hello, I am building a saltwater rod and the butt of my rod is little less than one inch.. my butt grip is 14 inch long 3/4 id, my xl reamer is too small any suggestions on how to evenly ream it out for the larger diameter without making it uneven an sloppy ..

Cork? EVA? If it's EVA, use the rubber cement method......never ream again.

its eva grip alreeady had cut one grip off because i thought i reamed it out enough an it stopped shy of 10 inches from going all way down..

Hello Stacy.

How are you installing the grip?

When I install a saltwater grip on a 1" blank with a grip reamed to 3/4" I drop the grip down on to the blank while holding it upright and mark where the grip stops on the blank, I then apply epoxy (I use Rod Bond) the whole length from 6" above the mark to the end of the butt, slide the grip down to the epoxy and then grip the grip at the tip end so air wont come out as you slide the grip down the blank, and slide it down in one quick push.

I usually do this on a covered hard surface (I use newspaper) where I can push down on it hard and yet not worry about getting epoxy on the surface (because you will if not covered).

Wear latex gloves to keep the epoxy off your hands and clean any (and there will be some) epoxy that gets on the outside of the grip.


Tight Wraps & Tighter Lines.

Bob,

New Bern, NC.

I had the same problem a few weeks ago. Tried to force a 3/4 inch ID EVA grip onto a 1" butt blank. Even with epoxy lubrication I could not get it to fit. I found a broken rod in my stash that had the appropriate diameter and made another reamer. I spiral wrapped a half inch strip of sandpaper to he blank using contact cement, which holds up to the heat generated by reaming. Worked well. If you have a long 7/8" long drill bit it will also work if you go slow. If the drill is too short to go all the way through the grip drill from both ends.
Norm

thanks guys. idk what made it not go but i did exactly as you described robert an it came to dead halt. thanks for the great idea norm. ill make me one like that.. jist wonder why they dont make any larger reamers than whats on market for the larger butt blanks.

You can make your own reamer. Here is how:

[flexcoat.com]

Flex Coat Company
Professional Rod Building Supplies
www.flexcoat.com

Do as John says and build yourself a larger reamer. It'll help you get this build correct and you'll no doubt find use for it again in the future. Build a set of them while you're at it.

.............

thanks guys , much apreciated i will be building some great info advice

I've put 3/4" EVA on 1" OD blanks with no problem since using the J Trekiles method using rubber cement. There is a you tube video that describes/demonstrates the method. I could not copy the link for some reason. Just search YouTube for " video using rubber cement to install rod grips." Works real slick (pun intended :) )



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/2017 02:22PM by Robert Hummel.

thanks very much very much for all tbe great info you guys shared ... very aprciated thanks a milliion



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/2017 10:16PM by stacy white.

Stacy,
I have never tried to stretch EVA and have not been sorry.

I just ream out the EVA, exactly the same way that I would ream a more solid grip. Slip the grip on the rod with a good layer of glue under the grip and wipe off the excess.

It is no big deal to ream EVA or any other grip material for that matter.

Enjoy.

I'm amazed....anybody look at the video yet? It's worth saying once more, never ream EVA again....and be careful or you will push the grip right off the blank. It's a game changer shared by a great builder. And thanks Robert Hummel for crediting JT.

I build very few rods using EVA so I am not aware of some of tricks involved in with their installation. So I was curious about the rubber cement method for installing EVA grips mentioned above by both Grant and Robert. Here is a link to the method, did not find a video but did not look very hard after finding this. The next time I install an EVA grip I will try it. Thanks Grant and Robert.
[www.bdoutdoors.com]
Norm

excelent link norman thanks

All you need to do is ut teh chamfer edge and use enouhg epoxy so it slides down, no problemo. If you are using normal sized blanks reaming solid color EVA is silly, just buy all the sizes of EVA and use the right size. If oyu are doing inlays, you have to ream, Bill SAltdawg found out the hard way that method he used doesn't work on inlayed grips, when the grip he spent many hours on split apart durign installiation.

If you always ream a grip for the perfect fit of the grip to the blank, you never have grip issues and you never have installation issues, no matter the grip material or grip design.

Enjoy your time building rods and as always use the method to build the rod that you want to build in the way that gives YOU the most satisfaction and the best possible rod for you and the person for who you are building the rod.

Enjoy.

thanks everyone you folks have been a great help