Rod refurb

[Sportsman]

I have 3 old Century AK47 Carp rods that I have started to refurbish. I wanted to replace the worn and mouse nibbled duplon split grips with full cork handles. I was lucky enough to get some good quality cork ring at a reasonable price but didn't have enough so made up the shortfall with some burl and rubberised cork to act as "accents". This came from the states courtesy of Newt.

 

Reaming out all of the cork rings to fit was fairly tedious but had to be done. I don't have any tapered reamers so it was done with a 12mm wood bit and a rat tail file.

 

Once reamed out the cork was glued up in situ on the rod blank and clamped with my clamp made up of a couple of bits of scrap wood and some 10mm threaded rod.

Glue was waterproof PVA woodworking glue.

 

 

Reel seats are the Fuji items taken from the rods as they were in excellent condition and foregrip was glued into place.

 

These are big handles to rub down by hand and I needed to reduce the dia from 32mm down to 25mm so I made up a "lathe" from some scrap wood, an electric drill and a bearing.

I tried it out this afternoon and I'm pleased to say it works fine.

 

 

The rubberised and burl cork is an absolute pain, I am so glad I'm not doing it all by hand.

I got about 10 minutes into it and the drill battery gave up but at least I know it works so should get the rest of the handles done this week.

 

Then just got the guides to put on. I am using Pac Bay minima guides with cobalt blue thread. I think they will look good. but as they are for my own use the only person who cares is me

 

The

[chavender]

looking good ,not sure how fast it rotates but perhaps a rail/bar addaed too the frame to suport a chisell might allow you to turn down the awkward rings level ,then finnish by sanding

[Sportsman]

looking good ,not sure how fast it rotates but perhaps a rail/bar addaed too the frame to suport a chisell might allow you to turn down the awkward rings level ,then finnish by sanding

 

I wondered about that. A bar can be fixed easily enough but not having done any wood turning for about 50 years what sort of chisel would work best?

 

Failing that, what about a surform style rasp?

Edited December 18, 2012 by Sportsman

[Rusty]

I wondered about that. A bar can be fixed easily enough but not having done any wood turning for about 50 years what sort of chisel would work best?

 

Failing that, what about a surform style rasp?

 

Not sure what chisel to use but any cutting/abrasive device will need to be fixed to a bar and moved along the length of the handle. The accents will look nice but if you try to sand them by hand the different properties (compared to the cork) will make it very easy to end up with a lumpy bumpy handle. A great little lathe you've made there.

[Barry C]

Never tried turning cork but I think you might break bits out of it quite easily. Ime sure someone on here will let you know.

Although I cant tell you any specific clips I have seen several on utube on rod making, might be something on turning handles.

 

Heres one I found.

Edited December 18, 2012 by Barry C

[chavender]

when turning ,the trick with cork is speed lots of speed ,& never go above the half height , be carefull of sideways forced movement ,work the high points down ,the chisell isnt too important just so long as its shap and a good edge ,i've used a flat bladed screwdriver ,i mostly use just the corner edge and take a little off at a time

 

you can alco use a file ,i find metal files best ,you just need too keep cleaning them with a paint brush to prevent clogging.you jam one in the bottom of the frame (opersite side from you) then lever it up against the cork start at one end and work your way along appling the same pressure with each push up .keep measuring until your nearly at the desired dia .then finnish with fine sand/wet & dry paper .remember to wear a mask as the fine dust will kill you ,at the very least turn your bogy's a horrible colour.

 

the problem with using just abbrasive paper is heat ,due too the high speed required (the high speed help prevent the cork breaking up) sanding cork creates a lot of heat at the point of contact .measurement is everything ,take your time remove a little at a time .with cork its all too easy to over do things

[Jim Murray]

Any reason why you went for the cork rings instead of a 1 piece section and foregrip? I did the same job a while back and used this method - not an expert at this but it turned out pretty fine.

[Sportsman]

Any reason why you went for the cork rings instead of a 1 piece section and foregrip? I did the same job a while back and used this method - not an expert at this but it turned out pretty fine.

 

Hi Jim

I have done a few rods with preformed cork handles. This time I wanted to do something different with the burl cork accents.

[chezz]

I have 3 old Century AK47 Carp rods that I have started to refurbish. I wanted to replace the worn and mouse nibbled duplon split grips with full cork handles. I was lucky enough to get some good quality cork ring at a reasonable price but didn't have enough so made up the shortfall with some burl and rubberised cork to act as "accents". This came from the states courtesy of Newt.

 

Reaming out all of the cork rings to fit was fairly tedious but had to be done. I don't have any tapered reamers so it was done with a 12mm wood bit and a rat tail file.

 

Once reamed out the cork was glued up in situ on the rod blank and clamped with my clamp made up of a couple of bits of scrap wood and some 10mm threaded rod.

Glue was waterproof PVA woodworking glue.

 

 

Reel seats are the Fuji items taken from the rods as they were in excellent condition and foregrip was glued into place.

 

These are big handles to rub down by hand and I needed to reduce the dia from 32mm down to 25mm so I made up a "lathe" from some scrap wood, an electric drill and a bearing.

I tried it out this afternoon and I'm pleased to say it works fine.

 

 

The rubberised and burl cork is an absolute pain, I am so glad I'm not doing it all by hand.

I got about 10 minutes into it and the drill battery gave up but at least I know it works so should get the rest of the handles done this week.

 

Then just got the guides to put on. I am using Pac Bay minima guides with cobalt blue thread. I think they will look good. but as they are for my own use the only person who cares is me

 

The

Hopefully the pva will stand up there is no such thing as waterproof pva, water resistant yes being a wooden boat builder I extensively use epoxy as pva cannot take long periods of wet and breaks down. we found evo stick one of the worst for this. looks a good job though and hope I am prooved wrong.

[Sportsman]

Hopefully the pva will stand up there is no such thing as waterproof pva, water resistant yes being a wooden boat builder I extensively use epoxy as pva cannot take long periods of wet and breaks down. we found evo stick one of the worst for this. looks a good job though and hope I am prooved wrong.

 

Hi Chezz

Thanks for your input. I did worry about which glue to use and read up a lot about it.

It seems a lot of pro rod builders use PVA with no problems.

Hopefully the handle isn't going to be exposed to too much water, too often. It may get slightly damp from time to time.

As you say, time will tell.