First off I would very much like to properly thank Raymond Adams for his great guide on trim wraps. It was long overdue and to be honest, I just found it in my spam email the other day. The result is very nice even though on some of the smaller guides, you almost need the dexterity of a surgeon to pull it off! Here is a pic of my first use of his technic.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Now for the lesson......
On this particular rod, I used a 100% Rayon thread that I bought at Michaels. Its not manufactured for rod building but the colors and shine on it are amazing. I used it on my Mardi Gras rod with very good results so I figured it would be perfect for this application. After wrapping and TWO heavy coats of Flex Coat CP, I took it to the customer's house so he could see it. I showed him the concept guide system and the wonderful flex that the St Croix blank had. I then went home and epoxied the rod.

Apparently the flexing that I did allowed the CP to crack between the threads on the guides. It wasn't visable to me in the least. It was just enough that I ended up with a "tiger stripe" appearance on all but one of the guides from where the epoxy turned the thread translucent. It looked truly horrible.

So....from now on, the rod doesn't move until I am 100% done with it.

David,

What a shame! That's a beautiful rod. Another possible cause may be rayon. Often, it will swell or loosen when epoxy is applied. Most that I know have gotten very mixed results with rayon and stay away from it. If you want to go with sewing thread, I would stick to the polyester. Amazing array of colors. I use Madeira Polyneon (over 330 colors available from @#$%& on the left) or Mettler, Robison-Anton or just about any POLYESTOR. I would also recommend CP on any of them as some use a silicon lubricant for ease of use in sewing machines.

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!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/2006 12:53PM by Mike Barkley.

The thing is, the buttwrap and the reel seat wrap had no problems at all. Now, it could be that the space between the guide foot and the blank contributed to the swell of the thread but when I re-wrapped the guides and followed the exact same process (Minus the flex of course) I had no problems and the results were what I expected. Since I am still new to rod building and not tainted (lol) by years of experience, on occasion I like to try different things and sort of fly into the face of conventional wisdom. My Redfish rod was wrapped using 100% cotton variegated thread that I bought at Wal-Mart because I thought it was unique. The local rod builder here told me that it would never work because:

1. It was cotton and wouldn't be strong enough as a man-made fiber
2. The finish would look horrible because of the fuzziness of the string
3. It would fade almost over night from the sun

None of these things are an issue at all and I couldn't be happier with the looks AND performance of the rod.

Since the LSU rod was a customer's rod and not one built for me and I had successfully used the rayon previously, I felt that it would be OK to go ahead and sell something that I experimented with before.

I love to experiment also but with the hundreds of colors available in Madeira Polyneon#40 and others, why chance it? It may work 20 times, but that 21st!!!. I have gotten some really unique variegated threads in polyester at a fabric store

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!!

To be perfectly honest, I have never seen a spool of the Madeira in person. I have considered ordering up a bunch of it to see if I like it. Plus, since I live to CP, I'm not concerned about the finish results. The main reason I tried the Rayon was the "pop" that it had. The shine or color difference in NCP thread to regular nylon is about the same as regular nylon is to this rayon.

At least the rod is finished, it looks great, customer is happy, and $$ in my pocket for Christmas.

On a side note, the components to make this rod, including thread but without finish, tape, cork seal, decals, sand paper, etc cost me exactly $97.04.

Roughly what would you guys charge for this rod?

Kit was bought here: [shop.mudhole.com]

Its the SCSK7 2S66MF

David where are you? Your email is "Hidden" on the board. Go to the My Control Center and reconfirm your email and we can communicate with you. I hope your choice of colors increase the price of my rods in a couple of hours! Tigers N Hogs will have a lot to say about my profitability this week!

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Gon Fishn

Postscript:

Game Over - Happy Day In Tigerland! Hogs Quite Sad - Fish Bowls Full - Bartenders, New Rod Owners and Rod Builder Happy Campers! Boy I wish I had Randy's White Tiger Rod To Sell Tonight!

Second Postscript:

Doug I live in Baton Rouge just south of the campus off of Highland Road. I fish a couple of days during the week and build in my shop nearly every day. Please feel free to drop by and visit. Click on my name at the top of this thread and send me an email.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/2006 07:19PM by Bill Stevens.

Email me at gameguruREMOVETHIS@cox.net


Of course take out the remove this part. I am attempting to keep some of the web bots from spamming me into another email address change. I did update the information in my profile.
Thanks Bill...

Dave

you must be a tiger fan, what about those tigers, im i baton rouge and new to this rod building addiction and i love it
GOD BLESS doug blacklock

David,
Thanks for the compliment! Glad the tutorial helped you.

What I believed happend to your wraps the first time was the CP being disturbed after it had
set and not the type of thread you used.Flex-Coat and other CP's are clear when set but if you
disturb them they will show a white haze or nick at the point of disturbence. Also, if you cracked
the seal of the CP you allow epoxy to get in and you get the result that happened to you

I understand there is an article in the next RodMaker Mag. that discusses a technique with CP
that produces some really nice effects! CAN'T WAIT!!

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

I would say you are 100% correct, Raymond. I am eagerly awaiting that issue!