Hi Everyone! Just wanted to post up a quick intro of myself. Some of you already know me...I orginally signed up here when I started building rods in the spring of '07, but got side tracked and have mainly been posting on a local board (Texas Gulf Coast area). I am getting back into the swing on Tom's board because there is no other forum that covers the most current, technical, and the latest techniques and materials used in rod building today.
Just a bit about what I do...since I am on the Gulf Coast, I concentrate on trout and redfish rods and am getting into some of the offshore pursuits. I build very experinmental rods that I call "Concept Rods"....mainly so when they don't turn out...I can just say...oh well..it was just a concept...lol
I work pretty exclusivley with pouring my own foam grips and hand shaping them. I use 5.5 to 8lb foams mostly and cover the finished shapes with epoxies and finishes. I have done a lot of experimenting with painting them, mostly with House of Kolor Urethanes and I have been having very good success here lately with 2 part paints designed for weapons (AR15 camo type stuff). I will post up a quick pic of one of my rods that was done with some of the HOK paints. The grip is foam and the reel seat used to be a Fuji ACS.

I also am a BIG advocate of the spiral micro setups. I am finishing a rod now that I went off the deep end on...it seems that most of the spirals are spiraling through the blank that is already in its flex zone (I do a revolver type of spiral). I wanted to get the line under the rodquicker so it is at 180 all the way through the flex of the rod...after I got the guides at 180, I used a spinning rod layout on guide spacing. My stripper guide is only 15" from the reel seat and I ended up with 10 guides + the tip. The guides are Fuji Alconite down to 3.5 with a 4.5 tip. The blank is a Fishing Tackle Unlimited IM10 7' with an action equivalent to a P842. Believe it or not it actually cast very well and very straight. In preliminary test it cast a measured 145 feet with a 1/2 ounce weight using a Curado E7 (stock) with 15lb braid..

I'm sure someone else has tried this and that wasn't the purpose of my post...I'm just saying I like to experiment.
Look forward to contributing here and everyone keep up the good work. There are some amazing craftsmen on this site!

Terry Jones
Coastal Quest Rods

Terry - good to meet you.

What's your thought process behind the spiral under before the flex in the rod?

Just picking your mind.

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Hi Alex!
I was wanting to get the the torque on the blank to a minimum by having any load bearing guides at 180. It seems all the spiral configurations I've tried does not get to the 180 point until past the point where the rod is already flexing (and loading up).
I was doing some static test by placing an 8 oz weight on the floor and picking it up with a traditional guides on top rod. With one hand gripping the rod I could keep it stable until I rolled my hand left or right, the rod would imediately twist out of my hand. I then tested one of my spirals and it was much better, but still experienced some twist to the side I rolled the guides...so I backed the roll up to before the flex which seems to have stabilized the rod. I still have to do more test, it still seems to cast fine and is worth some more exploratory test.

Try a Simple Spiral and I think you'll have what you want.

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Makes sense. Certainly worth exploring. I tend to agree with Tom. I looked at my simple spirals and they are all pretty much under before the flex. Definitely under on fast and Xfast blanks.

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