My church has started an outdoors group and I am looking at doing a rod building demonstration sometime this winter for them. Any advice on how to do a good demonstration would be appreciated. I am not sure yet if it will be just a demo or if I with try to line up a few kits and make it a hands on deal.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/04/2006 06:10PM by Dean Veltman.

You might try making an outline from Tom Kirkman's, Rod-Building Guide, if you are going to demonstrate how to assemble a rod. Have everything you need on hand which means you should pre-fit grips especially if you are going to use cork. Go through the entire processes ( practice ) so you're comfortable and are sure you have all the tools and parts you need. If you don't have some sort of rod holder to demonstrate how to stress test and locate guides you should make one. Put the whole thing in a box so everything is there including your notes and take the whole thing with you when you go. Keep it simple and don't let yourself get bogged down with technical stuff and keep your presentation moving. You'll need at least an hour and if you can get it an extra half hour won't go to waste. Good Luck

Dean

Good luck on doing this. I've done this a few times and it's tough to cover in an hour or so. I think there's the natural tendency to provide too much information and you will lose your audience that way. It's impossible to convey as much information as you have accumulated over a number of years of building rods and reading about building rods and then condense it into a 60 or 90 minute session. If you've got any more than 1/2 dozen or so "students" it's also difficult for them to see. If I were to title my demonstration, it would be: "How To build a Useable Rod, Inexpensively, With Tools You Already Have." What I have done with some success is to demonstrate how someone can make an inexpensive but serviceable rod for themselves with tools that you can find in most homes and avoid a sizeable investment in equipment that they may not have a future need for. My goal is just to stimulate their interest enough to get them started. You're probably familiar with the cardboard box that can be configued into a rod wrapping stand, the book for the tensioning device, and the coffee cup that serves as the spool holder. I take those items along with a hobby knife, scissors, and a popsicle stick for a thread packing and burnishing tool.

I encourage beginners to purchase "kits" for their first rod building adventure. A number of the sponsors of this board have some good ones. (Many of them also have rudimentary rod building instructions printed in the front of their catalogs - another good resource for your audience). It helps if you have a kit to show what comes with it and how all the parts get assembled. The discussion centers around a simple method to detect the spine of the rod. I tell them to follow the guide spacing instructions that come with most kits. I discuss thread colors and types (CP, NCP, etc). I also find it helpful to take one of my "demo" blanks that I made for customers demonstrations. They're just scrap blanks that I've wrapped using all different colors and all different thread types in a combination of finishes to help customers make their color selection on rods that I build for them. They're useful in the classroom to show different finish techniques - including marbleizing. For the wrapping demonstration, I use a large dowell - about the size of a closet rod - 1/4" rope for the thread. Large crowds cannot see in any detail how you go about wrapping the thread on an actual rod blank. The dowell and rope allows everyone to see how it's done. I also take a guide that has not been prepped and a guide which has had its' feet properly ground and ready to wrap. (Some kits come with pre-ground guide feet and I encourage the students to try to start with them).

I end with a discussion of how to apply the finishes, emphasizing to follow the manufacturer's instructions for mixing and application if they want an attractive finish. Beleive it or not, that is about all you can cover in one evening. If you try to get much more detailed or try to cover more you'll never get through it and it generally will leave everyone a bit overwhelmed and confused. If you want to do more than these absolute basics then you'll probably want to consider doing it in a series of classes.

Hope this helps. BTW - you might be surprised at how many orders you'll get from people who would still rather pay you do make their rod for them.

Sam Stoner

I would approach it like the cooking shows; have a couple of rods in various stages of production and show a couple of key parts of each step. You can include a small handout with references to further information (catalog companies, mail order, books, area stores, etc). You might want to show the individual components of a rod and pass them around while your demonstration is in progress. In no particular order you might want to demonstrate; glueing a cork ring on to a bunch of cork rings and placing it in a press, turning a grip (have one nearly complete and just run some sandpaper over the grip in a lathe), reaming a grip to fit, assembling the grip and reel seat, wrapping a guide on a blank (choose one leg of a two legged guide to wrap) and have a couple of guides wrapped on blank scraps or wooden dowels that you can pass around, and then finally show a couple of completed rods. The completed rods should show some variation and show what you can do with custom rod building. You're not going to teach them how to do it but you should be able to convey the basics of the process and a couple of techniques. Of course, practice, practice, practice until you have your demonstration down cold. And also practice performing some of the tasks while you're looking at an audience - eye contact is key.

Dean if you shoot me your e-mail or unhide it, I would show you (pics) some make your own fixtures that might prove applicable and for little labor if more than one set of , lets say thread tensioners are to be used at once, and these are better than the tea cup and phone book method that tensions the thread itself which causes nothing but trouble.

This winter several members of our Connecticut fishing web site (CTFishermen.com) put on a series of seminars on different fishing related topics. As the self proclaimed resident rod builder, I put one together, not focused on custom rod building, but what I called "The Anatomy of a Fishing Rod". I discussed and demonstrated the various aspects of a rod, design, components, actions, etc. You might be surprised how many experienced and good fishermen lack knowledge on the primary tool they use in fishing. My intention was to provide data so that the audience would be able to make an informed decision the next time they bought a rod, custom or otherwise. Focusing on the rod , rather than the building of custom rods might appeal to a larger audience while still peaking the interest of those who would be interested in building rods--a reason for future presentations. As an added feature we had questions prepared before hand and the names for those who got the answers correct were thrown into a hat and three winners received "certificates" for a springtime rod fixup.

I'm sure your presentation will be well received.

Ray Zarychta
Glastonbury, CT

I hope I do a good enough job, I am just a hobby builder with 5 rods built, 3 in progress and a fly rod waiting to be started (all for me thus far except and ultralight for my father). I think I will hold off on finishing the in progress ones so that I can have them at various stages of completion. One ready to have the epoxy finished, cork handle and reel seat installation and spine orientation on another, turn a cork handle on a mandrel for another step (along with reaming for fitting on a rod), etc.

I will have my custom power wrap lathe there and also the flex coat V-stands that I use for the thread wrapping. I appreciate all the advice and suggestions. I had not thought of using a dowel and cord so people can see thread wrapping better. I will also unhide my email.

Keep the ideas coming!

Hey Chris, How about posting the pix on the Photo Page? Someone is always asking about home made jigs, etc.

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!!

Mike

I am having touble posting pic's there, some are over the suggested 800 x 800 and I have to resize them if possble. I'll give it another shot, but I got an error message the last time I tried. I do everything by hand and all my fixtures are hand made. Furthermore I should share because I've gotten so many ideas from here, the latest with regard to this hand built theme was a pic in the RBO gallery of a guide holding kit of rubber bands and tubes, that is used to hold guides in place prior to wrapping. I made one up and it works well. In the least I will send Mike and Dean what I have



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/05/2006 11:42AM by Chris Karp.