Rod Building Cork Reamer DIY

[Divad]

For $5 and an old gear rod I made a reamer. Either $100 on reamers or $30 on FlexCoat’s long sanding strip both seemed stupid. Then again if this fails I may think otherwise.

Bought a pack of 1/2” oxide sanding belts and split them into 1/4” strips. A dab of superglue to hold the strip ends and spiraled down.

Then used some rod builders epoxy in-between all the spirals and liberally on each section joint. Now hoping once the cork dries it doesn’t shred itself apart first test.

 

[Chinook Angler]

Reaming generates heat and rod building epoxy is sensitive to heat. Just go slow when you use this DIY reamer and it should work.

 

[Divad]

It is? Bless, I boiled a rod twice trying to get the reel seat off with this stuff.

Good point I’ll remember not to juice it though

 

[Chucker]

That looks so much nicer than my cork reamer which I made by smearing an old piece of rod blank with epoxy and rolling it in sand. However, the redneck reamer still works, a dozen or so rods later!

 

[Jake Watrous]

I’m toying with the idea of building a rod. Aside from heat, is there a reason to ream it like that vs using, say, a carbide burr bit on a drill press (that has variable speed)?

 

[Divad]

I’m toying with the idea of building a rod. Aside from heat, is there a reason to ream it like that vs using, say, a carbide burr bit on a drill press (that has variable speed)?

I did my last grip by sliding each ring down and boring them out with various bits to match diameter. In the end the rings chipped more than I would have liked but it was still useable. The voids were filled with epoxy anyways when the grip was slid on but the job didn’t feel professional.

It would be hard to get a taper to match the blank on the press. If you have a local rod builder nearby, I floated one a few bucks to do my first after it was all glued and shaped.

 

[Jake Watrous]

I did my last grip by sliding each ring down and boring them out with various bits to match diameter. In the end the rings chipped more than I would have liked but it was still useable. The voids were filled with epoxy anyways when the grip was slid on but the job didn’t feel professional.

It would be hard to get a taper to match the blank on the press. If you have a local rod builder nearby, I floated one a few bucks to do my first after it was all glued and shaped.

Thank you!

 

[Divad]

Best $5 spent at Harbor Freight yet, it worked great no issues with the reamer. Had a nice howl to it as it spun at speed that my dog was intrigued by.

Now to shape a new grip.

 

[PhilR]

Best $5 spent at Harbor Freight yet, it worked great no issues with the reamer. Had a nice howl to it as it spun at speed that my dog was intrigued by.

Now to shape a new grip.

Did you just chuck up the ferrule?

 

[Divad]

Did you just chuck up the ferrule?

Yup, I used a 3" dull drill bit, well cleaned with a little masking tape and epoxied when doing the wraps. Let it all set for 2.5 days.

Since it was a rather stout old 2 piece rod I can do probably a 2wt to a 9/10wt fiberglass on the one reamer. Then again it is cut to 38" long which was about the max I could easily handle with a drill in-hand while still allowing the most variability in one stick.