Really Almost Done ...

Just finished putting on the 2nd coat of Threadmaster Lite -- the thread finish epoxy I'm using. Of course, I still have a lot of turning to do ...

This round was a bit more challenging for me. I had to get a small bead of the finish off the threads and onto the blank. This makes a nice seam and transition. Of course, it's easier said than done, especially for my first attempt. Still, I feel it came out well and I'm quite proud of the way it's turned out.

So I guess this means that the end is really, really near. The rod should be complete by tomorrow morning. I'll let it sit for a couple of days to let the finish really harden up. But still, unless something goes terribly wrong tonight, this should be it -- my first rod will be ready to fish this weekend!

Almost Done

Well, no pictures here so you'll just have to take my word for it, but my first fly rod is almost done. It's been a busy week for putting the rod together. The handle and reel seat have been epoxied in place for a couple of weeks now, so I 've spent a few hours just about every night this week wrapping the guides on. Wrap a guide on, realize there was something about it I didn't like, then cut it back off, repeat. I ended up taking Friday off from work to try to make some good, solid progress on it. I started wrapping guides on the blank at about 1pm. I finally had it all finished at 2pm Saturday afternoon. Yeah, I pulled an all-nighter wrapping the guides on. While the wrappings are not necessarily perfect, they're about as good as I was going to get (especially being so tired that I couldn't keep my hands from shaking).

Well, today was the day to start putting on the thread finish. This is the last step to finishing the rod. I was pretty nervous about it, but hey, when you've read as much on the internet as I have, you feel like you can do just about anything. Of course, that's no guarantee that it'll work out. I shut myself up in the "fish bathroom" (first my aquarium supplies, now my fly rod, building ... what's next for the fish bathroom?) and started mixing the finishing epoxy. That was about 5pm tonight. I've spent the last 5 hours or so turning the rod sections every 5 to 10 minutes so the finish will level out smooth.

So far, it's looking pretty good. I'm happy with how it's turning out and can't wait to post some pictures. I've got to do at least one more coat of finish epoxy before I'll call it complete. I'll get that going tomorrow night.

This rod building has been a lot of fun. Can't wait to get started on the next rod(s).

Well, that's my timer going off -- better go turn the rod, again ...

2nd Grip

I made my second fly rod grip tonight. I followed the same basic pattern as my first grip - a modified RHW grip. However, I left the front end of this grip a little larger in diameter than before. I also moved the "saddle" a little more aft. These were mostly just experiments - trying to get a better feel for what I like in a grip. I think this one came out fairly well. I used 400 grit sandpaper at the end for a nice soft feel.

This grip has some burl cork in it. I like the color the burl cork adds to the grip as well as the patterning it brings. I'll definitely use burl cork again in future grips.

I made my first grip last week while sitting at the kitchen table. You may notice from these pictures that I moved outside to sand this this grip down. For some reason I just didn't feel like having to clean up all the cork dust from the kitchen again.

First Grip

I finally managed to sand down my first grip. It came out okay, especially for my first attempt. I used the set of cork rings that I glued up about a month ago (see "Trying to get a grip ..." for a picture of the rings before sanding). This cork was the worst of my cork rings, but I think the grip still came out okay. Even though there are a lot of flaws in the cork, most of them are quite shallow. They just give the grip some character ...

The pictures don't really show all the details, but I made a little "lathe" for sanding down my cork handles. One one side, I have a raised platform to which I clamp a hand drill. On the other side, I have a vertical board to support the other end of the turning mandrel - a 1/4" stainless steel rod a picked up at the hardware store. I drilled a hole in the vertical board and put a skateboard bearing in there. A little bit of blue tape helps the bearing fit tightly in the hole. I also put some tape on the steel rod to make it fit the inner hole of the bearing, too.

Once everything was in place, I turned on the drill and started removing cork. I found that a flat file worked well for rough shaping. I also used some drywall sandpaper (a 220 grit mesh) that took the cork off quickly. Once I had the shape about right I used some 220 and 320 grit regular sandpaper to smooth it all out.

I tried to follow a pattern for a modified reverse half wells. I wasn't sure how I'd like the small diameter front of the grip as I've only fished with a Fenwick style grip, but so far I really like the way this one feels. This grip came out a bit smaller diameter than I was hoping for, but that's only because I got a bit carried away with the file. Still, it fits my hand nicely and I really like the swell at the rear of the grip.

Let me know what you think of my first grip ...

Trying to get a grip ...

Well, I'm starting to work on getting the grip made for my new rod. I had bought enough cork rings to make three grips. I figured I'd better plan on ruining the first couple of tries before hopefully making something useful by the third attempt. Anyways, I sorted out my rings into three groups: Best, Good, & Practice. I planned out my layup and prepared to glue the rings together - the Practice rings of course. No need to waste my good cork right now ...

The cork rings are 1-1/4" diameter and about 1/2" thick. Each ring came pre-drilled with a 1/4" bore hole through the middle. Most standard fly rod grips are about 7" long, so I planned on gluing up 14 rings. I bought a 12" length of 1/4" diameter threaded rod to use as a mandrel. A couple of nuts and a 1-1/4" washer on each end clamp the cork together on the threaded rod while the glue is drying. I put an extra cork ring on each end when planning this out. I had read about having an extra ring (with no glue of course) on the ends to help even out the clamping pressure. In the end, I didn't use the extras at the end, but still, here's what it looked like:

Not all of the rings mated up against eachother cleanly. It was clear that on a few of the rings the faces weren't cut truly even and parallel. I could see little gaps between some of the rings when dry fitting them on the mandrel. So I took a little sandpaper to each ring face to even them up and prep the cork for gluing. Worked great.

I used Titebond III wood glue to glue the rings together. I wrapped the threaded rod with Teflon tape to keep the glue from bonding to the rod. The last thing I needed was to glue my rings to each other and the mandrel. I slid the first ring onto the rod and up against the base washer. I coated the exposed face of the cork with glue. The next ring went onto the mandrel. I put glue on both sides and slid it up against the previous ring. This is all there was to it, just repeating this until the last ring. Of course, I only put glue on "inside" of the last ring.

I put on the second washer and nuts and then began to clamp the rings together. Of course, the glue shot out from between the rings and went all over the place. I had glue dripping all over the place. My hands were just about coated. It was on the kitchen counter. It was on the floor. It was a good thing Heidi was taking a nap. It was even better that I got it all cleaned up before she came out. I would have been in serious trouble - more trouble than I'm going to be when she reads this. Fortunately Titebond cleans up with a few wet paper towels.

With the cork rings glued and clamped up, I let them sit overnight. In the morning, I just slide the glued-up cork off the mandrel. Using the Teflon worked great - nothing sticks to Teflon, right?

Here are the rings all glued up. I realized after taking them off the mandrel that the grip was a bit shorter than before. In sanding the faces of the cork, I'd shortened the grip by 1/4". I only had to take off 0.009" per ring face to lose 1/4" on the grip length. Oh well, I think that a 6-3/4" grip will work out just fine for this first attempt.

Now I have to finish putting together my little lathe, otherwise known as my hand-held drill, and I'll be ready to sand this one down to size/form. Hopefully I'll get to that this weekend.