in my quest for perfecting my butt wraps i bought the butt wrap alignment tool...

has anyone had experience using this tool?, and if so, do you have any suggestions on how to use it...ie.on positioning of the rod and the tool

thanks

jk

I haven't heard of this tool before. Where did you get it and what does it look like? I typically put tiny evenly spaced dots on the blank where I want the wraps to cross for a diamond wrap. This works great for thin designs, but for thicker ones sometimes it's hard to tell if the wrap has shifted until you're done.

~ Jackie

i found the tool in mudhole's catalog

With guides on the rod, the first pass I measure the distance between each thread ( after knowing the centers of each cross will be ) at 0 then at 180. I do the same on the secound pass. Then remeasure the crosses and move if necessary

The tool is great to mark the points in a straight line on the blank. Yes there are other ways, for me this is about the easiest.

Did you put it together yet? THe metal L thingy should slide up and down right over the notched Vee in teh base. THE rod sits in teh Vee, slide the metal thingy down - there's your straight line. Some people attach a ruler to teh wood so they can easily measure teh distance and mark teh points off on teh blank.

I built a small "table" for the tool so I can slide it under the rod while it sits in the chuck & on the supports of my Clemens lathe. IT works well, but if you wrap the first guide on teh rod it may get in teh way, redering the tool useless. So you gotta mark teh points prior to wrapping the guides, unless the first guide is more than 12" from teh end of teh foregrip/.

Aloha. I attached a clear adhesive metric ruler to the angle iron and just mark off the alignment dots when the angle iron rests on the blank. Works for me. Mark

If it came with a hole guage like mine did you must mark the blank before wrapping on guides.After you find the spline of the rod slip the hole guage over the rod.Select a size that will stop in the middle of you butt wrap.At this point line up one of the marks on the hole guage with the spline.You can now perfectly space your marks around the diameter of the blank(0 degrees,90 degrees,180 degrees ect.)Then lay the rod in groove of the wood and lower the angle piece to contact the rod.Align the edge with the marks you made from the hole guage and measure off your centers.There you have in a nut shell.I believe Clemmons has a section in Custom Rod Building on how to use this tool.

Freddwhy (Rapt-Ryte)

Bill, Mark, and Fred
I have owned the alignment tool for a few years, and I have yet to be successful with aligning the cross wraps with the spine and guides on the first attempt. Perhaps I am missing a step, but will generally layout the wrap, figure out my spacing, mark all four axis, and use the alignment tool to meet each point on all four axis to mark my crosses. For some reason, I always have to manipulate the crosses by eye to have nice straight lines on each axis. It's great for laying out the spacing for each cross wrap as I taped a clear ruler to the L bracket, but otherwise only gets me close but not on. Any steps you can suggest to correct my problem?

This has been around for many years. It works well for marking centers.

I made my own from a piece of scrap oak lumber. Made the groove with a router using a "v" bit. I used a metal aluminum plate obtained for free from a local HVAC installer. The plate is permanently marked with centers for small, medium, and large diameters - so I do not have to make any measurements when wrapping open wraps (diamond,cheveron). Example, on a medium diameter blank use the "large diameter" center marks for an elongated wrap, or the "narrow diameter" center marks for a compressed wrap. Of course if you use the "medium diameter" center marks then your wraps will fall on or nearly at 90*.

I don't used the wooden portion of the butt wrap alignment tool anymore since the lathe I have has index stops at the four cardinal points. Still use the metal plate though. Saves LOTS of time on measuring and lay out.

Shawn Taylor, I also eyeball the alignments after each step, tool or no tool. This is the main reason I gave up on the laser alignment tool that goes on the lathe - I was still eyeballing the alignment of guides. Might as well do it by eye and omit trying to use the tool for alignments.

Lou

Shawn - you can't mark the dots in a straight line - that's your own issue. If you start wrapping and notice teh patterns aren't straight - well then, you gotta wrap straighter! lol. IT happens to most if not ll of us - you mark everything straight, after a few passes, you notice it's a little off. PAck & straighten it out once some threads are laid down, and you'll be all set.

I have some rods which teh patterns start to go off a little bit. GUess what, there hasn't been one single person who noticed...or they noticed and I guess were afraid to tell me. I don't worry about it any longer, I pack it & straighten it out, and hope that it's still that straight when I'm done. Usually it is. Sometimes not.

Aloha Shawn.
Even after perfect alignment dots my centers tend to veer off slightly to one side or the other. I haven't been able to determine if it's due to wrap tension or some other cause (my lack of talent,etc.), but I do end up straightening the wraps out before completion. They're not off by too much though.
Mark