Following up a prior post I made where a rod was singing the creaks when flexed. I stripped the guides off that rod, underwraps and all. Instead of wrapping with D, I wrapped with A & B (something I never do). In addition, I wrapped an identical rod, withteh same guide style, also with A &B. I coated both underwraps with Threadmaster at teh same time. I put a coat of straight Aftcote on the guide wraps last night, leaving light source on for about 8 hours, so the first coat cured at probably 90 degrees. I went downstairs, and even though I know I shouldnt' have, I flexed both rods.

Teh new rod, has a slight click, which is pretty normal for teh rod the first time it is flexed. I take the re-wrapped one out, and when it flexes, it once again creaks, not as bad as before, but still not nearly as "quiet" as teh other rod. SAme guides, same thread, same tension, same batch of epoxy, I used straight Aftcote and didn't slop it on, to make sure it wsnt' teh Propane flaming I usually use.

Conclusion - I dunno, I think it's a couple of the actual guides themselves making the noise. I know when I removed teh guides and left teh underwraps on the blank, there was no noise, so I know it's not the underwraps moving around on teh blank. I am pretty confidant that the problem isn't me or anythign that I'm doing wrong, so there isn't much else I can do except finish the rod and hand them over.

Billy, if you feel that it is the guides, what do you think about removing a single guide at a time and fully flexing after the removal of each guide?? If you still have noise you know you need to keep removing. You might be able to easily isolate the guide in this manner or you could just strip off the guides chuck em all in the ditch and put on a new set???

Tom

Thom, I tried that the first time. I ended up with all of them coming off, lol. YOu cannot distinguish which one is making the most noise, I'm not a Physics major, but I thnk teh sound resonates through the blank.

As a goof, I re-read the other panic post I threw up the other day. Steve & Charlie menioned using oil. I spoke to a friend the other night who suggested using KY..more of a joke than anything else. I had a demo rod which had a couple of noisemaker guides on it I threw together for the show last year. As a rule, I never trust anyone's opinions or advice, until I've tried it myself. I even try things I know that are dumb, just in case. Guess what happened when I sprayed that other rod with WD-40? no more noise. I do not like WD-40 on rods, guides, reels, as it invites gunk build up, so I'm gonna have to see if I can spray teh guides, elminate noise, then clean the excess off with alcohol and see if that works.

Better to worry abotu this in public, getting made fun of, than to have someone buy 2 of my rods and tell al his friend about his new pair of squeakers (for those in the South, tennis shoes = sneakers)

Billy, did you re-use the same set when you put them back on? it is a shame there is not some way to measure harmonics of the guide.

Tom

SAme exact set, and I made sure to get all the dried epoxy off (there was some in the middle of the 2 legs where they meet to make teh guide foot), adn wipe them with alcohol - just in case that ws the problem, I tried covering all my bases. I'm happy that it happened again, adn even happier that I think the spray oil will make it noise stop.

[www.gonemovies.com]

ok first off let me preclude this by saying I have been at work now for 12 hours and thankfully only have a couple left. you could do the ole mechanic trick use a long shaft of some sort (i.e. screwdriver) place on each guide and flex it. You will pick up the noise. would at least allow you to isolate where it is coming from... what if you were to take out the rod and give it a short bit of use to try and work out the squeak? This is all that I can think of vice tossing out the complete guide set.

I had this happen on a saltwater spinning rod I built...probably the 5 or 6th rod I had built. I used the big double foot stainless pac bay guides it squeaked a bit but I chalked it up to the guide feet moving a bit inside the thread wraps kinda like the sound you get when glass gets squeaky clean.

It don't do it now so I guess the problem solved itself.

Trapped air is to blame 99% of the time when you hear squeaks and clicks. The good news is that IF that is the cause, it WILL go away ... thank goodness.

It doesn't happen often with good technique, but it WILL happen occasionally. It is frustrating and I don't know of anything that will prevent it from getting you occasionally.

Trapped air,,,,,,,Billy did you give the wraps a good soaking of CP prior to finish ???

When I cut teh guides off, there were no air bubbles in teh tunnel, or between the guide legs and the finish on any of the guides. I suspect it is from teh guide shifting around under teh guide wraps - which makes sense the first time when I used D which isn't as strong as A or B. This time I used more tension, and A under and B over. It was NOT FUN wrapping size A up the Fuji HB size 20, which I do not grind but comes half prepped from teh factory. I have done a dozen rods with the same guide sets, everything the same except the thread size and how I applied finish between the guide feet, never had this happen before. This is why I blamed the guides.

However, if teh WD-40 "fixed" teh problem, it most certainly is the guide shifting around - the area between teh guide feet is where the spray went, so this must be the problem area. I dunno. I usually spray with Lemon Pledge, so maybe that acted as a lubricant on the other rods which didn't squeak, I have no idea. The good thing is, those who read this and run into it, know that you canmake it go away with a minimal amount of oil. Who knows, maybe water is all it needs?

I amcomfortable knowing I will never make an Alvin and the Chipmunks rod ever again...unless it's a grip inlay, lol.

Billy; try a liquid car wax such as "ICE" or other silicone wax. The wax may fill in the spot on the guide that is causing the squeak and after drying will not cause the same build up problems as WD40.

The noise be coming from the rings shifting around in the frames when flexed.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/14/2009 10:23AM by Steve Gardner.

Glad the WD-40 worked for you. Funny that the squeak never returns after many rod cleanings. It worked and I just accept it.

IMHO; it's the 'old fingernail on the blackboard' phenomena that drove the teacher bonkers.

Getting into rod harmonics: Steve Gardner and I 'talked' briefly about this when I mentioned that some rods 'feel good' while others feel discordant. I discovered it while wrapping(fooling around) with different variations of his Tennessee handle.

I built stringed musical instruments at one time. These consisted of a string stretched across a air chamber which serves as an amplifier. This sounded like a fishing rod to me so one rainy day when I had time, I hooked up a transducer, amplifier and a scope and found that indeed; different rods have different tones. This only worked with the hollow(a la Steve Gardner) rod handles. It works to a lesser extent on a solid Tennessee handle.

I also found that the line makes a noise when it's stretched and pulled through a guide. I think, repeat think that a guide makes some sound while flexing. Just because we can't hear it, it's still there.

I wonder if the fish can hear these sounds? Some pretty sensitive critters here . Just something to ponder.

Happy Valentines Day. I bought mine some Flexcote CP. C2

Charlie-
There have been times I've thought they could hear what I was saying about them.

Billy
Everything you have done indicates that its neither the wraps moving on the blank/guide or the guide moving on the blank.
It is most likely one of 4 causes:-
- Ring moving in the frame ( very unlikely ..........especially in that series of guide )
- The metal in the frame creaking ( very unlikely .........but does happen ..........the suspect location is where the long rear frame legs join
the ringframe .....................)
- Epoxy on the legs ( not the feet ) moving on the legs during flexing ( very unlikely as you cleaned them with alcohol )

- **** the black finish coat moving on the frame as it flexes ( much more common ).............results from contamination prior to the coating
process. - this is still very uncommon , but the most likely cause. ****

WD 40 can & will dry to a thin varnish like finish over time....................if you use INOX this does not happen, it never dries out completely.
CRC 2-26 also doesn't dry out................the more common cheaper CRC water dispersant / lubricant spray can be problematic.

If lubrication solves your noise problem , a longer term solution would be to avoid WD 40 for one of the alternatives.
That way it will be less of an issue to re-emerge if your customer does not lubricate it again.

You can rest easy.............that you have gone the extra yard to make sure you were not creating the problem.

Website problems......................double post deleted



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/15/2009 02:45PM by Denis Brown.