Hi,

I'm new to this wonderful wacky world of rod building. I have built a fly rod already and I am now in the process of trying to build an ultra light spinning rod for my son. I hope you don't mind some novice questions.

I have purchased a kit with instructions, but the instructions aren't very clear when it comes to fitting the arbors to the reel seat or even what the order is of gluing the arbor, reel seat, blank and so on. I would appreciate any advice on how to go about this process and when does one glue what together and when to fit the arbors to the blank. Sorry, I realize this may sound basic, but my instructions just were too vague for my comfort level.

The kit also contains cork rear and fore grips. Do I need to do any shaping where they meet the reel seat, or do I just butt them together during glue up?

Thanks for any advice you can give.

"A bad day of fishing is ALWAYS better than a good day at work."

Blessings,
Dave

Try going to MUD HOLE ( listed on the left ) , they have " Rod building 101 " on their site.

Dave von Doehren
PRRODS......If man built it , man can fix it.and if man built it man can break it !

Dave - Once you decide along what spine axis or any rod curvature you want to orient your line guides, then mark the rod blank with a string of bright or contrasting thread to remind you of the line along which you want to sight your line guides. Do this somewhere forward of where you expect the foregrip to be. At 180 degeees opposite that axis, you will align the centerline of your reel seat for this UL spinning rod. ...

Mind you, that if your rod spine or curvature is not particularly pronounced, then don't agonize over it. Any which way you choose to orient your line guides will be about as good as any other orientation in that case. See the Thread: "effective spline guide placement" by Joe Baylog 03/05/06 [www.rodbuilding.org] for some more recent comments on spine orientation.

Okay, then you mount the rear grip. Now, to do / mount your arbors where you want your reel seat to be. Most rod-builders find it easier to mount the arbors to the rod blank. Then you would glue-up and slide the reel seat over the arbors. Then get the foregrip mounted flush to the forward side of the reel seat, and you're done with the handle section for now.

The advice of others may vary. INTEGRATING a UNIFIED TECHNIQUE where all the methodological parts fit together, figuratively and literally, is your goal here. You don't say much about the type of arbors, so I'm being very generic. ... Dry-mount and test fit your system wherever possible as you proceed, before you slop any glue around. Depending on the type of arbors & glue you use, and how snug the gaps are between the seat-arbor-rod, you may need to wait a while before you actually slide the reel into position.

Some rod-builders won't fashion the arbor OD to match the seat ID until the glue has dried (the glue that holds the arbors to the rod blank). Then they just turn it on a lathe to get the arbor OD ~ = ~ seat ID. OTHER guys like to mount the arbors inside the reel seat first, and then they bore out the arbor's ID to match the rod blank's OD. That sometimes is done to keep the arbor from fragmenting when the shim is very thin. That's why I say, use an INTEGRATED method. It's too impractical to answer this question in every detail, because of the unknowns regarding your arbors, seat-arbor-rod size, your tools, and your design / craftsmanship preferences.

For additional on-line access to more instructions on this and many other steps in hands-on rod-building, visit MUDHOLE'S "Rod-Building 101" Tutorial at their website [shop.mudhole.com] and see what integrated approach makes the most sense to you for this UL spinner project.

Best Wishes, -Cliff Hall+++, Gainesville, FL-USA*****



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/05/2006 09:07PM by Cliff Hall.