I am spending too much time getting the thread to climb up the guide foot when wrapping a guide.

I am putting a nice ramp on my guides, but the thread will not climb, I have to force it up the foot.

What I do to get the thread started on the foot is wind thread until the thread touches the foot, then I offset it about an 1/8 of an inch, put 4 or 5 wraps and then push the thread down. This is not a good way.

I watched a couple of videos, and they make it look easier. just keep the rod turning and the thread climbs up the foot. Hah! I wish.

The problem with doing it the way I have to do it, the thread sometimes slightly freys....then I have to start over.

any suggestions?????

Roy

Sounds like you need to prep your guides??

I am, thats why I said I am putting a nice ramp on my guides.

I probably am not doing them correctly.

What I do to prep them, is grind a long ramp and round the sides, but not so thin that they would cut the thread. Then I polish them with Diamond stones.

Roy I grind the feet to a feather edge and then buff them on a buffing wheel with a little jeweler's rouge on it. When I use the buffing wheel I make sure that the guide feet are turned in the direction that the wheel is turning. I wear safety glasses also.

Do your guides look like this?

[www.rodbuilding.org]

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

Ray's link is a good one! The guide pictured on the left (lower photo) will have no problem climbing up the guide foot, the one on the right will want to slide down and pile up upon itself. Woeeying about cutting the thread usually ends up in poorly prepared guides!

Sounds also like a tension problem, depending if you haven't tried it try loosesing the tension and then going up the ramp of the foot.

I had this problem but it was that I always would push the guide forward as the thread approached, after experimentation and alot of frustration

found that the tension was just off from what I thought was taught and what WAS too TIGHT. Also found for the real small 8mm< I'll start from the

front leg due to being R/handed I always knock the guide try it.

Dave Sr.

You should have your guide foot ground to the point where when your thread gets up to the guide foot it never slows, stops, or has ANY trouble climbing onto the guide foot. The thread should climb up about as easy as it does when no foot is even there to climb up on.

Most guide feet are TOO THICK and have a terrible blunt shape to them and getting thread up onto them is a PIA. These need properly ground and shaped. Once you do that the wrapping part is easy smeezy.

DR

I am a beginner which is why I am pretty sure i know exactly what your problem is. I ran into the same issue and I take great pride in how well I prepare my guide feet. Believe it or not, just turn the rod around and that will fix the problem. I had no problems and then once I started to get near the end of the rod I turned it around because I was in a confined place so I could not move along with the wraps, (oh ya, I designed my own wrapper, so this may be harder for you to figure out. There is no reason why it should not work, but I was doing the same thing you were trying to make some off set wraps and then push them down, so I just reversed my rod to how I had it before and perfect, works fine. I can't tell you why, but I am the guy who murphy's law was written about so I have had to overcome every problem that a person can possibly encounter. lol
James

Thanks everyone......Duane..tight tension was my first thought, I am at as loose a wrap as I can be an it still doesn't climb.

Thanks for the link Ray....I was not grinding my foot down no where near as thin as the foot on the left. A picture is worth a lot, especially this picture!

also a thanks for the support and the elaboration on the foot grinding You folks have taken me out of my dimese.

Roy

Roy,

I wrap my guides pretty tight, and I do try to prep them pretty well. Some of the things I've learned to do:

- Make sure there is no gap between the blank and the leading edge of the foot. Guides don't always come from the manufacturer perfectly flat, and you can't always straighten a foot to fit flush without grinding off too much material. I'll jam a wedge of masking tape under the leg to make the leading edge touch the blank, wrap the guide about halfway up the foot, and then remove the tape wedge; wrapping the rest of the foot normally
- Keep the transition from the leading edge to the leg consistent so the thread doesn't have to change radically as it moves towards the leg of the guide.
- Polish out any grind marks using at least 400 grit paper down along the top of the foot.

If I still experience that pesky problem, the key to getting your guide finished is to "pick" the thread up, and move it up onto the guide foot. Once I've completed 3 or 4 wraps, I'll pack those threads towards the supply end, and then continue wrapping on the foot. That usually solves the problem, and no one is the wiser.

Whatever method you use to attach your guides to the blank, make sure you've got enough tension against the blank to keep the guide from shifting while wrapping. I used to use guide adhesive, but have since stopped because the adhesive seems to hold the guide foot slightly above the blank. I'm using masking tape for the time being, and I'll tape most of the foot except for the first couple of mm's, but some of the guys have recommended using auto pinstripe tape. They say pinstripe tape doesn't leave a sticky residue.

Unlike what I do, I do know some guys who build rods on a "high-production" basis. They spend very little time guide preping. They barely grind the leading edge; just enough to facilite the transistion between blank and guide.

A little trick that makes a difference: Use the thread end(s) to make a ramp onto the guide foot.

Jim,
Can you explain that one a little further? That sounds like a great idea, I'm not understanding what you mean by using the thread ends.
Thanks