I finally received my @#$%& Rollers from All American last Thursday afternoon. Started on my underwraps Saturday and finished up the rod on Monday. Let me give a quick overview of what I did. I started with a STIFF Calstar Grafighter GF7455XXH 60-Unlimited blank. After I had bought the blank, cut it, and epoxied it to the ferrule I read a post somewhere that said this blank was like a broom handle and you could not load it with less than 40# of drag. Now that the rod is finished I have 32# of drag on the reel and it fully loads this blank...no problems.

The butt is an Aftco UB2 short bent-butt. On rods this heavy I don't like bushings made from masking tape...especially when the only connection you have to the blank is in that short Aftco ferrule. Instead I used fiberglass drywall tape. This is generally 2" wide and I simply cut it into narrower strips approximately 3/4-1" wide. I like this tape because of it's open square design. When wrapping it onto the blank I stop every 3-5 wraps and apply a layer of epoxy (Metal Set A-4 epoxy). Then wind on another 3-5 wraps. The epoxy squeezes through the little squares in the tape as you wind forming what will become a solid bushing. As always fill between the bushings with epoxy.

The grip is 14" EVA held in place with RodBond (my other go-to epoxy). It took me about a couple of hours to reach this point. After that it took about two months of waiting for my back-ordered @#$%& guides from All American. During that time I spoke with All American over the telephone two or three different times about my guides pending arrival. I did this just to have some sort of idea about my schedule in getting this job finished. In the end All American was extremely appologetic about the guides taking so long to arrive. My reaction was a well respected congratulations on having such a sought after product! It's nice to produce a product that is in such high demand...the alternative would be a bummer.

Again with a rod of this high line rating, and pending drag rating, I approach the attachment of my guides a little different than I would a lighter outfit. I wound on my underwraps with size A nylon (black) and applied a coat of "light build" LS Supreme. After about a 10 hour cure I wound on my base guide rap with size C NCP (purple). Then came a coat of LS to the guide wraps being sure to properly bed the guide feet. After another 10 hour cure I applied the second guide wrap of size D nylon (black), and to this a coat of LS. After 8 hours or so I applied LS Supreme High Build to the entire wrap. This was my first experience with the High Build version and it went w/o a hitch. I was very pleased.

That's the basic rod in a nutshell. Pictures are listed on the photo's page under "cape_fisherman". Critics don't bother me. Throw any suggestions my way...other than trial & error that's the best way to learn. Jay

When I say "critics don't bother me" I mean I like to be critiqued. That doesn't bother me. It can only help in the long run. Jay

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Actually these rollers are designed so that there is no space between the frame & roller. I hope I set it up right, but with that said there might have been a problem with my final fitting of my two transition guides. When the line is on the right side of the spool there is no problem with clearance with the guide frame, but when it is far left it may touch. I distinctly remember readjusting those two guides after I got my first wraps on, but evidently it wasn't quite enough. Anyway we'll see if the line stays down in the roller "v" when a fish is on under heavy drag. If there is a problem, and for God's sake I hope there's not, I do have a contingency plan. Instead of cuttin off the two transition guides I may just simply add a small SiC ring between the two to adjust the line path. Since this is my personal rod and not a customer rod I would be ok in doing this. BUT the guides might be fine the way they are...we'll see. Thanks for your thoughts. Jay

Jay - Wow, what a great outfit ! It looks like you got what you were hoping for. Go get 'em, buddy !! Good luck, - Cliff Hall, Gainesville, FL.

All you can do is put a reel and line on the rod and string it up and put it through its paces. Load it to varying degrees and watch what the line does under each different load. If you find any situations where the line touches anything or doesn't appear right then you need to relocate some guides. You don't need to wait until you have a fish to find out you didn't do something correct. Just load it up and try it under varying loads and you can pretty much tell how it's going to perform.

Jay,
Why did you cut the blank and by how much? Thanks

Mike, I put the rod under 30+ pounds of drag for a while today to do some testing. I now feel that with presure on the line it is certainly going to stay down in the roller 'v'. It only wanted to ride up the left side of the roller when minimal presure is applied and then only when the line reaches the far left of the reel spool. I have a renewed confidence in this setup as of now.

Nacho, I prefer short rods for increased leverage. Believe it or not this isn't the shortest 100-130# rod I own. I also have a Braid Power Play straight butt rod that is only 4'8". I wanted a short rod and that meant cutting the blank. I also wanted a bent butt rod and that meant using a unibutt and cutting the blank even more. Most people don't like cutting a blank by more than one foot, but this project forced me to cut it by almost two feet to get my desired result. There are several other short (4'8"-5'0") bent butt rods on the market so I had confidence with doing this myself.

Thanks for everyone's input & questions. Jay

Jay

Hi,

I have had a simular problem of the line not getting into the deep grove of the roller when the line is on the left side of the spool. After many hours of playing I found that placing the 2nd transition guide between 160-170* from top cenyter and then everything is in harmony. Interesting enough, a stiffer rod everything fell into place right away.

I think it is better to use the customers reel with the widest spool for testing. The narrower spools will be no problem.

I am almost finished building a 80-130# Acid Roller spiral wrapped rod. We are testing the new 180* guides that have a narrower foot and frame. With each guide held on by 1/2" masking tape and only one turn of tape around the rod, we pulled line with the reel set at 70#'s of drag. Amazingly not one of the guides moved. Once again spiral wrapping has surprised me. I would love to try a fish on with the masking tape as I did once before with smaller fish.

I am glad you posted this report as I have been trying to generate interest on this and other boards. Either no one is trying this method or are not talking.

Three of my designed rods will be on a long range San Diego trip this Thanksgiving. I hope the biggest fish end up on thes rods as I want them to be severely tested to see what they are capable of..

Keep building and posting,

Capt Neil Faulkner