Hello, all. I'm having a problem. Trying to do a fade on a portion of a wrap. I can do this easily when I do, for example, a diamond wrap or chevron based wrap, since I cut bands of thread to use.

Here, however, I am simply trying to fade on a portion of the blank, such as a guide wrap, with the thread turning around the blank. For example, I'd like to wrap 5 turns of red, one turn of yellow, followed by 4 turns of red, 2 turns of yellow, 3 turns of red followed by 3 turns of yellow, etc, etc.
down to all yellow. (I'm talking about the mechanics here, and not the colors--just using this as an example.

Now, I use a rod wrapper with the thread on spool tensioners. It feeds from above the rod, and the rod turns toward me. Now, I know how to do tsingle thread inlays, for example, leaving the two involved colors on their respective tensioners. I know how to drop a thread in and out. What I am having a heckuva time figuring out is how to do what I want to do--drop threads in and not have them alternate. I.e., get rid of one color completely for however many turns, while continuing to wrap the other color, NOT alternating red,yellow, red, yellow, etc.

Make sense?
I want RRRRR YRRRR YYRRR YYYRR YYYYR YYYYY etc.
I've tried cutting a length of yellow, wrapping over then end of it, and taping it out toward the tip. No problem making the first drop in.
However, when I want to drop the red out and make, say, three turns of yellow, I can't do it. I have tried pulling some red off, to take the tension off, and trapping the red under the yellow, making the turns of yellow manually by turning them over the rod with the rod held still, but the red always wants to come out, lose tension on the already-wrapped portion, etc.

What am I missing? I've looked for the tutorials and assume that they are using the same sort of wrapping setup I am, but can't make it work. If, for example, I was using bobbins or something like that, I could see how it would work. But with one (or both) spools on a bolt/washer/spring tensioner, I am stumped. Anybody help out a dunce?

Thanks a million.
Chuck Horan

A little confused but it sounds like you need "spring back presure" on each individual thread ( i think thats what you mean by bobbins). do you have that? It helps control it and not let anything slip. You can use a small fishing weight and hang it in mid air off the back of your table with the right amount of tension not to let the weight hit the floor. So its like a man hanging from a loose tight rope, his weight creates the spring back presure you need to keep anything from getting loose or slipping.

Hope that makes some kind of sense.

EDIT* there are more ways to do it too, look in the equipment section of the photos to see all the inventive ways people have built this into their rod wrapper designs.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/07/2009 06:49AM by Bobby Bolivia.

The procedure has been outlined in RodMaker.

To do what you want, you are still going to have to completely drop/cut some threads and then pick them back up later. For instance, once you have a thread going around the blank, you can't hide it - it either winds around the blank, or you have to drop it by cutting and then picking it back up when you need it.

This sort of thing is much harder to explain in works than it was in the photos in the article.

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

Which issue was the procedure outlined in?

Sounds like a bunch of short trim wraps if I understand it correctly...

Sure you have seen this picture, but Sean Endres did a really cool one, maybe he'll chime in...

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Sean, that is EXACTLY the type of wrap I'm talking about! I really hope Mr. Endres will chime in. It may be that the spools have to be removed from the tensioner or something, and crossed back and forth, A wrapping over B, then B wrapping over A.

If I'm not mistaken, the procedure outlined in Rodmaker is not designed to produce the wrap you reference. At least I believe it allows you to drop in a thread, but then you can only wrap that thread along with the other color, not instead OF it. So, you can wrap RRRR, RYRYRY YYYY, but
not RRRR RRRY RRYY RYYY YYYY. At least not with my brain. lol

Sean E, are you out there?

Chuck,
If I am doing something like this, I simply take lengths of thread of the appropriate color and get them all started with an overwrap of the base thread, I tape off all of the unused thread down the rod and pick up the first color, and do the wrap as required, letting the base and other colors lie under the top color, then as the color changes, the first color tag end gets taped tight to the rod and the next color continues. Continue - with each individual color - taping the tag ends of unused colors off tight against the rod. Finally, when nearing the end of the wraps, include your pull thread in the mix and trim off all unused tag ends. finish up the wrap and pull the one final loose end back through to lock the grip.

Essentially, to answer your issue, I keep all unused tag ends taped tight against the blank to avoid coming loose during the wrap.

Good luck
Roger

Thanks for the replies, folks. I am going to try fly tying bobbins and see if I can handle it that way.

Roger, I think that your way is good too, as long as the wrap isn't too long (and thus requires lots of thread). I've been trying to do it by taping one strand (call it color two) to the blank, and keeping color one on the spool. That is really tough when it comes to trying to wrap OVER the main thread (color one). With all of the colors taped to the blank, no sweat. I'm going to go try it now.

I still hope Sean EWndres pops in. I'm very curious as to how he goes about it as well.

Anybody have his e mail address?

Chuck

Chuck,
Tom might remember. If I recall it was about a year or a year and a half ago, when there was a picture posted about a very old time thread tensioner that actually fit around the rod.
Then, as a rod was wrapped, the tensioner would rotate with the rod. I suspect that such a tensioner might work very well for the type wrap that we are tying to do. i.e. be able to start a wrap with one color, but have all of the other colors maintain their tension.

Take care
Roger