Inletted grips

[pathaws]

If I have a cork handle that is not inletted what is the best method of inletting it. I have purchased grips already done for the seats that I have, but now that I have gotten some grips cheap I am wondering if I can still fit the hood of the seat in there. Also, would a 9'6" 7 wt with reverse half wells grip kill your hand? Is it all a matter of preference or doe the full well grips usually go on the heavier weighted rods?

[Cary]

Grips - matter of preference.

Inletting.... take the money you saved and buy a dremel tool. MANY uses for rod building, from inletting cork to dressing guides to ???

[pathaws]

Thanks- I should have figured out a dremel.

[THeBLender]

By "inletting" do you mean making a larger diameter hole for the reel seat hood on the last ring?

Just curious what this "inletting" is of which you speak...

[pathaws]

Thats what I am talking about... I guess that is what you call it. I like it better then flush mounting it

[Jason]

A round rasp does the trick as well....if you don't have a dremel tool. I'm actually curious how you would use a dremel to bore out the cork handle. Cary?

[Rod]

A round rasp does the trick as well....if you don't have a dremel tool. I'm actually curious how you would use a dremel to bore out the cork handle. Cary?

You use the dremel to bore out the "inlet". It is pretty slick. A small sanding drum and 30 seconds you're done.
Now if Cary has figured out a way to bore out the entire grip with a dremel I would like to know, cuz those rat tail files suck! I have inserted a rat tail file in my cordless drill to speed up the process, but only had limited success.

[Cary]

Rod is Right. dremel for inletting, not boring the bore. the best tool for that is a tapered reamer. this is just a piece of blank that has abrasive grit epoxied to it. the coll thing about using these is that the bore is tapered to match the blank, at least a better approximation than using a file.

But, the best thing (IMO) to do is ditch the pre-formed grip and glue rings to the blank, then turn the grip on a lathe.

[Curtis Fry]

One trick I learned with boring out the whole cork is to use a rat-tail file and run the drill in reverse so you don't get stuck up into the handle without a way out. Now I wonder if the same could be accomplished with my tapered blank reamers. Maybe build some sort of chuck to hold it?

I ditto Cary's idea of just gluing and shaping the whole cork yourself. He built me a handle a while back and it was one of the most perfectly fitted handles I've ever touched. One of these days when I'm not so lazy, I'll make one myself...

[Cary]

with a tapered reamer, there is no need to use a power tool, it cuts very fast, you'll have a fitted grip in five minutes.

Go to Anglers Workshop website and order a few in different sizes. Makes the chore of reaming a preformed grip a piece of cake.

http://www.distantwaters.com/onlstore_aw/aw_displayitem.asp?cnum=AWTRL&dis=907026

[gware]

You could also purchase a pre-cut ring cut to fit your hood, round or oval and glue it to the butt end, works great and gives you a 1/2" longer handle. The rat tail file system Curtis mentioned works great and only takes a couple of minutes. With other methods that I have used you take the chance of ending up with a not so round hole and the possibility that the handle will be offset a little.

gware

[ScottT]

A neat little trick (I think Dale Clemens wrote about it) is to save some of the cork dust when reaming out the grip. I can be mixed into a paste w/ some epoxy to fill in any accidental gaps where the dremel "sort of got away from you". I'm left-handed - things happen.

I tried it years ago when inletting a grip w/ an Xacto knife (Hey, it seemed like a good idea at the time..). I fitted the reel seat hood into the grip and filled in a nasty gouge with the above paste.

Turned what first appeared as a "chainsaw-duel-gone-bad" into a very acceptable inletting job!

I don't care for the extra inletted ring added to a pre-formed grip - It's really quite noticeable, especially over time.

ScottT