I have a question about these urethane inserts for reel seats that I am seeing in catalogs. In an effort to take weight off my rods (for sensitivity purposes not because I can't handle fishing all day without wearing out :-)..) I am considering making my cork and wood handles with urethane cores. I like the look of wood on my rods but it does add weight. The average weight of the combined
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I have a customer who wants to replace the tennessee handle on a spinning rod with a regular real seat, preferably a skeleton seat. 2 problems with this, I've never done a skeleton seat and I've never put on a real seat from the butt end of the rod. I don't even know if this is possible to do, I'm sure it is but it's beyond me. If you can put on a seat from the butt end, can you shim the arbor
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I made some mistakes with my first fly grip on a steel mandrel, glued the grip up with wood glue and left it on the mandrel until I could get it on the lathe to turn it. Sat on my bench for over a month, finally turned it on the lathe and it was perfect........when I went to remove it from the mandrel it absolutely wouldn't budge. I tried everything to remove it and it finally came off in pieces.
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I realize that the world is generally right handed. However, there are some of us that are left handed. In most of the equipment pictures, I note that the wrapper motor is typically on the left side of the picture, such that the rod butt will be on the left, and the blank will extend across the rod to the right. When I first started buidling, I set up my rod wrapper this way and attempte
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Like many or most of us, I started out building rods with virtually no knowledge about the craft. One of the very first things I learned, though, was glue up can be a real hassle -- if you're not careful, you can get epoxy everywhere -- your hands, your bench, your dog, your spouse -- and if you don't do glue up right, you're going to be disappointed in your finished rod. Few things in rodbuildin
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Finally were a gonna do it. A 10 minute Rod Bond has been in the mill for almost a year, and were finallly going to do it. I had it ready about 4 months ago, but had to hold things up and make another change. I made the first formula to industry standards and formulated it to have a 10 minute work life at 75deg.F I forgot the boys in florida and most of the South do their thing in 90 degre
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How do you make a centered hole on a wood grip? I was thinking about drilling the square wood and installing allthread before turning it on the lathe but then I cant mount it to the lathe on one end. How do you guys do it?
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I sat and tried to figure out an accurate cost / inch for the composite grips today. Here is what I came up with: 1.25" Carbon Fiber Sleeve $0.23/inch 1.1" Heat Shrink Tubing $0.07/inch 8lb. Density Foam $0.02/inch (based on the 1/2 cubic foot kit) That comes to a grand total of $0.32/inch I have been using the US Composites Laminati
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Gidday Fellow Crafters, I am having difficulties keeping everything centred. I was turning a cork grip at the weekend and I have managed to create a bulge on one side. I am using a Renzetti and turning the grip on the blank. Are there any secrets for centering? I am not convinced I am chucking the blank correctly. Would an additional rollered support help the problem? Also, would the
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I have built several custom sets of colored burl and burnt cork handles on all-thread rods , No problem getting them off. The ? is How do you get them drilled out to fit the rod blank after wards? No kidding I sent a complete rod package to a rod builder for a build before I started building, and He could not ream it out, 8" forgrip ,14" rear grip. He did not even build the r
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Hi Guys, I have ordinarily glue my cork rings onto the blank piece by piece and then shape the grip once its is all dried. However I noticed on the web that some guys are gluing the rings individiually onto a metal maderil and then shaping thereon before gluing the preformed grip onto the blank. Does the cork not get stuck to the metal maderil if you do the latter? Obviously not but why...how
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several people have asked about this. if you are going to glue up more than 2 rings it can be difficult to get them aligned and keep them from sliding when gluing and clamping. this method works and will allow you to keep them aligned as you add as many rings as you want. 1. take 2 rings, align and glue them up(clamping them). 2. let the glue set up to the point the rings won't slide aroun
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Just wanted to report that I finished up two identical 7' popping rods. One was made with a cork butt and fore grip and the other with foam core carbon skinned butt and fore grips. I was very careful to turn and shape the two grip sets as nearly identical as I could get them. The set made from cork weighed in at 0.8 ounces and the foam core carbon skinned grip set weighed in at 0.5 ounces. I was
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How do you guys feel about the foam cored grips? I mean after the excitement and novelty of trying new things wears out. Im seeeing it as more work for the rod builder, having to flock the core is just an extra step and more work. Be it material spray flocking, carbon flocking or whatever else becomes of this. On one hand I guess you could charge more for the extra labor involved. That defeats
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Do you think it would be possible or even practical to pour a grip right onto the rod? I am going to build a 130lb class rod and was thinking of doing a flocked grip and thought since the ID was so large 1". that maybe I could set up a form right on the rod and pour it. Any thoughts?
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Good day fellow rodbuilders- I have on past rods used 2 part epoxies for securing my cork grips to the blank but the result is an extension of the stiffness of my reel seat through the full length of my grip. I am inquirying if anyone out there has used a more flexible adhesive thereby allowing flex through the handle? Would such an idea have merit for better feel through the fly rod? Or should I
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I assume that cork rings are made from a section of cork that is cut into specific lengths by a machine. What I would like to know is what causes the divits (sp?), uneven cork faces, dents in the cork face that keeps two cork ring faces from fitting tightly against each other whan clamped and epoxied side by side on a blank during the early stages of building a grip? I guess what I am asking i
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I have tried several methods for long spey grips: 1) Making the grip on a madrel then boring it out. Usually have probelms centering the bore and its difficult to hand ream. Have tried power reaming, broke the a small Batson dream reamer. Do OK with sand glued to old blanks. Usually have to shim with tape to get it centered on the blank. 2) Gluing the rings and real seat on and then turning
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I am confused and need help. I want to use a exposed blank reel seat but i am not exactly sure how it needs to be secured to the blank. Correcty me if I am wrong, I need to measure where the seat will go so that i get one that fitts as tight as possible, insert arbors into seat and ream to fit blank then epoxy every thing to the blank? I know I probably got all this wrong so any and all help wil
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Hi Everyone, Wanted to check...when you glue your individual cork rings together to make a grip on a fly rod or the like, how much pressure from the clamp do you put on? Is it until you cannot screw the screws down anymore or just so there is sufficient downward pressure on the rings to keeep them alinged and closed? Thanks.
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Hi, I'm new to the RodBuilders.org group and I've already found it useful, especiall regarding "Spiral Wrap" rods because I've a custumer who wants one. Anyway, my question? I've always used epoxy but found that it was harder that cork and sometimes in sanding the cork would sand away leaving slightly the hard edge of the glued area. I read that some one suggested using "Weldwoo
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Ok, I did a search and pulled up some info....But still if I could have some clarification that would be appreciated. I use custom tackle jigs to cut the cork into 4ths and 8ths. Ive seen people sucessfully do checkboards with these, so I am sure it is user error. Anyhow, my first checkboard was done with slicing the cork rings, gluing the rings, zip tie and let dry. post drying I would d
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On many ultralites, the blank dia. is less than 0.250" by the time you get to the foregrip section. I usually build up two small spacers with 1/4" masking tape to center the grip, then epoxy it well. Anyone have any better or different ways around this? I like to use a lot burl cork rings, which I have not seen in inside dia's other than 0.250". Thanks, Marc
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I know this question has come up a lot on this site, but I have gotten even more confused after reading all the different ideas that come up from a search on "spey grips," or "buidling cork grips." What is the best, safest, and easiest way to build cork grips out of rings for a spey rod? Some say it is best to build them on a threaded rod, while others say it is best t
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On my spinning rods, all of my seats have the threaded end pointing towards the rear. When gluing in my foam arbors, I let it extend out the rear a bit so I can slip a large vinyl winding over it and up against the rear grip for a nicer look. But my next project is a casting rod and the threads will be pointing at the back of the foregrip. I'd really like to have someting nicer looking than
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Hey Guys, Just wanted to let you know that our latest product, Ultimate Epoxy 15 will be in stock and ready to ship on April 1st. This is a structural epoxy glue in a gel/paste form used to bond cork, foam, wood aluminum, nickel silver and nylon reelseats to bamboo, carbon and fiberglass. It's the latest addition to the Ultimate Epoxy line of application specific adhesiv
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Hey guys. I now have aluminum jigs for cutting cork rings to make the checkers. What do I want to use to cut them? How do you recommend gluing them together? As always I really appreciate the help. Sincerely, Dan Colville
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Just wondering is there an easy way to ream cork without a lathe. I have been glueing five to seven cork rings at a time and when reaming with my drill, it always tends to ream at an angle. Should I ream less rings or is the best and slowest way, one by one the safest way of doing this without a lathe?? Thanks Fernando Torres
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hi paul here where did you get the clamp drilling cork boring i would like to buy one if can get it a very good idea or how to make one thanks
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Hey guys, Just to expand on Karen's post below, two new products will be on the shelves of our distributors this week: 1. ULTIMATE GEL , A structural Epoxy Gel for mounting reelseats, grips etc....we designed this for the most demanding applications such as OffShore Trolling, Surf etc...however it works great for any grip/reelseat application. Incredible gap filling
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