Hello everyone,

My son is building his 5th rod, and it is the first time he has used Winn Grips. I don't know if there was an issue with the hole in the grips that arrived or with the technique used by my son, but after he reamed the rear grip you could easily see that the hole was not centered. So now the seat does not run flush against the rear Grip all the way around the rod. Thus, his "fit and finish" that we talk about and strive to perfect is not good.

Can the group offer up some tips that we can use next time to check for an off-center hole and how to fix it or a new reaming technique that will give better results? None of his other builds had this problem, so I don't know if we were unlucky this time around with the grips we bought, or if were fortunate before and need to tweak his technique to prevent this from happening again.

Thanks for your help.

You have to continually move to larger and larger reamers as you enlarge the bore. With a reamer that is much smaller than the bore, the tendency is to over-ream the rear of the grip, along with getting it off-center.

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How did he ream the grip, and what type of reamer was used? Tom is right if you use a reamer smaller than the hole it is easy to get it off center. This usually occurs when you only have only one reamer or rat tail file and try to make do. Use a reamer set such as the dream reamer set or make your own. If he is reaming by hand using a dream reamer set, or something similar, start with a reamer that fits snugly, and slowly twist the grip and reamer back and forth going in then coming back out. If you are using the reamer under power with a hand drill, again start with a reamer that fits snugly, go in a little then back out a little, occasionally letting the grip slip in your hand, this helps to keep everything centered. Go slow and easy it's when you force things you get off center. You may be able to salvage the grip by slowly reaming again trying to get the grip centered on the reamer using gentle pressure as the grip rotates. Ream from the front of the grip then the rear of the grip, trying to center the grip as you go. When finished the grip may be loose fitting, but you can get a snug fit by wrapping some dry wall tape on the blank. The nice thing about dry wall tape is it's very light and is a mesh allowing the epoxy to bond directly to the blank and grip. I will tack the edge of dry wall tape to the blank using a drop of super glue before wrapping and coating with epoxy. This keeps the tape from moving when sliding the grip in place. With the butt cap and reel seat in place you will never know there was a problem. Hope this helps.
Norm

Great. Thanks

x10 on Norm's comments about letting the grip slip from time to time as you ream.

I use a 3/8th or 1/2 inch variable speed drill and use circular files - running in reverse - to ream out grips.

I wear a knit glove on the hand that is holding the grip. With the knit glove, I can let the grip slip from time to time to help to keep the hole centered in the grip.

The glove keeps from burning your hand, as you let the grip slip and then you need to stop the spinning grip.

Be safe

If he is reaming with just one type or diameter of reamer he needs to constantly rotate it as he reams. Otherwise use a graduated reamer set up as Tom said. You can do it faster with it mounted on a drill but you will also still have to rotate it. As he does it he needs to look for uneven areas and apply more pressure as needed on those areas. The linear hole through the grip needs to be conical, with the part that is mounted toward the butt being larger than the part toward the tip. This will help it center. You will also need to let him make mistakes and pay for them accordingly. Otherwise he will not learn. You can always take off but you can't add so do it sparingly and constantly fit to the blank to insure fit until it is right. If you ream the hole out a little too much you can use some tape to make up for it, just make sure you put epoxy on the edges of the tape when you mount the grip.

All good advice, but if you have one that is eccentric and you want to salvage it, it's worth a try to ream it larger to achieve concentricity, then build the blank up with masking tape in enough places, depending on the length of the grip, to keep it very solid when done. Winding checks can hide the problem. This is one of the many processes in building that require practice practice practice. + graduated reamers and the processes mentioned above.