Demolition of a Cork Grip

by

Mike McGuire

I had made a bad choice of a reel seat for a switch rod that I had made. It looked good--appeared to be a double nut design as one would want on a big rod but wasn't. One of the nuts was just a slider with a knurl on it. But the worst part is that it really didnt fit any of my reels, which all measured as AFTTA standard compliant.

Reel Seat

To replace it, it was clear that the cork grip had to be demolished. The prospect seemed pretty messy, but I decided to see how it would go in my lathe. I removed the stripping guide, center drilled the butt and protected the rod where it was held by the chuck with heat shrink tubing. For a cutter I decided to go with a 60 degree point bit. That way I could cut both directions. Obviously the carbide wasn't breaking sweat cutting cork..

Lathe Work 1

After a few passes I was close to the surface ot the rod and I could hear the tip of the bit ticking the corners of the rod so I backed off slightly and finished the cut. At that point I could remove the nut and slider from the reel seat so I could hold it in the chuck to work on the rear grip.

Lathe Work 2

This went the same way as the front grip. Then I removed the rod from the lathe and finished the removal of the cork, scraping with a knife and a razor blade which was quite easy. I had glued the reel seat with slow set epoxy so it was easy to break it down with a heat gun without getting the rod too hot.