Jeez, Derek, that'd just be too darned easy!! LOL! We gotta have some mystique to this rod building, don't we? Make it tough; I think it should have to be lathed out by a professional machinist and sold to the highest bidder!!

Putter
Williston, ND

Randy, Randy, Randy.. I am sure you can marble a bandaid! : )

No, you're not nuts, but it might be hard to keep such a thing on a flexible rod blank. The idea of a ring around the blank is excellent, but the fact that the blank needs to able to flex, move and oval means that any such ring that constricts the blank from doing any of these things could well result in a broken blank. Even an O-ring contained in a rigid ring will constrict the blank to some degree. Enough to cause failure? Depends on the blank and the amount of load applied.

Obviously a lot of guys are thinking on this idea and that's good. In the meantime, you can still use the standard bumper guide - it works very well.

................

The rubber grommet that I used is very soft, and has a little over 1/16" of cussion between the ring and the blank wall. Plenty of room to allow compression of the blank. Just out of curiosity, I measured this blank in the area where the ring will be installed with a micrometer. With the blank straight It measured at .496". Then I put it in the deflection jig with a scale attatched to the line and loaded the rod to 10lbs. The rod is rated 15-30, so I set it at 1/3 of the max line rating, which is about the working limit of the drag on the reel I used to test. With the rod loaded to what would be the max. it could be fished, the measurement was .500" on the nose... .004" blank compression...easily enough to crack a snug ceramic ring or break the blank without some cussion between. I think the rubber gromit in this case has much less constriction than a guide wrap...and is really not much different than installing a winding check, or one of those rubber hosels typically put on a rod of this type. I'll try to get to wrapping and finishing this rod in the next couple of days, and really put it to the acid test....(I know, lame pun, but I had to...).

Yeah, as Scott just said, some winding checks come in sizes very compatible with and very close to matching the rod blanks's diameter in these sections of the rod blank. ...

I am looking at the BATSON Components Catalog - FORECAST WINDING CHECKS, on page 67. They have what looks like a nicely polished Winding Check -LTCWC- in ID's that start at 6.4mm (0.252") and go to 16.0mm (0.630"). It is a Titanium-Chrome PVD-Plated over brass ring that comes in (0.3mm to 0.6mm) increments that are bound to fit almost any rod blank. It looks like they would not need any additional preparation to be a suitable bumper ring. And at only ~ $3 each (retail), these TiCh Winding Checks would make a convenient & economical bumper ring.

BATSON / Forecast components are carried by FISHSTICKS4U.com (Sponsor link at left; Robert Tignor, Capt. Ray Brown & Kevin Smith).

Happy New Year, -Cliff Hall+++



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/31/2005 09:27AM by Cliff Hall.

Good idea on the checks. The Batson TiCh plated checks would make a respectably hard and smooth ring surface. If you want a more exotic look you might want to check out some of the agatine rings that Golden Witch sells.

Scott is right in that the blank doesn't oval much in the lower section. But if the blank contacts that ring, the localized stress will go through the roof so it doesn't take much deformation to pop the thing. So long as the ring is loose fitting you'll be fine. Allow something for thermal expansion too if your fitting in a cool shop, consider the blank is going to expand at a faster rate than the ring. Again, I wouldn't under wrap with thread. Tightly wound thread is farily incompressible and I was able to flex and crack one of three test sections with snug thread under wraps. The grommet or any soft rubber/foam is more than compliant enough to do the job of mounting the oversized ring. Leaving it free underneath and capturing the bumper ring on the sides with a couple of O-rings works well and leaves the ring(s) positionable.

I've not had any issue with casting on either the cushioned bumper ring system or with the blank simply left bare for that matter. There’s not too much friction in that section since the line is somewhat loose and flexible in casting. And as Tom indicated, there's really not much sideways pressure, so and the main effort is to provide some degree of protection for rubbing under load.

mark

Why not use any ring mentioned above, 1/16"-1/8" larger than the blank and mount it with RTV or another flexible permanent silicone product. RTV comes in colors, it stays flexible at all temps, I'm pretty sure they are not effected by UV rays. Ed



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/02/2006 04:06PM by Ed Grella.

Scott,

I'd just like to say what a great idea. Sooo much neater that the bumper guides.

I'll certainly be using this idea on my next spiral wraped rod.

Thanks for sharing this with us and please let us know if anyone starts producing these commercially.

Cheers

Andy

Cheers

Andy Woodford