To date I have finished 11 spiral wrap rods for myself and in all honesty, I am happy with each one .In fact I've stopped using my factory rods all together. When I first started building S.W rods I used Toms article as a guide line .Starting w/ guides on top [up ] -static test- reposition guides- flip over 180 degrees -static test and wrap guides . Over a period of time I just stopped doing this and started w/guides down -static tested and reposition guide to parallel the blank and wrap. .Is there some reason for this [for guides up first] that I'm missing. Maybe I'm insecure.
Thanks
Ken Blevins

Yes there is. I got so tired of spending long periods on the phone and via email each day trying to explain to folks how to make a spiral wrap. So I decided I would come up with something that was very simple and easy to explain. Since most of these guys already knew how to set up a conventional casting rod, I devised a procedure that allowed them to utilize the knowledge they already had in that regard, and simply convert it to a spiral wrap. All they had to do was set the rod up just as they normally did, but then flip all the guides save for the butt guide, to the 180 degree position and then go back and place one additional, low frame guide at 90 degrees between the butt and first 180 degree guide. This was pretty much what I had been using all along anyway but now I had a simple way to explain it, and one that most folks could easily grasp.

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I think the word "simple" explains it. Setting up with the guides on top rather forces you to keep the spacing tight. And that helps to minimize the amount of unsupported or noncontributing blank. And it works without much toying around.

Once flipping the guides 180, I think the static test is good for a little fine tuning on guide choices, and especially for placing and sizing the bumper. But if folks start thinking spinning rod, dropping out guides, and increasing spacing,,, then they could be increasing the potential problem of load distribution inherent in the spiral.

I think a tradiontional casting static test, generally produces a guide spacing with more guides that a spinning static test, and those additional guides are situated near the tip as one tries to prevent line slap with the line traveling over the top of this fexible area of the rod. Since the guides will eventually be located on the bottom of the blank on a spiral wrap, I think a spinning rod static test is best , IF you add one more guide on the lower end of the rod to allow for the neutralness of the 1st 180 degree guide and neutral bumper guide, (which I like to think of a non load bearing, as the loads applied are not similar to all the other guides, the forces being applied to the side "twisting" or pushing back into the blank in the case of the bumper) As casting staitc test adds guides where they are needed near the tip, a spinning static test does not, but for the sake of the inheriant drawback of guide neutrality in the spiral wrap methods why not adjust accordingly and place an extra insurance guide where it is needed in that event narrowing the spacing in the loaction of this neutrality.

From what Tom states later on in this thread, a spinning static test might be the best for the tip area and a traditional casting static test for the butt section, but I would never notice this situation of extreme butt area spinning guide spacing as I usually add a guide there to distribute the load a little more as spinning rods are traditionally, at least thought of as, a lighter line situation than a casting rod. I'm sure there are some acceptions. I've just always been one to take out cheap and relitively light insurance and make sure the butt section where you fight the fish dispurses the load over a greater area, you may even get a higher test rating out of the rod, or insure an established rating



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/2007 04:41PM by Chris Karp.

For the uninitiated, starting out with a spinning type static test will almost always put the first two guides (butt and first 180 degree guide) way too far apart. At that point, the bumper guide becomes a 90 degree transition guide and the part of the point of this particular system is lost.

Anyone who wants to use a spinning style static test should first complete the test with the guides on top, flip them and then test again, removing and repacing as needed, but leave that first 180 degree alone.

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Tom
That is exactly what I found out and couldn't figure out why my spacing [reel end] was always a little off .Some times I would have to add a guide
Ken

Oh! (Insert light bulb in head going on here!) Got it now. Just takes me longer sometimes. Man I love reading the forum!


Pesco Ergo Sum