My metallic thread woes are over. While at the Fred Hall show in Long Beach Ca. I bought 3 of the @#$%& Thread tensioners.
These tensioners are unbelievable because they absolutely do not cause problems with metallic thread. These devices are great
because the thread does not touch any thing, which could cause problems, therefore eliminating the snagging. tearing, bunching-up
of the foil on metallic thread. The design is absolutely unique and there is nothing like them on the market. I seen them advertised in
the Rodmakers magazine, but did'nt appreciate how well they worked. I'm told that they are available direct from All American Roller
Guide at their E-mail address:

aarollers@aol.com and at Merrick Tackle. Both of these companies are sponsors of Rodbuilding.com and are listed on the left side of the page.

If you want the best, try these thread tensioners.

Sylvia

how much are they?

You might want to try Rice metallic thread, seems a lot better to me than Gudebrod, not always coming apart.

Also use ceramic guides and have the thread run through them

My threads run through a stainless eye bolt. So far no snags.

I also have 2 @#$%& thread tentioners...had them for almost 6 months now. I use them for almost all but the tightest of wraps.

Jay

How come not tight wraps?

I know I wish I purchased them last summer, they we being sold for $10.00 each and they are considerably more now. Kept telling myself to order a couple but kept putting it off. You know the old saying "you snooze you loose".

Jay what do you mean by the tightest of wraps? I thought these devises would not harm thread at all.

Hank
On The Rocks Fishing
Wells, ME.

No they don't harm the thread...they can't. What I mean when I say I use them on all but the tightest of wraps is this: on heavy saltwater rods (ie. stand-up tuna and trolling rods) I don't feel the @#$%& tensioner is capable of wrapping tight enough. Most guides I've wrapped with my @#$%& tensioner(s) have been have been very easy to move (adjust) before I apply any finish. This isn't a concern with lighter rods as the tension is about the same as I would normally wrap anyway. It's only on heavy rods where I might include a triple wrap that I revert back to my 'old' thread tensioning device.

Jay

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've always been under the impression that wrapping too tightly can be equally, if not more, detrimental than a slightly loose wrap. The thread tension, as I understand it, should be snug, but not too tight. Likewise, not so loose that the guides can move around freely under the wraps.

Besides the guide moving under the wraps from too little tension, too much tension can damage a blank. The blank may be heavily compressed by the thread and over time create weak spots on the blank. Each subsequent wrap of thread over the blank stiffens the blank already, but adding too much thread tension may compound this effect. JMO

Ko you are absolutely correct. Too much tension is a bad thing. Keep in mind that when I increase tension above my 'normal' level I'm doing it on saltwater blanks. More specifically, I increase thread tension a little when wrapping heavy stand-up and trolling blanks. These are thick walled sticks to begin with...much different than a 4wt fly rod or even a 12# graphite spinning rod (just examples).

Also you have to understand that with my 'increased' tension I am still able to move the guides around by hand fairly easily after wrapping. When using the moderate tension of the @#$%& device I have found some guides to be too loose after wrapping. The higher framed guides, with the increased leverage at the top of the tall frames, were too easy to move in my opinion. This is why I increase my thread tension slightly on these rods. Again, even with the tighter wraps the guides are easily moved or tweeked.

Jay

The way your post read was that you needed a tremendous amount of tension. Thanks for clearing things up.

You aren't getting enough tension even without any paper between the base and spool holder on the device? The amount of tension I get on mine w/o using any spacer between the magnets is quite a lot. In fact, more than I care for. I run my thread from the tensioner through a ceramic guide, then to a spring wire.
-Ko

For some reason, when using the longer spools, my tensioner wants to pull the apart at the magnets when the thread gets close to the outer edge. I can only remedy this by adding more paper to slicken things up thereby reducing tension.

Jay

Jay,

When you say "Longer Spools" How long are the spools that you are referring to?

The @#$%& Thread Tensioners that I shipped to you will handle spool lengths of up to 2 inches long without any problem whatsoever.

Incidently, the @#$%& Tensioner was not designed to handle commercial spools, whose Lengths can vary from 3-1/2 inches and longer.

These would require a different design, and there is not a sufficient market to warrant the costs.


Please let me know the length you are referring to.

John

As of now I think I've cured the 'problems' I had when using the 950yd spools of A & 650yd spools of D. I think alot of the problems were self-inflicted with the way I routed my thread after leaving the spool. A problem still exists, to some degree, with the spools of Sulky metallic...although I think I can solve that also by re-routing the thread a little.

Jay