Help !!!! I am putting together some solid glass halibut rods for use in Alaskan waters. These are for a charter boat and take quite a bit of abuse from clients. The captain wants them copied after the standup slammer from Penn rods, only using solid glass blanks to minimize breakage. I am using a 8" slick butt, machined aluminum reel seat and using U-40 rod bond to attach these. When I try to slip on the 16" foregrips is where the problem arises. I am also using rod bond U-40 to attach the forgrips with grip-easy to help slid them down. I tried two in this fashion. Everything seemed normal, however, after 24 hours I could twist the foregrip all the way down to about 3-4" in front of the reel seat. I cut the grip off and found out all of the epoxy had been wiped clean and none was under the foregrip, only grip easy. The second rod was the same way. I've got 12 rods to build and I can't having the foregrip twist when these rods are being fished. This is the first time I've built rods using such a long foregrip.

The blank measures .550 in front of the reelseat. The ID of the foregrip is .500. The next available size grip ID up is .625. I am thinking about arboring up to this size and using liberal amounts of U-40 epoxy. Has anyone used this technique before? Do you think it will work? Would welcome suggestions.

Since these solid glass blanks are painted black with a clear coat of epoxy (I think), would it better to scrape off the paint and glue to the bare clean fiberglass blank?

Thank you
Tony

Here's your solution - drop the grip onto the blank and and make a mark where it stops. Remove the grip and apply your epoxy ABOVE that point by several inches. Apply it liberally. Also apply a just a bit in a spiral fashion from the marked point all the way down to where the grip will ultimately reside. But again, the greatest amount of epoxy should be applied above the mark.

Now drop your grip onto the blank and turn and twist it over the epoxy to thouroughly coat the inside of the grip. Grasp the top edge in a grip with your thumb and forefinger and squeeze to create a seal against the blank. Now push it into position. Just before it reaches the reel seat, switch your grip so that you are grasping the bottom of the grip and are now pulling the grip that last inch or so. This will restore the grip to its original length.

The epoxy will now be on both surfaces on the entire length of the grip and will not allow the grip to loosen.

You will also find that a grip mounted in this fashion slides into place very easily and almost without pressure at all. It will also be a permanent mount and never come loose on you. The only surface preparation needed is a cleaning with denatured solvent alcohol followed by a light abrading with a piece of ScotchBrite. Simple, quick, easy and very effective.

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Hi Tony-

Couple of questions: Are you using hypolon or EVA grips? What is the blank diameter 16" in front of the reelseat (where the grip ends)? That would determine what you could achieve with the grip material you already have, before you do any modifications. If your 1/2" grips fit snugly 16" from the reelseat, then it would be a matter of getting the glue where you want it, instead of shimming.

I use slow-cure epoxy to anchor the grip- to get it on the inside of the grip you need to put epoxy on the blank where the grip will be, as well as up the rod blank toward the tip. That way you can work the grip over the blank while coating the inside of the grip. Before you slide the grip all the way down and it gets tight, twist and turn the grip- move it up, down, and all around to distribute the glue everywhere on the inside of the grip.

Then slide it into place- the epoxy will act as a lubricant and you won't need the Grip Easy. I think hypolon is easier to fit than EVA, so that's what I usually use.

Oh yeah- two things I do when I'm building a number of rods like you are doing are: spiral masking tape up the blank from where the grip will end to keep epoxy off the blank ahead of the grip. This simplifies cleanup (just pull it off- blank is clean- no solvents used on the blank or time spent cleaning the blank). The other thing I do is use a disposable 1/2" wide stiff brush with the bristles cut down to about 5/8" long to spread the epoxy thinly and very quickly. This make it alot easier to do multiple rods with one batch of glue. It only takes about 30 seconds to apply the glue to each rod.

Sorry about writing a novel here- it's raining and I needed to kill some time!

Tom