Does anybody have plans for a spline finder, or even a good picture of one would do. I need to build one.
Thanks, Darryl

[www.rodbuilding.org]

thanks, I'll get to it ASAP

It's even simpler than that, and doesn't take up bench space. Get the pair of sleeve bearings and orient them in the jaws of a Black & Decker workmate so that you can insert the butt section through both bearings. Lever down on the blank section and the spine pops right to the top. Remove the bearings when finished and store in a small zip lock bag. This, of course, requires a B&D workmate.

Jeff Shafer

I was at a rod building workshop in Woodland a while back in April and one of the presenters just mounted a couple of rubber skate board wheels mounted next to each other just so they weren't touching each other on a piece of what looked like 4" aluminum channel. He then put the butt end of a blank between the two skate board wheels and pressed down and the spline popped right up. I've been looking to make one since then but haven't found the time.

BjR

I found bearings at Agri Supply for $2.88 lot of sizes to choose from. These one fit perfect into 2'' pipe which work perfect forthe set up sghown in the library

Why don't you just do it the old fashion way, by hand, take about 2 seconds and the spine will bounce right at you... rotate it with one hand while applying lite pressure at the tip with your other hand.

I have seen something similar with the inline skate wheels. What he said was it is less damaging to the blank on the wheels then putting the blank on the floor or table.

I'm with Art. To me, a spline finder is a waste of good cash and/or effort to build. They all work the same way as you would find it by hand, and you just don't need a ball bearing system to find the spine.

I used the method Art suggested for many years but found that when I applied the technique to golf club shafts my supporting hand caused too much friction. So I rigged up bearings and used a third bearing on the tip of the shaft to eliminate friction. It was natural to apply the same technique to fishing rod blanks.