I attended a local rod building show in spring '04. One of the presenters showed a technique for determining guide spacing that used a large plywood? background marked with lines radiating outward from a point at constant angles.

The rod blank was mounted on the board at the butt end and the rod was loaded by pulling down on the tip until a 90 degree bend was achieved. Then, the blank was marked where it crossed each of the radiating lines. This resulted in a guide spacing that was well tuned to the specific blank's curvature under load.

My question, finally, is can anyone tell me where I can get more info on that system and hopefully, a drawing or photos of the setup?

Thanks.

Morton Guide Graph --> [www.renzetti.com]

Mark Griffin
[]
C&M Custom Tackle
San Dimas, California

RodMaker Volume 4 #6 had an article and instructions that many find easier to understand than what comes with the Renzetti product. However, that issue is sold out. But, it will be included in the new RodMaker CD's that are supposed to here any time now.

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Tom;
Have you used this system at all and compared it to your improved concept system to see if they closely match each other as far as results?
Do you find one more accurate then the other?
Or is the graph a good starting point requiring fine tuning to get optimum results?

If you have the new MUDHOLE 2007 Catalog, page 100 has a picture of the “Don Morton Equal Angle Line Guide Spacing Placement Grid” ($55).

Some other discussions on Morton's Grid / Equal Angles include:

Don Morton's Equal Angle Spacings 12-07-05
[www.rodbuilding.org]

Morton Graph Dec. 7, 2005
[www.rodbuilding.org]

Equal angle guide placement question August 10, 2006
[www.rodbuilding.org]

I prefer the New Guide Concept for spinning rods.

If you use the graph, you can take a rod that you have set up by trial and error and "reverse engineer" it sort of, to get the plotting points, and then use them on other rods. It works pretty well.

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