I'm working on a number of fly rods and I'm wondering if anybody has some tips that could make the alignment process move along a little faster. I've been gluing the tip top on before I wrap any guides, aligning w/ the spine of course, which seems to help becaues it gives a point of reference when I go back ,after wraping ,to align the guides. I timed how long it took me to align single foot snakes on a 7'9" fly blank and it took about forty five minutes. Is this a reasonable time or should it not take that long? Any suggestions or critiquing would be appreciated! Thanks!
Andrew

I'm not sure how you're doing it, but if I spent 45 minutes lining up the guides on every rod, I think I might consider another pursuit. I wouldn't have the patience to spend 45 minutes at it. Or are you counting the time it takes to do a static distribution test for guide placement also? If you are then it's not to unreasonable. I've recently built two 7'9" and an 8' fly rod and it didn't take me more than 10 minutes per rod to place the guides for wrapping. I don't try to get them aligned precisely before wrapping because they always move a bit since I generally put them on with orthodontist rubber bands. I wrap all the guides on one section and then align them, maybe 10 minutes to align the tip section of a 7'-8' two piece fly rod.

Andrew:

Here is an easy and fast way to align your guides. First, I apply a mark on each section, to which I align the guides and tip. Second after wrapping the first side of double-footed guides, I align the guides to the makrk and then wrap the second foot. For single-footed guides, I do the process all at once. Third, I put the rod on my wrapping jig with the marks at top dead center. Then I look down from the top and move each guide as necessary to have an equal amount of guide showing on each side of the blank. Lastly, I take the blank off the wrapping jig and hold it up to a well-lit, white wall. I place the tip of the rod on the wall with the guides down, and press lightly. The rod bends. I rotate the rod so that the tip has equal amount showing on each side and then look at each guide in turn. It is a process of look, tweak and recheck. I gnerally can do most rods in under 10 minutes. The light back ground makes it easy to see when unequal amounts of guide show on opposite sides of the blank.

Doug Weber
Weber Rod Works

I do it very similar to Doug. I first start by placing a very thin long, I think 6ft, dowel down the guide to the tip, guides facing down. If I have to move a few guides to get the dowel to fit then I place accordingly. Once all the way down the guides I line them up with the tip top making sure they are fairly close and now touching the dowel in a the same way. I then remove the dowel after roughing in the guides and do as Doug does. Place them top center and make sure equal amounts of guide is showing on each side of the blank. I usually have to move very few to get them lined up.

Don't ask me how I got started with the dowel thing. I guess I was looking for an easy way to line all the guides up in relation to each other. It works for me, which is often a wonder.

I got in a hurry once and forgot to line the guides up prior to applying finish. I soon realized this and had to align the guide while the finish was wet, it actually came out but not without some choice words and a little sweating. Flex coat is very forgiving :)

Haven't tried it yet but use a laser level and a china marker.

Don't use snake guides, use real guide, move in to the new technology world

Dave von Doehren
PRRODS......If man built it , man can fix it.and if man built it man can break it !

Thanks for the suggestions! Jason, i like the dowel idea. I'll have to try that! Gerry, sorry I didn't make myself clearer. The forty five minutes was to rough out and finish aligning the guides after they were wrapped in place. These tips should make things go faster. Thanks so much!
Andrew

Check often as you wrap the guides. After say 1/8" of thread is on the foot, check then check again as you put more thread on

I try to get the guides to align reasonably when I wrap, but I know that I'll always have to adjust them. I'm fanatic about geting them all straight, so it takes me about 15 minutes to get everything aligned precisely using the methods described. The previous words are just an excuse to say that I agree totally with Dave von Doehren: snake guides are the pits! (Yes, that is a pun about vipers!)

Jim
Stonefly Custom Rods