How to fit a recessed top hood?

Equipment Rod Building: Cane and Graphite
1

OK, about to show my ignorance here. I have gradually been accumulating the components to build a little 6"6" 2 wt. Been taking my time gathering up everything I need when I came across a good deal. Anyway, to make a long story short…

The reel seat I would like to use is an “American Tackle Co.” reel seat with a recessed top hood. I have never built a rod with a recessed top hood. The “ready-made” grips I find do not have a large enough recess to fit the top hood of this seat. The recessed hood has an OD of .864". The recess on most grips is considerably smaller than this.

What is the best way to fit the recessed hood into the grip?

Thanks!

Royce

2

If you are only off by a little bit just sand it down some by hand. Or you can get a grip without any recessed cut out and use a forstner drill bit and make your own. Either way you may need to do some hand sanding.

3

Not ignorant at all Royce.

Do you own a Dremel tool? if so that’s how I open them up. Just put a round sanding drum on the Dremel and open it up to size.

Steve

4

Do this GENTLY. That sanding drum will eat a lot of cork in a hurry. Go slow and this works well.

5

I use a Dremel, too. Scribe the shape of the cutout by holding the reelseat up to the cork and trace around it. Go little by little until the reelseat slides right in, don’t force it or it will crack.

Greg

6

I took a deep well socket that was a size smaller than the cutout and wrapped a peice of sandpaper around the end of the socket and just turned it by hand. Basically the same thing as the dremel, but with a lot more control.

7

I’ll add in here, too … the Dremel goes REALLY fast. Really, really fast. It works beautifully, but really fast.

8

Thanks everyone. I assumed it was something like sanding to fit or drilling out a non-recessed grip.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Thanks again!

9

You might want to measure carefully the base of the grip, and if it seems too narrow, you can sand the whole base of the grip off so you will get up into a wider portion, like a 1/4 inch or so. Then begin with the Dremel. It isn’t cut in stone that your grip has to be exactly 6 1/2 inches long.

10

I use a fair amount of those AmTac seats. I find that a 3/4" sanding drum on the drill press works great. The drum is 3/4" and then the thickness of the sleeve makes it just a hair over their hood size. Just gently bring the handle up to it and hold it there. When it quits taking much material check it, continue till it fits. I used to use a dremel but this keeps the hole more concentric and less oops factor.