Spinning Rod Grip And Handle Replacement?

[Bird Watcher]

I know there are some rod experts on here. I have a spinning rod that I just love the action of, but the rod has been discontinued. It's getting a little beat up on the grip (it rode down the highway for about 10 miles hanging by tangled line to the boat-don't ask). The blank itself is still in good shape, but I'm thinking about trying to replace the grip and maybe the guides. Is this feasible? or should I just keep looking for another rod with similar action. I just don't know if for the cost of material and time to replace if I should just look for a different rod with comparable action.

[Wayne SW/MO]

easy. Remove the old one and buy cork rings to replace it with. You could go rings, or use electrical tape to secure the reel. It would take a little time, but nothing needing any special tools or skills. Rings and/or tape will give you a nice balance.

[RSBreth]

I'm sorry I didn't see this - I think it really depends on how much you are in love with that rod. I have a couple that work really good, but push come to shove I'd move on and find a better (or good enough) rod. That being said, I've stripped a fly rod blank bare and rebuilt it - I liked the action of that rod so much that it was worth it.

To do the handle right you really need to strip the guides off - easier with just the butt section of a two-piece rod but if it's one piece you have to do the whole thing.

I don't think your idea is crazy - but it may look that way from others.

[hoglaw]

It is not difficult to replace the cork handle of a rod. You can use whatever type of grip you want.

Normally a rod is built from the bottom up. The grip is the first thing you put on. You use a tapered reamer to ream the inside diameter of your handle to where it will slide most of the way down the blank, requiring just a bit of force for the last push. Heavy epoxy is applied where the handle will finally come to rest, and above that location to lube it up for the slide down.

If you're keeping your reel seat and foregrip, then you're going to have to put the grip on from the bottom which is more difficult but completely do-able. If you're going to strip all the way down to the blank across the board, then this is a different job entirely, and I don't even know how you take a reel seat off. I've never done it. You could look at www.rodbuilding.org to find out how.

But, if all you want to do is replace the grip, it's not that bad. You could use cork rings for sure. While more time consuming, it's probably easier to get it right with cork rings. But if you want a single piece handle on it, whether cork or EVA, this is what you have to do. Rather than using a tapered reamer, the inside hole of the handle will have to be reamed out to an even diameter that is big enough to slide up from the base - the thickest part of the blank. You use masking tape to make even diameter arbors of masking tape that eliminate the taper of the rod. It looks something like this:

Tip----guide---guide---guide---guide----guide---guide---foregrip---reel seat---||--||--||--||--||--|| Each of the ||'s represents a tape arbor that has an identical outside diameter.

That's the first step after removing the old handle. You ream your handle out to snugly slide over all of those tape arbors, then you take it off and slather epoxy all over them and in between them. Then you just slide your handle up from the bottom and finish the butt however you want to.

It can definitely be done and you can for sure do it yourself without any specialized gear. The reaming is the part where you have to get creative. A long drill bit will get it done. Alternatively you could build a hand reamer from some long straight piece of material with abrasive grit epoxied onto it, but the drill bit is the way to go.

Another alternative would be to sand the existing grip down to a relatively even diameter, and use cork tape or tennis racket grip to make it serviceable again. If I had a cork handle that had been worn out pretty good, I'd be tempted to fill any major holes with a mix of adhesive and cork dust, sand the thing down good, and just tape it up with something creative. You could even use a golf grip if you could get a proper inside diameter. I've always wanted to have a rod with a Winn grip on it!

[Bird Watcher]

Another alternative would be to sand the existing grip down to a relatively even diameter, and use cork tape or tennis racket grip to make it serviceable again. If I had a cork handle that had been worn out pretty good, I'd be tempted to fill any major holes with a mix of adhesive and cork dust, sand the thing down good, and just tape it up with something creative. You could even use a golf grip if you could get a proper inside diameter. I've always wanted to have a rod with a Winn grip on it!

Wow, thanks for the explanation Hoglaw. I think I've about settled on doing something like the above. Actually, I guess my terminology was a little off. It's the foregrip that is about gone. I saw on mudhole.com some of the heat shrink tape and I think I will try to build up the voids and missing chunks and then apply some of that to round out and build up the foregrip. Thanks again for taking the time to reply.