Does anyone use a jig to make sure the guides lay straight on a blank? My eyes spin in circles when I'm lining up guides and doing fine tuning work. There has got to be a better way

John; If you get the stripper on centered and straight you can line the rest up off of it using the light streak on the top of the blank. Then just be sure they are all straight up and down. You can also turn the rod over and see that the same amount of guide shows on either side of the blank. Another way is to push a bend into the rod against a light colored wall and see that equal amounts of the guide ring show on either side of the blank and that the tip is up and square. If those don't work for you take the rod outside and sight it against the sky.

John; If you get the stripper on centered and straight you can line the rest up off of it using the light streak on the top of the blank. Then just be sure they are all straight up and down. You can also turn the rod over and see that the same amount of guide shows on either side of the blank. Another way is to push a bend into the rod against a light colored wall and see that equal amounts of the guide ring show on either side of the blank and that the tip is up and square. If those don't work for you take the rod outside and sight it against the sky.

Hi John, Have you tried sighting them with the guides facing away from you (on the far side of the blank)? This works for me when my eyes are tired. I hold the rod at about 45 degrees and look down the side. You can see the out of line guides pretty well this way.

John,
Jim and Mark have given you several options and good advice but I would like to add one caveat and it may be that your eyes are not the problem.
You can line the guides up by just sighting down them and insuring that they are straight relative to each other. You can line the guides up by looking through them at the blank with a light background to see that there is an equal amount of light on either side of the hole in the guide as Jim suggests or look at the back side of the blank for an equal amount of each guide showing on either side of the blank as Mark suggests. Both of these approaches will line the guides up relative to the blank. However you cannot afterward sight down the guides and expect them to be straight relative to each other if there is any bend or crookedness in the blank and there almost always is at least a slight amount.
You can either line the guides up straight relative to each other or line them up straight relative to the blank but not both unless the blank is very straight. Hope that helps.

Good Point, Emory!!!!! Never considered that!

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

I feel your pain John...Going through the same thing myself. Lining up guides and testing placement always gives me a headache for some reason, usually accompanied with no small amount of verbage inappropriate to discuss on this forum. I would build from pool cues if I could get away from it. THEY are at least always straight if you get the right kind. I often use a reel with line centered on the spool with the line tied to the tip top to align my guides...or use the light stripe from the flourescent light over my wrapping bench .




Derek L. McMaster
Rohnert Park, CA

Born to Fish, FORCED to Work

I wrapped a rod last night and tried the "guides underneath" alignment trick for the first time - it worked great! Much easier to see if you have a guide just a bit off.

i just use the beam from my laser level...

[www.pulpfishing.net]
~fishing with attitude~

Drop by say Hi.

Side note.......was in my local Sportsman's Whse store and looking through their rod selection just to see how well they were put together. I was impressed with the quality of the way most of the rods were assembled until I got to the most expensive rods they had. They had several GLOOMIS Streamdance flyrods 6 of 8 rods ranging from 300.00 to 575.00 had guides that were crooked (foot not aligned to the blank), found many wraps that were not packed were you could see the bare metal of the guide feet through the epoxy...on the 575.00 model the finish was not even close to smooth my 7 yr old could have done better. I was shocked.

Most of the 40.00-80.00 bass rods were put together as well as any rod I have seen.....these were almost all imported rods. I never found one defect on any of the ST Croix rods they had.

Once I get the guides where I think they are close I like look down the back of the blank as mentioned above and make sure I see equal amounts of guide on both sides....I think this is the best techique because this is how you will see the rod when it is fished.