So I took all the guides off and cleaned the blank. When I order the SiC guides, person told me that 4.5 tip top has od of 6mm. Considering I went with 8mm running guides, I decided to keep my original wire tip. Is it okay to mix match tip and the guides? Would it make a big difference in performance? Finally, I used 5 minute epoxy for the tip, how should remove it safely?

When test casting, do I first have to wrap the ferrules? Can anyone suggest good starting spacing for guides?

Thanks
PM

You can mix and match, but there is little to have a hard chrome or stainless tip top if you're running the much harder SIC running guides. I'd install an SIC tip top as well.

I would wrap the ferrules before any heavy flexing - I doubt you'll hurt anything by just casting the rod, but you're only talking a few minutes to wrap the ferrules.

Guide spacing should be figured by static deflection and spacing. You can find numerous suggested (generic) spacings on many of the rod blank manufacturers' websites. For the most part, they all use the same spacing for rods of the same length.

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