i have read many of books, and i am wery confused about where to put my guides. some say put them on the spine, other say 180 degrees.then some other smart aleck told me to put them 90 dg of the spine. on the first rod i build (who we do not speak of. so i call myself a first time rodbuilder) . i placed them directly on the spine. then i was told that the rod probanly will snap at the top, because the top will twist when i use it.
somebody show me the light and take me out of the woods



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/16/2005 05:10PM by Tom Kirkman.

When you find the spine, the guides go pn the outside of the curve. Thats how I set up my guides for spinning rods and would be the same for fly rods.

The large companies like Sage, Winston, etc don't worry about it. I used to worry about it, even build a spine finder. Now I build on the straightest axis, since every person you might sell a rod to will pick up the rod and sight down the length of it. The spine isn't visible, but the natural curve that most rod blanks have can be. I but the guides on the outside of any natural curve. If you put them on the inside, it will generally make the curve more pronounced.

The person who told you that the rod would break because you put the guides on the spine knows very little, if anything, about building rods. The tip will not twist during casting whether the guides are on or off the spine.

There is no right nor wrong place to orient the spine on any rod. Read the FAQs page here for more information. Rod twist, or stability, has nothing to do with spine position and everything to do with guide location. You're dealing with myths and poor information. Again, consult the FAQs page here and put your mind at ease.

..........

Since the rod moves in two directions, the guides are on the "wrong" side 50 % of the time. I am building a rod with the guides on the weak side for the top half, and on the strong side for the lower half.

Your rod will not break because of where you located the guides in relation to the spine.

I put my guides on the inside of the curve when the rod was bent in its relaxed position for many rods. They all work fine. Now I tend to put the guides on the outside of that same curve. rods still work fine. You can make minor improvements or adjustments to a fly rod by using the spine location. You can't really ruin one by ignoring the spine.