What vendors carry these?

I meant to inquire about the blanks. Thanks for any help.

[www.deloscustomtackleshack.com]

I don't think blanks are currently available.

.............

I sent an email query to the overseas manufacturer and never heard back.

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

They are EXTREMELY popular right now ........ at the Timonium Fishing Show they totally sold out very quickly ............

CTS, link to the left, offers blanks in a "tangerine" color. Not an exact color match, but may give you the effect you're looking for.

Brian

And a much better blank

Why is the CTS blank better. ....actually, I guess I'm really more curious to know why the Carrot stick is not?

Well it's just my opinion, but after looking at them, holding them and, playing with them. Then spending few minutes explaining the features of the rod to the Carrot rep. that was selling them at the fishing show, (to which he thanked me greatly). You would think to move a new product they would actually educate the people they put out there selling the stuff

I was just not that impressed with them out side of a few handle innovations that are actually slight modifications to others that have been around for years.

The only thing that they can say makes the rod /blank different is their claim that it is a "stress free blank". Which what they are really saying is that there is no spline or stiff sections, because the blank is kind of dipped in the mold for lack of a better word. But in reality the core of the blank is still graphite cloth wrapped just like every one else’s with the outer part being dipped.

The orange color which is supposed be because the material is made out of carrots is actually added. When carrots are ground up and exposed to the air, they turn brown.

For me it's one of those things you just feel I can't really explain it, it just is. Go to the show pick up a CTS blank or Batson RX8+ or some of the other top shelf blanks and it just feels right, or one of the many custom built rods and you know this is a fine piece of equipment. I just didn't get that from the carrot stick. I know this is really a subjective opinion but its how I see it. Hope it makes sense.

So far all I’ve been impressed with is their marketing scheme. Form what you say it seems to be working



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/2008 05:46PM by Steve Gardner.

Thanks Steve, you opinion is highly valued. I'm not really taken to their marketing, but do seem to recall some discussion on this board regarding the exciting potential with this technology..not that this is it, yet, but maybe 5 years down the line...who knows. I've had a chance to try out a lot of different blanks, but not this one yet, and I dont like to rule anything out...hence why I asked.

What they mean by “stress free blank” is that the people in Scotland who designed the blanks used Finite Element Analysis in the design process. The rest of the design world has been using FEA for decades, but the layup of a rod blank is quite complex to model in FEA, and the software and personnel to use it are quite expensive. I got a chuckle when the e21 people were trying to describe the FEA process on another board. They described how the designers found “hot spots”, which is FEA jargon for a stress concentration, as if it was an increase in temperature.

So what did they do to eliminate these "hot spots"?
And what is their reasoning that there is a need to eliminate them?

I may be mistaken but I thought "Stress concentration points” are created and placed in different locations along the blank by the manufacturers to provide the different actions we like.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/2008 11:19AM by Steve Gardner.

With FEA software it would be possible to apply a load on the tip to deflect the rod. You could use any amount of deflection that you wanted and measure the load required, or you could apply a fixed load and measure the amount of deflection. In either case you could measure the tip angle, for that matter you could measure the angle at multiple places along the blank. After you apply the loads the software shows you the stress along the entire length of the blank. Because we use compound tapers, anywhere you have a transition from one taper to another you have a possibility for a stress concentration, also any changes in thickness, or lots of very detailed design features can cause a hot spot. Since the software has given you the power and action for the blank you are analyzing you can work on the details of the design to reduce the stress concentrations while maintaining the load properties that you desire. Typically you remove a little material here and add a little there to get the best compromise.

That is the theory of why StCroix’s IPC design is better, instead of having multiple angles that transition from one to another, it is one smooth curve that blends all of the different angles together.

All this discussion of FEA is for a molded blank of a homogenous material. Once you get into different shaped flags, of different materials, with varying resin to fiber ratios, hand wrapped onto a mandrel the modeling would be very difficult to do and get accurate results.

No matter how advanced you get with simulations at some point you still have to build a prototype and test it in the real world. For fishing rods it is whether it has the action and feel that is desired, for the parts I design in my day job it is whether the turbos meet performance and NVH targets, where they crack, and find any other failures that you didn’t see in the simulations. Then you make changes and move to the next iteration.

Mike;
Thank you for the explanation of why the hot spots and how to find them. But when creating a rod with a specific action or lockup point, isn't it a necessary evil to create such stress points in order to accomplish that action.

Also (don't get this wrong I am not an engineer by any means, just trying to understand the concept. I've always figured the more I understand the more knowledge I have to accomplish what I want). But even with St Croix’s advanced technology for creating smoother transitions aren't there still stress points?
I can see how smoothing or stretching out the transition point would defuse some of the stress, but wouldn't it still be their?

When you mentioned "homogenous material" Would that still apply to what the carrot people are doing even though there is an inner core of graphite and an outer layer of carrot nano fiber, or what ever they call it?

You’re on the right page, everything in engineering, like life itself is a compromise. By spreading the stress over a larger area you can reduce the peak stress significantly.

IPC is hardly advanced technology even the simplest CAD systems can create a spline through a set of points, a few minutes of programming a CNC Lathe or Grinder and you have an IPC mandrel. Remember the pinnacle of technology when many of the blanks we use were designed was a slide rule.

Of course there is more to it to get the right performance, that is why experienced designers will still be important no matter what the rods are made from.

Hopefully the carbon core is an interim technology until they have a fully molded design worked out.

Steve,
If you go to the CTS site they do a pretty good job of explaining their design differences. Some highlights, no scrim used in construction, no reinforcement wraps needed at the ferrules. I've really enjoyed the rods I've built on their blanks.

Sammy, I have pictures and a link for carrot sticks I will try todownload the file to you. I personally don't think very much of them. Mike

thanks for all the info guys, the main reason I asked was a guy contacted me about building some rods on "orange blanks". Thanks again, Sammy