Nothing worse than giving someone a rod and the guides are misaligned with the real seat...its happened to me before and is quite embarassing.

My method of building a rod is to assemble the handle with the reel seat aligned with an appropriate "spine" alignment..then do the guide wraps and fancy stuff.

I align the guides by "line of site" with a reel mounted in the reel seat. Adjust some guides, check...adjust, check etc..untill its right. Thats how I do it.

What happens if the reel isn't mounted 100% perfect? Guides end up being out of whack!!! Since this has happened to me before, and didn't like the reprocussions...I always remount the reel 3 times and check, before applying finish...I have a few old spinning reels that I cut up just to use the foot and stem to make things easier for alignment.....align three times, finish once.

Theres two tips hidden here for any new builders that are paying attention to "Friday Follies." (hope it helps you avoid my own pitfalls)

Mike

I use an old Tiburon one piece frame. Also line of sight and also multiple times. Once I am satisfied doing it with the guides up , I then turn every thing upside down and place the Tiburon from a flat surface(check to make sure) and with a light source in front of the rod I check it that way with the rod spliting the rings of the guices. Fly rods I have to do it just line of sight.. Great and surprisingly simple tips. TGIF

....and outside natural lighting. ....thanks for the "under/ over" tip

I also line up by sight (I do flyrods for myself and a few "understanding" friends), but found the hard way that improper lighting can skew the guides by the deceiving reflection on the guides. Fortunately (or less often intelligently) I triple check before the epoxy goes on. I find I frequently re-align then. I have only one rod with a guide out of alignment. It's mine, so I'm not fixing it. The rod still works great.

OTOH, I bought a rod from a well-respected maker, had it custom-made, and when it arrived there were three guides misaligned. When I looked at it the first time, I thought "I can do that, I don't have to pay someone to do it for me!" Of course, they made good on it.

Good info, guys. I use line of site, without the reel. And flip it over, do the slipt the guide thing. Never tried with the reel inplace, but will on the next.

Sean....if you have a variety of old reels, see them as "alignment tools"...if you visit any old school tackle shops, ask them if you can look at the "junk reel collection"...then negotiate for jigs!!! TGIF.

Mike, that is what I am going to do. I think I have a few junk reels around here somewhere. If not, I will hit a yardsale, @#$%& or something. Thanks!!

I use a piece of masking tape on the butt of the rod and near the tip with a marker mark on it to align the spine then the seat, then the tip top, from there I set the guides to the tip top, while checking the seat as I go.
Look though the guides, then flip it over and use the blank to split the rings.

Out side light is very helpfull.

I've done the same exact thing. I still wonder how, but it happens.

have not done that yet, but have glued a piece of scrap into a tip section on a fly rod. Does that count ???

I was wondering from those who have a Renzetti, do any of you have the laser guide alignment accessory? If so, does it do a good job and is it worth the extra $$$? I don't have a Renzetti.........yet but I think I would consider that accessory if it works.

Sometimes I think i'm cross-eyed after looking at recently attached guides. I've been trying to think of better/sturdier ways to hold the guides on while wrapping as i've noticed that I sometimes bump them and knock them out of alignment during the wrapping process. I've used masking tape in the past, but I thought maybe heat-shrink might do a better job and have a little more holding power. I'm trying it as we speak, but I think some type of jig would work better. Does anyone know of a jig out there that would hold a guide in place while wrapping? The laser idea from renzetti looks good for alignment, but I need something that will hold the guide in place tightly while wrapping. I'm thinking a little v-block clamp for each guide would do wonders. I'll let you know how the shrink wrap works out.