Sinsemilla wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2019 2:39 pm
Gents,
I've been busy over the past couple of weeks (While the weather has been terrible..) servicing all my reels and repairing and modifying all my cork fishing rods.
After servicing a few of my reels (Daiwa Caldia 2500 magseal, Daiwa Sol 2500 non magseal, Daiwa Ballistic 4000 non magseal, 3 Abu ambassadeurs being a 5500 a 6500 c3 and a 6500 sports rocket, Daiwa 2000 Heartland non magseal) I thought i might as well give a few of my rods a freshen up.
One of my rods, being the Nitro viper has seen better days.. The end of the rod was all chewed out from being put on the ground so it needed a new end which i was going to replace with an EVA rod end so it would last a bit longer and also on my Nitro baby viper, I wanted to shorten the butt end because I've always felt it was too long. Also i wanted to fill, sand a re seal the grips on both of these and fill, sand and re seal my dads Gloomis fly rod.
I'm going to go through the process of what i did so if anyone on here wants to give it a go they know where to start.
First off i bought a few things off
www.therodworks.com.au They have pretty much everything you need when it comes to rod repairs.
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Once i received the stuff i ordered off therodworks.com.au i went to Bunnings and got a small fine bristle brush and some fine to really fine sand paper.
I started off by giving all the cork handles a really good clean with soap, warm water and the scourer side of a standard dish washing sponge.
Once they dried i proceeded to measure the overall length of both rod ends i was repairing (Firstly so i can make the Nitro Viper the same length it was, and secondly, So i know how much shorter to make the Nitro Baby Viper)
After i figured out how much i wanted to cut off the Baby Viper and how much i'd need to cut off the Viper to make it the same length with the new EVA butt end i very carefully marked where i needed to cut with a pencil and carefully cut through the cork going around slowly until i got close to the blank. Once i was close to the blank, i got a pair of pliers and carefully pinched at the cork until i broke it all away and exposed the blank.
Once i exposed the blank i gave it a fine sand just to clean off the old resin that was used to fix the cork.
I cut the blank of the Baby Viper with a Dremel and a fine blade to the desired length.
After i was happy with both rods i gave them another clean, taped them up with some blue painters tape and mixed up some of the 2 part ultimate epoxy, put it on both sides (on the blank and on the inside of the butt ends) and slowly pushed them together.
I cleaned off the excess epoxy with wet wipes and left it over night to set.
The next day i used the Roddancer Pit Paste to fill in all the cracks and holes in all the rods cork making sure there was enough on there to sand and left it for about an hour before i started sanding. I started off with a course sand paper and worked my way down to a really fine grit. Just make sure you don't go too hard with your sanding because the Pit Paste along with the cork is very easy to sand.
I gave the handles another clean and left them for the next day which is when i gave them a nice light coat of the U-40 Cork Seal. You only need to give it a light coat until it soaks into the cork and then brush any excess off.
After leaving it for the next day they came up perfect and were ready to use! I couldn't be happier with the way they came out.
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A perfect little side project while the weather is crappy and the fishing is slow. I hope this helps anyone who needs it.
Cheers, Anth