there that would work as well. Does anyone use the Tite Bond 3 wood glue? Just courious as to what everyone is using for glue. Thanks Justin
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Hi guys I have a problem I would like some help with. I put a cork handle together on a mandrel, got it all sanded down nice and ready to ream to fit the rod. While I was reaming the cork handle cracked in two. I started with the smallest reamer I had and was working my way up and I was on the last sized reamer when it cracked. I had another handle that I messed up earlier so I figured I woul
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I've been asked to build a pair of grips using a few checkerboard trim rings. It's not usually my type of thing, so I really hate to spend the cash on cork cutting jigs and the little saw. Does anyone know of a source for pre-fabbed checkerboard rings? I've seen them in the past, but can't find them now.
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Just getting started in this new hobby. I'm building a trout rod for my son for Christmas. What do you guys use for shaping the cork handle??? I've seen one out on Mudhole but it's a little expensive for me, just starting out in this. I really didn't want to put out that kind of money until I see if I like this or not. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks
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I'm making my first cork handle rod. I've only made one other rod and it was a EVA handled casting rod. I got the 11" Tennessee handle kit from Mudhole, and as I was trying to ream it, I broke the cork. I was going to order another one, but thought I might should ask some questions first. I do not plan on using the slip grips to hold the reel on, so should I just be able to ream the 11&q
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Hello all, new to this forum, and looking for some help. Last year I started putting some Hwd's into my handles along with cork, I glued the rings (Wood / Cork Combinations) using 5 min loctite epoxy like I have done with most all of my cork handles and then clamped the cork/wood with a wooden block all thread clamp. Several of the wood to wood glue bonds have failed on the first rod I built, w
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I just turned my first cork grip yesterday. I know someone with a lathe who is fairly experienced using it so I went and did it with them. I'm not quite sure how it happened (I suspect that the rotation of the lathe was a bit eccentric), but the center hole in the front of the grip wound up about an 1/8" off center. The hole on the back end of the grip is dead on. My question is twofold. If
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This will be my first build and I have a lot invested with this block of stabalized wood and don't want to go wrong here. What's a good glue to bring these 2 together on the mandrel? I have wood glue and 30 ton epoxy. I was planning on using the epoxy, is there a better adhesive for cork and wood than wood glue and should I ever use epoxy to hold cork together? Now that I think about it I feel li
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I am making my first attempt at building a custom rod handle. I am planning on using all-thread, large washers held in places nuts on each end of the cork once the epoxy glue is applied. Is there anything I can apply to the all-thread to keep epoxy from adhering should some inadvertently leak through? Any help and or advice are greatly appreciated!
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I am planning on turning my first grip and have a few questions. The first deals with the design concept. How do you come up with the design pattern you intend to use. Since this is my first time turning a grip I do not have cork, burl, or burnt rings on hand to put next to each other and see if I like it. Is there an easy way to visualize the look of the finished grip before hand? Next questions
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I have been playing with this cutting cork for a couple of years now an doing a fair job at it [ learning curve ] the question I have is when I cut the cork ring into the small pie shape wedges, when gluing them back together ???? has any one ever used supper glue to put the pie shapes together ?? If so how good is it ?? I don't mean to glue the ring to each other or to put the rings
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Hello everyone, This is my first post so I apologize in advance if this has been covered in the past; I couldn't find it while searching the forum. I am new to rod building and I am also new to a South Bend 9A lathe that I bought a few months ago. I would like to shape some cork handles but need a little help getting started. I would assume that my lathe's chuck would damage the rod b
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I am just getting into this rod building thing. I am wondering how I can go about trying to mimic those rods that have cork within the handle of the reel seat. I find this really comfortable. The most comfortable rod that I own is a G.Loomis GLX that has what Loomis calls a "reverse" reel seat. I am wondering if I can just use a split reel seat like a Fuji Sk2 and then incorpora
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Plan on doing a few fly rod builds this winter and am doing research on the required tools. On the cork turning, I'm seeing two methods 1. Make handle off of blank, set up rings on a 1/4 threaded rod or plain steel rod, clamp together, and when dry you can throw the rod into the drill, drill into a vise, and sand away. Probably the easiest method. Have seen some say that you shouldnt use the r
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I have a container of cork filler by rod-dancer that dried up on me. I've only used it a couple of times and it has already hard and dried up. any tips I could do to increase the storage life on them? Ive used elmers wood filler glue, and it works just fine, but the color doesn't match as well as rod-dancers cork paste.
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