Over the last 1.5 years I have seen and heard about various concerns in the manufacture of rod components. I really did not think much of it until I saw how varible things were. Tom K wrote a very interesting story about the future of import blanks etc. about a year ago in Rodmaker. I have seen various post on this site concerning variblity of numberous products, i.e., CP, finish, etc. Basically I had discounted much of it until this week. I had decidedI I was going to build a Med. weight bass rod. I went down to the shop and started looking thru my 7 ft. inventory and setting aside the rods I thought I might like. I had about five rods to choose from. I then "fiddled" around with them and came down to two rods. I then stood them side by side and much to my amazement their was at least one inch difference in their length. I then decided I was going to measure them with my tape. I found one (the import) was 6.93 ft. long. The other was a US made 7.06 ft long. I then pulled every "7 ft." blank I had. Separated them into domestic and imports. My conclusion is now the imports are 210 cm. The domestics are 7 ft+/- 0.25 inches. The imports varied by about the same amount. I then looked at my measuring tape and it had on it "Made in China". LOL, I don't know what to believe but I know we don't have quality control in rod blanks and several other products. We don't have ISO 9000 or if we do it is poor. What can we trust??

Ed Smith
Flat Rock, NC

Maybe a fractional standard deviation (FSD = 100 * SD/AVG) in a rod blank's dimensions on the order of 1-2% (as you have cited) is reasonable and to be expected. I can't say I've set out to assay this, but it seems like the rod specs in a catalog are implied to be an AVERAGE and not an EXACT value. Like when I did my by-hand quantitative analysis on blood samples, a variation of 1-2% was considered pretty tight (had to be under 5% in our lab for a 4-replicate determination.) Since a rod blank's pre-preg flag is cut and wrapped by hand, and then cut to length by hand after the oven, I for one am not surprised by an FSD-variation of 1-2%.

The machined or molded rod components seem to have much tighter variations on OD, ID, & Width or weight or strength. ... The last time I looked at any ISO-9000 stipulations, they seemed so demanding, complicated and difficult to implement, that there is no incentive from the market end of rod-building to introduce them.

For chemicals and pharmaceuticals, reliable purity is a very-high liability on an expensive product. And regulatory agencies like the FDA demand documentable purity at various, if not all stages of production & processing. It seems that Rod Components operate on too low a profit margin to even think of an ISO-9000 level of quality control.

Although your suggestion that some statement of quality control or the establishment of an industry standard would be welcomed by the rod-builder. ... But would the possibly higher price be welcome, too? ... Maybe not. The responsiblity for this quality control rests with the individual manufacturers / importers and distributors / suppliers / vendors. And with the market / rod-builder to choose their / our favored brand accordingly.

Other than that, I am still relatively amazed that rod-building components of such high quality can be purchased for so low a price. Line guides & tip-tops and reel seats would be the best value for the quality per dollar, in my estimation. Very tight mechanical tolerances at very low prices.

I still am fascinated with the fact that a relatively brittle material like a ceramic ring can be pressed into a stiff metal frame, and perform so well for about the same price as a beverage or sandwich at the convenience store. What's left of that food 24 hours later goes down the toilet, but that rod component will still be catching fish years later. And givng a sense of user satisfaction that is a bargain for the price.

That's my take on the subject.
Gratefully, -Cliff Hall+++



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/2006 02:52AM by Cliff Hall.

Ed- The odd thing that I've found on this subject is the difference of the ID's of reel seats. Buy 3 different brands of say 16 mm spinning reel seats and measure the ID of each of them sometime. Also the lengths vary some.

No problem with it, though, just noticed the differences and thought it was interesting.

Putter
Williston, ND