Hello all. I just bought a set of fuji titaniums for a 9' 8wt. These are the TSGs with the TNSG strippers. I figured for 80 bucks they'd come already prepped. That's what I get for figuring.
I've never ground guide feet before, much less titanium. So I wanted to farm it out.
So anybody who's worked with these guides before please drop me an email with a price to prep 8 single foot guides and two strippers.
Also, these guide feet on the TSG's are long, really long. Setting them up next to snake guides they'll take almost the same length of wraps and epoxy to cover. So I'd like them shortened also, the little arrow head eliminated. The TNSG guide feet seem normal.

So don't everybody jump at once here.

Thanks,
Andy

The latest issue of Rodmaker has an excellent article on prepping guide feet. It isn't really that difficult. I built 6 rods and prepped all the feet with jewelers' files.

I use a belt sander for mine....VERY quick and works like a charm with a fine grain belt.

Derek

These aren't difficult to prep... I use a disc sander on my lathe with 120 grit sanding disc, then polish with the dremel polishing wheel (gray composite wheel). They'll wear out your sandpaper faster but that's about it. You can use a file as well... works just fine.

Go for it...

Also... don't be fooled by claims that certain guides come pre-ground... they almost always do a poor job and require more grinding and polishing anyway.

Erik

I think I'd go at them with a file, there are also past posts about guide failures on these guides while being prepped mechanically, they suspected heat as part of the problem if I remember right. Pictures were also posted.

Spencer

The fractures were with the TLNSG's which have a much thinner strut than the TNSG's. I've never had a problem grinding the TNSG's or TSG's mechanically.

The final verdict on those TLNSG fractures was that it was caused by vibration / harmonics on the thin strut from my combination of grit and rpm's.

Erik

Erik

You have my complete attention right now......I just belt sanded one heck of a lot of guides on my Delta table top belt sander with a 180 grit belt. Am I screwed? Most were stainless steel boat rod guides with some Aetna Foulproof and Hardalaoys thrown in.

Derek

Andy,
Fuji guides never come pre ground (unless your dealer does them). From past experience I would prefer this as some of the pre ground guides are taken down to much when received. Also you never get them ready to use anyway. When received the foot lengths in a bag of guides vary considerably.

Todd

I have sanded hundreds of these guides and never had any problems whatsoever.

...........

Derek... this had nothing to do with stainless steel guides...

If you look back in the archives at my post a few months ago... I had a curious situation occur with some titanium concept guides (TLNSG) where the strut fractured spontaneously while I was grinding them. Titanium is a dramatically different material than stainless, and it turned out that I had just the right frequency of vibration with my setup to cause them to fracture... they tried, but couldn't reproduce the problem at Fuji... so this is the only logical explanation that could have explained the problem.

I've never had a problem with any stainless steel guide or even the heavier framed titanium TLSG guides... you might say it was a freak incident.

Erik

I've used these a number of times. Any of the above methods work well. I use a dremel tool with the green grinding wheel to shape, then finish with a unified wheel for final polishing. No different than stainless frames.

Good luck. It's still one of my least favorite tasks but pretty important to achieve a good result.

Terry