Hello,

Just joined your forum and it looks great. Just a quick question, what are the tools I am going to need for building my own rods? I am not to worried about the cost, because eventually I want to be able to make myself some nice quality rods. Thanks and any advice will be much appreciated.

You can start very simply, with no tools except those you can make yourself. If there is one "special" piece of equipment that can make a big difference, it would be a hand wrapper, they are not expensive. Later, you can add other things, or not, as you wish. Get Tom Kirkman's book, "RodBuilding Guide", read the FAQs here on this board, get some free catalogs, especially the Mudhole catalog which has good instructional material for beginners in it. Good luck!

What do you think of the Sully's Pro Rod Wrapper. Is it any good or would you recomend another?

Check out the library above, there is a article by Greg Pennel entitled "The Easy To Build Rod Wrapping Jig". I built my first rod wrapper out of scrap lumber similar to the one in the article for about $15.00 and used it for quite a few rods.

I now have a Sully's wrapper and really like it. If you are going to be building a lot of rods the Sully's is well worth the money.

Vereniki: You asked about the Sully Pro Rod Wrapper. I cannot give you advice on that because I do not have a power wrapper. I have been building rods for a few years now and still wrap by hand, and am quite happy with what I have. I would recommend that a beginner start with a hand wrapper, because you need to go slowly and carefully at first anyway, while you are learning to wrap. Later, if you wish, and if you continue with rod building, you can get a power wrapper. The hand wrapper I use is the Flex-Coat HW1 model, a little more expensive but much easier to use (because of the sliding thread holder) than the Flex-Coat EW1 model.

A good handy and stable hand wrapper made by Flex Coat is a good start. It has the thread tensioner and extension. Pretty good value for the service you'll get out of it. You'll also wan't some basic things like burnishing tool if all youll do is wrap. After you get into thread art you'll want some more delitate picks to help separate threads and such. The rest of the things basically for finishing like a supply of brushes, measuring cups, mixing sticks, and such you can get with the assistance of a rod building supplies outfit such as some of the sponsors on the left. If you would like some futher input I'll try and give you some further detailed guidance by email.
You'll also want a good source for reference such as the book Rod Building Guide as a 'tool' to help you with technique and I'de recommend a starter video for the visual presentation.

Rich Garbowski
Richard's Rod & Reel

info@rodreel.com

The Sully rod wrapper seems to get pretty good reviews all around. It would likely make you a nice outfil to start with and wouldn't be something that you'd outgrow very soon. But look around first and acquaint yourself with as many wrapping jigs as you can.

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I am new to this also but I will pass on a tip that sure made my wrapping easier. I glued a short extension on the back edge of the Flex-Coat hand wrapper and then attached an old ice tip up (spring loaded) flag. I wrapped a guide on this and rod-bonded another guide closer to the front. Now I run the thread through the tensioner and to the guide positioned at the front, then back up through the spring loaded guide, now back to the sliding thread loop at the front. Now I have a serviceable reverse tension device that will sure make the job easier if you need to back up a wrap to get it "just right". Easier done then explained but It makes a world of difference for me. I think I read one of Tom’s posts that said a hack saw blade was about right for the spring also. You might find some pictures on the photo section. Just my in-experienced opinion but I am more than pleased with the hand wrapper after adding the reverse tension device…..

Joe,

Sounds neat. How about posting a pic??

Mike

Done deal Mike....

Joe

P.S. I posted a couple of the oil on water "marble" that I had mentioned over the weekend.....