I've been practicing doing doulbe cross wraps, on old blanks, wadding staff and any other scrap I can find, and have the setting up portion of the wrap down pretty good. However I have had some problems with threads. I tried using metalic gold thread in size A for the first few wraps to have a gold diamond and I just can seem to get the thread to lay right. It seems like the thread is segmented and wants to lay in the segments and not where I place it. I stopped using it as the center threads and had some wraps come out nice, until I use the metalic thread as the last threads. Then it seems like I can not get the last thread tight against the rest of them. I have been using thread U-40 color lock 2 as kind of a glue and this has help me get the last thread flush to the others.

I was just wondering if the metalic thread is tuff to work with, and I need more practice. Or if I just suck and cant follow directions.

As a reference I'm using the Advance Custom Rod Building (clemens). I would like to start building truely custom rods, and start making as many components as possible. Can someone suggest some more books worth buying?



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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/2005 12:09PM by Adam S. Hoelper.

I'm new at this, but did my first two wraps entirely in metallic (they were kids rods, plus I didn't want to use CP), so I know it can be done. One of the tricks, this was on the advice of Tom K, was not to lay single threads crossed with other single threads. It's ok to lay them one at a time (that's what I do), but lay a number all in one direction before starting another band (I tend to lay bands of at least four). You can then pack them together with your thumbnail and they stay in place quite well when you do this. Work on getting the right amount of tension also, "not too hot, not too cold, but just right." For what it's worth, I'm using Sulky metallics, no experience with cross wraps with other brands of metallic thread.

If you want to really get into making custom parts for your rods, then take a subscription to Rodmaker Magazine. No where else are you going to find that kind of constant cutting edge information on all the various methods and techniques for rod building along with ideas for new stuff to make and try. No book or message board is going to provide that sort of thing the way the magazine does. When a new technique or idea comes along it usually turns up in the magazine first and has the most in depth info on it.

Metallics look nice but are a bit of a pain in the you know what to work with. I use them but you need to do a lot of thread packing on them to get them to stay where you want. You need to especially attentive to the cross over points, pack, pack and pack.

Another thing that I've discovered (I had the same problem), if your using tension on the spool not the thread, put your spool on the tensioner so the thread comes off the bottom of the spool, not the top. (Tip from this forum) It comes off a lot less springy.

Bill in WV

The rod blank can make a big difference as well.........if its a gloss blank the threads will slide around easier