what am i doing wrong? cork handle etc turned out pretty good on 6' spinning rod. then did first wrap on butt guide (corect terminology ?). took like 20 minutes, had to use thumbnail on almost every turn to get thread to behave and go straight, next to previous wrap. tried diff. angles of thread coming off spool. i think i read or saw where each guide should take about a minute to complete. my minutes must be a @#$%& of a lot longer that his minutes! ok-obviously did it wrong. but what? ALSO- i want to make 2 piece blanks out of cheaper one piece blanks. is it done? can i just cut a one peice in half and add a ferrule? haven't seen any ferrules listed on any of the wholesale sites yet. THANKS

Beer is good. Drink more after you wrap instead of before. :-)

A couple of suggestions that might help a new wrapper.

When you start the wrap, take 5 or 6 turns and don't worry about the spacing or gaps. After the 5-6 turn, grab the tag end and pull it out as you wrap. This will clean up the starting edge. Keep pulling out the tag end as you wrap until you reach the end of the guide foot. Once there, lay the tag end along the guide foot and clip. Continue up the foot with the wrapping thread at a slight angle behind the wrap.

Another common problem is if you do not grind the guide foot thin enough, it will cause the thread to bunch at the beginning of the foot. The angle is too steep and will create a gap. This transition needs a shallow angle for the thread to move smoothly up the foot and not create gaps or humps of thread as you wind up.

You'll get it. Hang in there.

Terry

thanks TERRY. will try the tag end trick on next guide. i had to go back and regrid the foot 3x before i was happy w/it, but the thread jumped up on it and worked great. im wondering though. homer simpson says "beer is good" too. are you leading a double life? if i dring 3 beers before and 3 during the wrap, or 6 after, its still 6 beers in the same time period. so whats ur point?

Ditto on everything Terry said. The main thing is to make sure that there is a slight angle on the thread so that the thread tends to push against the wraps you've already done. After you gain a little more confidence, you might try spinning the rod a little faster. I assume you are wrapping by hand by the way. If not, let us know.

I still think the biggest thing is just doing it over and over again. The high point for me came when I could simply pull a wrap off and redo if it didn't come out the way I wanted. It gets faster and easier each time.

Everybody takes a long time wrapping their first couple of rods. Like anything else it takes some experience and repitition before you'll get faster.

I think there is an article on the library page that has info on making multipiece rods. If not I know one has run in Rodmaker.

Terry,

Yes, you can "section" (cut) a one-piece blank to make a two piece. Mudhole (to the left) has a variety of metal ferrules. If you're thinking of cutting a blank you can use a very fine metal blade hacksaw. Rotate th blank so that you scribe the outside finish and go slowly to let the saw teeth do the work. I'd bet that if you called MudHole they would set you up with one of their "special" rod blanks and the appropriate size ferrule to go with it. They're inexpensive enough to practice on and will make up into a nice rod when you're done. If you don't want to use a metal ferrule try a search here find information on "plug type" ferrules.

Ken Preston wrote:

> Terry,
>
> Yes, you can "section" (cut) a one-piece blank to make a two
> piece. Mudhole (to the left) has a variety of metal ferrules.
> If you're thinking of cutting a blank you can use a very fine
> metal blade hacksaw. Rotate th blank so that you scribe the
> outside finish and go slowly to let the saw teeth do the
> work. I'd bet that if you called MudHole they would set you
> up with one of their "special" rod blanks and the appropriate
> size ferrule to go with it. They're inexpensive enough to
> practice on and will make up into a nice rod when you're done.
> If you don't want to use a metal ferrule try a search here
> find information on "plug type" ferrules.
thanks for the advice. i want to do the handles and my daughter wants to wrap, but she had very limited space thus the need for 2 piece rods.

thanks everyone for all the tips. i will call mudhole tomorrow. anyone in particular i should ask for or just call and hope they know what i'm talking about.

John,
I hate to agree with both Larry and Ken ( Ken who uses his dog's tail to apply epoxy) but I do. Do a good job of grinding down the guide foot and take your time. Wrapping guides, it is like a lot of things, it just takes a little parctice. You will get the hand of it. There are two additional suggestions that I would like to make.
#1. Don't take any advice from Ken on applying epoxy.
#2. You migh try switching from beer to wine.

Yes, Mr. Harry is quite correct. That would be Central California Coast wine.

John -
I've had excellent service from everyone I've spoken with at Mudhole - Scott is simply a wonderful guy to deal with -- as is everyone there. Tom McNamara must go out of his way interviewing people before he hires them.
Emory -- if it's red wine I'm with you in the switch from beer. My dog likes beer too much so I have to split one with her now and again. She hasn't (yet) acquired a taste for red wine - but as a female will dive into the white zin.

Hey Ken, you must have been sneaking down to the Barossa Valley to get a red wine liking like that. Long drive from where you where stationed. After a drive like that a beer would be better.

Myles

Myles -
Long drive down to Barossa (with tinnies along the way in Mintabe and Coober Pedy for sure) - but that whole area is magnificent! The best thing we did is plan in advance and stay at a winery over the wine festival. And I think Adelade is about the nicest "big little city" I've ever visited - ANYWHERE. I enjoyed Perth and Cairns and Brissie too -- Noosa is wonderful but for the lay out, ease of commute, wide green barrier between the city proper and suburbs, proximity to the ocean / gulf, the variety of seafood especially the crayfish (lobster to us here) -- it is simply the best - and the trout farms to the north are pretty spectacular too!

Emory Harry wrote:

> John,
> I hate to agree with both Larry and Ken ( Ken who uses his
> dog's tail to apply epoxy) but I do. Do a good job of grinding
> down the guide foot and take your time. Wrapping guides, it is
> like a lot of things, it just takes a little parctice. You
> will get the hand of it. There are two additional suggestions
> that I would like to make.
> #1. Don't take any advice from Ken on applying epoxy.
> #2. You migh try switching from beer to wine.

well, i tried that stuff called wine once, but the THUNDERBIRD was like whiskey and the MD2020 tasted like paint thinner (don't ask), and the BOONES HILL made me wanna dress up in lace, so i quit all that and just stick to the old stand by, pabst, or coors, or such as that. tonights treat is bud light. and on my second wrap, i did like 3/4 of it w/out having to use the thumb. so that just proves my point, more beer = faster wraps. i shoulda been a scientist.

Stick to the PBR!! When you get it down to 4 wraps per can, you'll be in good shape (especially if you wrap 40 guides each nite)!! :)

Putter

John, you are so close in your equation but it's bassakwards. Should be "faster wraps = more beer"[6.72873 /-478.290.26]+.741*4.863/68.2873 * the Square Root of Pi= more Beer. See how ease that was ? It ain't rocket science. The fast you wrap the more beers you can drink when finished. And Emory, I think Ken might be on to something using the dogs tail, after it would as some structure to the epoxy by the addition of the minute amount of hair left over. We all know that Ken sands the outside of his epoxy jobs so as to not to offend anyone.

Rick