Has anyone taken a tour to a major rod factory such as T&T etc? Just wondering how the commercial factories apply their finish . I've seen catalogs with people using a brush to apply the finish. I'll bet it's a group of ladies doing the finish work and they've probably have been doing it for 20 years or so.
Bill

You're correct. And things are done pretty quickly at that. Much more so than most custom rod builders do things.

One of the more interesting commercial rod operations I ever visited was the old Daiwa rod building plant in Normandie, CA. The wrapping operation was really something to see. Very crude but very fast and effective.

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Been through the St Croix facility before, was a very impressive operation. For the finish, they first have people, mostly women too if I remember correctly, apply the first coat and I believe it was thinned out as well. They have these huge drum style turners to place the rods on that can hold many rods. After that is finished, the rods go to another group and the final finish is applied. These women are very efficient with their work and get the rod finish on quickly. Again for the final finish, they place the rods on the huge turners to let the finish setup. If you ever seen a Flex Coat catalog I think it was, the front picture was the St Croix facility. Go to the link for Flex Coat on the left and you will see the picture.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/2007 09:49AM by Mike Sledden.

I’ve been through the Loomis factory and you are right women apply the finish with a brush. It is neat to watch them apply the finish they only spend a minute or two if that long on each rod. There is on touch up or using a flame on the finish the rod is on a 200 rpm finishing machine.
Most of the wrapping is sublet out to independent wrappers.

Lynn

Allstar Houston - several enclosures - two 200 rpm Flexcoat Stations per enclosure - two men per station

Seven Foot Freshwater Casting Rods - five inch inscription area / eight guides

Man One - place rod in machine - apply finish to butt section in decal area with Flexcoat brush

Man Two - apply finish to guides with Flexcoat brush and remove to place on drum dryer

Both working from aluminum pie pan with Flexcoat (first coat thinned)

Total elapsed time per rod

If you are a builder you gotta see it to believe it!

ELEVEN SECONDS

Watching a factory operation will improve any builders finishing skills.

Gon Fishn

I've never been to a factory, but would like to see how they do it. A picture of the wrapping machines at St. Croix is on the Flex Coat site

[www.flexcoat.com]

And seeker has a video beginning with how they make a blank through the finished rod. It is about 15 minutes long and obviously they don't get to applying epoxy until the end but it is an interesting video. (Right in the middle of the page "Seeker Success Video"

[www.seekerrods.com]

Yep I used to "tour" the Harrington Rod Factory every day for about 8 hours. After doing so I can understand the anomalies of each blank and how there can be subtle differences in each and every blank. Not major mind you but subtle things. Also spent a little time last year at Lamaglas and it brought back a lot of the old memories. The rods at Harrington and Lamaglass were coated similarly where there entire rod was run thru a device Jean use to call a paint pot then pulled back out with an electyrical wench with rubber squeeging(not a word) off the excess then hung and baked dry. Calstar is much the same except he did his stuff by hand and parallel to the ground. Think I saw that at Gusa too. I love the epoxy drying machines at Lamaglas best. Huge drums, really incredible. I dont remember seeing one man doing guides or finish work. The women at Calstar are soo fast you wonder if they dont have tones of gaps but they dont and I never hear of any problems with fish eyes or anything. It is almost strange to see the large number of male custom wrappers when you see how good these women are. I do hear occasionally of piece work male wrappers but never have seen any in the plants. I was fortunate enough to be able to be part of building Harrington Blanks for several months after I retired from the Navy and until my business got so busy I couldnt do both. I have also been Privilaged to see and visit CalStar, Seeker, Graphite USA, Featherweight, Truline and Lamaglas. All have more similarities than not but some interesting variation at each. Helps put meaning to a lot of what we talk about on these boards.

I've seen many of the same that Doc has being on the left Coast, and the thing that kills me is the fact that the finishing and drying is all done out in the open, in the middle of these big shops with no ill effects. I can't figure out how they can pull it off when any cat hair, lint, dust, etc... within 100' of my wet finish manages to wind up IN my finish. lol

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

At the St. Croix factory they apply a first coat at 200 RPM with a thinned coat of Flexcoat which gets most of the air out of the wrap. The second coat is put on at 200 RPM. They litterally apply a very liberal amount of finish then go back and move the brush down the wrap to remove the excess. At the guides they apply a dollop of finish on the tunnel then apply as stated above. The whole rod is done in about 15-20 seconds.

Dac, any update on Harrington making blanks again?

The other night I cought the end of "Hows That Made" on the discovery channel. They went to the Thomas and Thomas factory and did a start to finish. I was amazed at the finish also. The epoxy was a hugh pool in a pie tin. Took the person about 5 seconds to do a guide. I can't losd the brush that fast.

For any that are interested our Rod Building Weekend here at Lamiglas will be the 11th & 12th of April. If you should decide to attend you could observe much of the things discussed here and some will even build their own blank on the 10th & 11th.

Todd

Regards,
Todd Vivian
Mud Hole Custom Tackle

todd@mudhole.com

I wrapped fishing rods for a long time with no stands or supports holding the blanks and when I walked into Kencor and seen a woman triple wrapping double foot guides and doing the whole rod in the time it took me to tape a guide on I felt sick to my stomach, literally. If you haven't seen an out wrapper or factory wrapper wrapping, I suggest it.

Tight wraps and lines,
Wylie