After sanding the guides for a perfect match with the rod, how many of u guys put them directly on the blank, and how many of u use something underneeth the guide's foot(like the flex coat stick)?!
How important is that?!
Thank you! Andrei

i hold them on with a rubber band and start wrapping

Me Too !

I recently switched to the Flex Coat adhesive when attaching guides to wrap them. Nothing to do with getting something between the guide and the blank, though. I just have found it faster and easier for me than tape, rubber bands, cut pieces of tubing, or dental brace bands. I still sometimes revert back to the masking tape, though. I did it that way too long and it's habit sometimes!

For attaching guides and doing stress tests for spacing, I pretty much use the dental brace bands and again sometimes I use masking tape (old habit again...).

Putter
Williston, ND

Same here! There is NO need to put anything under the guide foot. Those that use the adhesive, use a little of it to hold the foot in place to start wrapping, not as any sort of cushion. You can pick up vinyl tubing in various diameters at any hobby shop. It's used for fuel lines, etc on model airplanes and is very inexpensive. A few feet, a cutting board and a razor blade and you have a couple years worth. I always slide them on (with a few extras) on the blank before I glue on the tip. Makes guide placement/adjustment a snap! Just touch with a razor and they fly off

The reason that I use the rubber bands instead of adhesive is because I never know the final guide placement until the rod is in a rod holder on my bench and a static test is performed. With the rubber bands, I can have the rod flexed and easily move the guides around until I get the line path that I want and can even test cast if I want and make guide adjustments "on the fly" I don't think that I could do that if my guides were glued on.


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!!

Thank you guys! I was asking, because i heard rumors about guides digging into the blank if they r put directly on the blank, and that some guys use something like the Flex Coat bar, that's used for positioning the guides so there's no friction between the blank and the guide.
Some of the rods i've striped some guides of, i noticed that they have some kind of material other than the epoxy that went thru the thread. Some sort of ruberized plastic or something like that. I thought it's purpose was other than just to fix the guide in place before wrapping.
Thank you again guys!

Guides that are flat are the bottom can't "dig into" the blank. The guys who are telling you that sort of thing have just bought into a long standing rod building myth.

What you're seeing when you remove the thread is the residue of either color preserver or epoxy that has seeped through and around the guide foot. It's not any sort of "protective" material.

...........

Just unwraped some guides today to be replaced, and did pay a bit more attention. And i have to say that Tom, u r right. The epoxy seems to flow under the guide as well, since it's curved. I only unwraped a series of guides till now, and didn't pay attention to it that much, but a local rodbuilder said that he uses that stuff so the guides didn;t dig into the graphite. And he sayd that didn't i notice the stuff under the guide foot on newer rods....i said i did, but i thought it was epoxy....he builds rods for a really long time now, he must have built at least 200 of them. I didn't actually buy it, so i decided to ask.
After i opened the topic i unwraped 3 guides today to see for myself, and it was exactly as i thought. It was epoxy, that flew in through the gap of the top of the guide foot. The rest of the stuff i knew it was epoxy that has entered through the guide gaps.
Thank you guys for clearing this up for me.

Andrei,

Te framanti degeaba,chiar daca nu finisezi talpile inelelor nu ai probleme.Foloseste niste fasii taiate din "masking tape"cu care fixezi provizoriu inelul pe blank (cat mai aproape de piciorul inelului),matisezi fara a tensiona tare ata de matisaj pana aproape de fasia de "masking tape",scoti aceasta si finisezi matisajul.
Daca inelul nu e pozitionat pe linie,poti usor sa-l misti in pozitia buna (de aceea ata nu se tensioneaza asa de tare si ca sa nu preseze in plus asupra blank-ului)

Urmeaza FLEX-COAT-ul pe care il pui mai usor nu cu pensula ci cu un fel de spatula facuta prin taierea unui card de plastic ce nu-l mai folosesti sau din ceva similar.
Nu uita sa pui un pic de FLEX-COAT in scobitura ce ramane intre inel si blank ca sa nu intre apa si cumva sa rugineasca talpa (mai putin in apa dulce dar in apa sarata se intampla).

Sorry ,i can explain more easy in my language(romanian),i don't speak well English and Andrei is romanian to.

Jean Scurtu