I was in the line aisle of the local bait shop and got to looking at the florescent lines. Which in turn got me to thinking about aligning guides. Seeing as how the line glows like a fat rope under a black light, why not use it to line the guides on a blank? Place and suspend 1/2 oz weight on the line to keep the line tight and striaght. People use lasers and such, but with the line laying in the bottom of the guides, you could see every bend like a road sign. As long as the blank is straight, then the line will be also. Any thoughts?


Eric

Sounds logical. Let us know how it works out.

Freddwhy (Rapt-Ryte)

I'd say worth a try. I just put a colored piece of paper behind my stripper or next guide up and look through the tip top. If I can see the color through the guide rings, I know I'm pretty straight. I might tweak, but I know I'm in a good place at least.

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AD

Sounds interesting Eric. I line mine up on the rod lathe. I lock the rod into the lathe once all the guides are wrapped, and then look straight down at the rod from the top. I center each guide so an equal amount of guide is showing on each side of the blank. If a rod has a slight bend in it, I always build on the underside of the bend, so visually the rod is always straight. Quick and simple.

cheers
Harold

I do something similar to Alex, I put a white piece of paper on the wall and look down the blank like a rifle - easy to see if they align with the tip top in a concentric manner or not.

I do something similar to Alex, I put a white piece of paper on the wall and look down the blank like a rifle - easy to see if they align with the tip top in a concentric manner or not.

What do you mean by an equal amount showing on either side of the blank? I haven’t seen a guide stick out past the blank for a while now…

The fluorescent line may work well, but don’t get too hung up on it, from what I have seen the main reason to stress over straight guides is to please the customer not to have any impact on performance.

Then they must be aligned, LOL

Alex.

I build light weight fly rods primarily 3 to 6 wt. and even the small snake guides (#1's and 2's) do come past the edges of the blank slightly, with the very thin tip sections.

Harold

I have tried a laser but eyeballing has probably been the most effective--now that i think about it I have different lasers available--LOL I do have to remember that with the seamless bicfocals that there is distortion. Things I think are crooked or warped are actually ok without the glasses.

Mike,

They mean the guide ring showing on each side, not the foot. That's how I do it

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!!

No way are you seeing this from the other side. [www.rodbuilding.org]

Good Point, Mike! I forgot about the "darksiders"!!!

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!!

Yeah.. I'm there with Mike Harris. Most of my blanks, well, all of my blanks are wider than my running guides.

And most are wider than my stripper too.

Maybe I could turn the rod upside down and if I didn't see the guides, I would know they are at least almost all on the same axis of the blank! (just joking... but there is some seriousness to that thought... it would get you pretty close actually!)

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AD

We use the line trick - we keep a piece of bright yellow line about ten ft long just for doing this. We also use a laser - depends mostly on the guide styles, because the high-frame guides are easier to do with the line.

Uncle Russ
Calico Creek Rods

Mike H.

I don't use micro guides on fly-rods. I doubt the fly line and related knots would go through them. I use snake guides on most of my builds. And looking at the picture, I can see what your talking about, not being able to see the guide from the other side. Throw a snake guide or any guide for that matter on the 1/16th inch tip section of a flyrod and I guarantee you'll see it from the "otherside". My post was specific to light weight fly rods. I should have specified it better in my original post.

Harold



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/17/2008 05:29PM by Harold Dean.

Seeing as how the blank I am building now is a micro, I am having a hard time "bore" sighting the guides. I am a lineman by trade, I am use to running copper on a pole in a straight line. It just seemed that I could apply the same principal to this application.

We put a staple at the top of the pole, then stretch the copper tight and place a staple at the bottom of the pole. This puts all the copper in a straight line on the pole, and then we just drive a staple every 12-18 inches. Looks like it was done with a straight edge.

Get the butt guide centered on the blank, and the first guide from the tip. The rest is self explanatory.

Russ, I was glad to read that this does work. After posting this last night, I got to thinking that the black light would be a pain in the rear. So I got to thinking about the bright nylon lines at the home improvement stores that builders use to string off areas for footers and such. Neon pink and chartreuse are readily available. Should be highly visible without the use of a black light.


Eric

The alignment of the micros is surprisingly easier than a taller and or larger guide frame. All guides should be placed and tuned prior to any wrapping. Using proper overhead lighting and a placment position of getting your head directly over the TDC of the blank is quite easy to do. This procedure is noted in the Flex Coat Booklet of How We Do It. These small guides are quite easy to place the small pointed foot on the reflected line on the TDC of the blank. The movement and tuning when using the tie wraps allows very slight movemnt to line everything up. When all are in place hold the blank in a postion where your are observing the blank in total length from the back end - what you will see is a line of dots for each guide sitting on the TDC of the blank surface. They are not tall enough to require much movement to get the rings in alignment. The real problem is to find a way to wrap, install Forhan and pull thread without disturbing the intiail straight placement. If you are having to tune the guides after wrapping you will waste a lot of time dealing with the torque and twist of the tiny frames around the Forhan lock when using tight thread tension. If you are building a casting rod it is suggested that the reel be installed in the seat for verification of the placement of the butt guide.