Hello, first time posting here.
I am in the process of building my first fly rod and have a question.
Do you guys have experience with building a cork grip directly on the blank? I.e. fitting each ring individually and then gluing one ring at the time directly to the blank. I was thinking about epoxy for cork to blank and Cork/Wood glue for cork to cork.
Wouldn't that make the grip bulletproof?
I have seen several guides mentioning this, but never showing how to do it, so I was wondering if it would be a bad idea.
Normally they reccomend turning your grip on a mandrel, and reaming it out later to fit the rod.

I build all my grips on the blank. I use a product called Liquid Fusion, available at hobby/craft stores. I fit each ring to within 2" of where it will end up in the grip. Then a ring of glue around the blank and slide the ring into place. I use enough glue to adhere the next ring to the one below it and to the blank as well. When all rings are in place it goes into the grip clamp and cures overnight. I have never used a mandrel for over 3000 rods.

what ever glue you use it will make it easyer if you use ony one type of glue for the project , I use slow cure epoxie for the compleat job, when I build on the blank ,

William Sidney
AK

Tore,
I have built many rods turning the grips on the blank. I have always used 30 minute curing epoxy. This glue allows me to glue up the entire rear grip, reel seat, arbors, and fore grip with one batch of glue. I like the fact that it is one batch of glue so that there are no discontinuities in any of the joints.

I use a drill or reamer to fit all of the rings to the blank as well as the arbors etc. to the blank at the station where they will be installed. When it comes time to fit everything together, I have everything on the blank, slid up the blank for storage while fitting. Then, starting with the rear most ring, I slid the ring down, apply a film of glue to the ring and blank and put in place. Then, I use a threaded rod ring clamp to clamp the entire assembly in place. i.e. rear grip, reel seat and fore grip for curing.

Then, I mount the blank and glued up handle assembly in my full length rod lathe.

The full length rod lathe is a 10 foot long board with a 3600 rpm buffer motor mounted on one end of the board. Then, there is a 1/2 inch keyless chuck mounted on the end of the drill motor to hold the blank. I normally use a piece of solid blank material that I have sanded down to a taper to fit up inside the new rod blank to hold and spin the blank while turning. Then, I will place 2-5 blank holders on the lathe bed to hold the blank stationary while turning the blank. The rod holders are made of skate board bearaings mounted on a pair of aluminum beams that are vertically adjustable to hold the blank stationary. If the blank is a large stiff blank, I may use as few as 2 rod holders while turning. If the blank is light and very flexible and long, I may use as many as 5 rod holders to hold the blank rigid while turning.

The danger with turning a grip on the blank is the possibility that you may get the rod whipping and destroy the blank in a few seconds if you do not have the blank secure at the correct points.

A blank will have points of harmonic oscillation as you go down the blank from one end to the other. Since I have a single speed fixed rpm motor on my rod lathe, I keep my hand on the switch when first starting the blank to spin, and my other hand on the blank to find the point of least oscillation on the blank. After you have done a few blanks you find that generally speaking, you can set up the first two rod holders at appropriate spots to minimize vibration. Then, I check and recheck to find the next point of minimum vibration on the blank to set the next rod holder. I continue this process until I am at the tip of the rod and have the entire blank stabilized. At each point where I have a rod holder, I place a couple wraps of masking tape to protect the blank from getting rub marks from the bare bearings that are holding the blank secure.

A picture of the style rod holder that I use to secure the spinning blank on the full length rod lathe:

[www.rodbuilding.org]

By the way, after getting my wood lathe, I also found that the same rod rest works very well if I am turning a long grip on the wood lathe and I need to stabilize the end of the grip while drilling or reaming the inside of the grip:

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Before I made the rubber ring protected rod rests that I currently use on my rod wrapper, I also used the plain skate board bearing rod rests on my rod wrapper. A simple board, with a slot routed down the center of the board to hold a carriage bolt that came up through the center of the rod rest to secure the rod rest in place. I use the same concept on my full length rod lathe as well. i.e. a simple 10 foot long board with a slot milled down the center of the board to secure the rod rest to the lathe bed.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Things do not have to be complicated to work very well.

Be safe



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/2014 12:42PM by roger wilson.

I developed a way to SAFELY mount a fly rod to Flexcoat cork lathe that would work with any lathe. You can glue-up grip AND fighting butt at same time and turn the whole thing at once. You connect the male ferrule to the chuck - NOT IN THE CHUCK. NEVER place a blank IN the chuck.
Email me if you want instx.
Herb

I have been mounting and turning the cork on the rod blank since I started building rods 15 years ago. On both bamboo and graphite blanks I use just Titebond II, for the cork, I will lightly scuff a graphite blank for a better hold of the glue, but that is all. By scuffing I mean very lightly with steel wool. I have never had one fail since I started.

Denny

I make my own mandrils out of scrap blanks Thick walled and STRAIGHT I check them
Glue and put on a threaded rod when dry ream to fit a mandril
Then it goes on the Home Made Drill Lath and is shaped
If I had the room i would have all the nice equipment several laths - wrappers and all that other stuff -
Any cutting where it needs a streight edge - Like two sections of a long butt grip that i am doing now - and the sections have to be streight to fit well I put the piece on the lath and as it turns hit with sandpaper - Edge Streight _ Excellant fit
If for any reason I screw up it is not on the blank Cut off any bad areas and replace or just make a new one
On a blank ya probably need at least a 6 ft lath Plus and 3 - 4 supports to make sure ya don't snap the blank while at high speed

Bill - willierods.com

So it seems there is no problem in doing what I planned, thanks everyone!
Roger, I have a 4 piece rod, so the lower section is only about 30 inches. Do I need to worry about harmonic oscillation when turning the cork grip?

NO
Just make sure the section is or has enough support

Bill - willierods.com

Tore, NO, there should be no harmonic oscillation if you have your rollers set at the correct height. spin slow and then work the speed up to make sure the blank is centered perfectly. I usually start with 40 grit and work up to 400 grit. Have fun, turning the grips is one of my favorite parts of rodbuilding.

I thought you were talking a long one piece rod
30 " is nothing Like said just make sure it is supported well

And A turn of painters tape on the blank will help to Not Leave Marks On The Blank when you are done

Bill - willierods.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/2014 06:06PM by bill boettcher.

Tore,
If you turn the blank from the butt you will not be able to glue-up and turn the fighting butt at same time.

Means that you will have to turn the FB separately and bore it and glue it on after.

Herb

Herb, did I miss something? I don't recall seeing anything about a fighting butt?

Herb, I dont intend to include a fighting butt, but thank you anyway.

Herb,
Much of the time I make cork grips with cork but caps.

I bore a hole in the end of the end cork ring to match the ID of the end of the blank.

Then, I use a piece of solid tapered blank that I sand down to have a nice friction fit for several inches into the blank. Then, I chuck the tapered blank piece into the keyless chuck that I use on my full length rod lathe.

I go ahead and turn the grip and the butt cap on the rod.

When finished, I make a plug for the hole, glue it in, and then sand it flush with my disk sander that has a cross vise mounted on it to keep the end square with respect to the rod blank.

Be safe.

I only build saltwater fly rods - so I made an assumption. No line weight was mentioned. Do you mean here are people who fish fresh water??? :-))
Funny thing is more do that than salt.
Herb

Herb,
Perhaps, but on a world wide scale millions more lbs of fish are caught from saltwater every year than fresh water. Of course the majority of these fish are caught in nets or traps.

Be safe

Roger
"They" are just decimating the saltwater striped bass population. Both individuals killing fish and commercial.
On Cape Cod this past June I saw a guy kill a keeper but also short.
I told a state guy in an official truck - but he said it was not his job. He was only mosquito control.
Herb

Greed !!!

Bill - willierods.com