I picked up a 7’6” blank today [ one piece , stiff , and a little heavy ] and thought I would build a spinning rod ,since nothing I have is close to this length. It has a slight downward turn .I believe the general consensus is that its ok to place the guides along the curve regardless where the spine is located because the spine doesn’t matter anyway. Right??
Ken Blevins

See related Post & Replies for [www.rodbuilding.org]
"spiral wraps and spine location...up or down." Bob Tursi 12/31/05 12:26

"Hiya, Bob - Are you sitting down ...?... Good, because the shortest version of the answer is: Whatever suits your fancy, that's how you can orient the rod blank. This is a very arbitrary subject, and too much dogmatism should be avoided." etc, etc, etc.-Cliff Hall, ... and several other Authors (Kirkman, Vivona, Emory Harry, et al)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/19/2006 06:28PM by Cliff Hall.

Ken,

Sight down the blank and align the guides on the straightest axis. It is that simple :)

DR

I'd probably do the same. Position the rod so that the tip and butt are "high' and the belly is "down" and put the guides (for spinning rod) along the belly.

..........

I'm with Tom

I am in the process of building my first rod. The blank is a Rainshadow 1384. It will be a spinning rod used for float fishing. I am following the instructions in Tom Kirkman's book, ROD BUILDING GUIDE(2001).
I have located the spine. I then found the hard side where the blank seems to jump equally to either side of this orientation.
I decided to check the forum to see if there was a preference for using the spine or the hard side in determining placement of the guides.
After reading this thread it seems that the spine or hard side doesn't matter and that I should place the guides on the inside of the natural curve of the blank.
Am I on the right track, or just a very confused first time builder? Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Jimmy

Jimmy Baker - ... "If the rod's curvature makes it look funny, then hiding that aspect would probably trump any spine issues." -CMH. ... Also, "Adopt a system (of guide-spine-curve orientation) that works for you, and the kind of rods you build, and refine it based on your own experience, and you'll be fine." -CMH. ... To which, Tom Kirkman said: "Right, ..etc." ... Another very good related Post & Replies was:

Confusing Info ... Ralph Tomaccio ... Dec. 3, 2005 03:18PM
[www.rodbuilding.org] "... [In] the new 2006 Mud Hole catalog and on page 4, lower right section on "Determining the spine of the rod", ... ETC...."

If you REALLY want to read a serious discussion on tapered golf club shaft spine science & resonance frequency, and extrapolate that information to our tapered fishing rod's spine & resonance frequency, then read the Technical Notes (referenced by Emory Harry) and written by John Kaufman, retired engineer at [www.csfa.com.] After my reading of Kaufman's Technical Notes, I had 9 PAGES of his summary comments, diagrams, plots & equations, from his ~ 3 dozen technical notes. ... Now, golf club shafts do not suffer from curvature like a much longer and much thicker walled fishing rods. And golf shafts tend to have a less pronounced spine than a rod blank. ... So, that's why I said that a bad curvature may trump a subtle spine in a rod blank, ...

But do you want to know what this mad scientist said about spine orientation, with respect to the plane of the applied force (the club swing or the bent rod)? “In a blind test: the weak axis (N1-N2) was definitely the preferred alignment.” ... To translate that onto our fishing rod means that Kaufman would put the guides inside the softer curve spine. Period. It reduces tip wobble; and both the internal and external torsion forces on the rod shaft. This torsion is a shaft twisting or wringing, or a shaft roll-over, respectively. These two torsions can also be reduced, but not completely eliminated, by a Spiral Wrap.

Clearly, a very bad curvature in the rod blank may generate a greater magnitude torsional force in the rod blank than a rod that has a very subtle spine effect. But that is where you as the builder get to feel & decide which effect is dominant (spine? or curvature?) and more in need of minimizing.

That's rod-building! ... Just as much craft as science, if not more.
'Hope that helps. IMO, -Cliff Hall+++

I'm in the process of building a light (ultralite) rod from the tip half of a 9 foot steelhead rod to see how it works on a light spinning reel. Due to my contrary nature, I decided to put the guides on the straighest axis, BUT on the opposite side of the blanks belly - just to see how that arrangement works out (light jigs, worms, etc.in sound/sheltered saltwaters). I think it'll work for intended use but won't know 'til the weather warms a bit.

The final rod length is 6'

Stan



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/2006 02:52AM by Stan Gregory.