First off I have read the article.....my question is regarding the Aluminum tubing that I tried to get at Lowes. They said they did not have any but i did see conduit. Is that what you are referring to using because those seemed heavy. Your help and direction will be greatly appreciated.

No, not conduit. Both Lowes and Home Depot do have a small "do-it-yourself" tubing section. It's not in the electrical or plumbing sections, however, it's over in the hardware area.

The new issue of RodMaker at the press now has an alternative to aluminum tubing that I think most will find very interesting.

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

Rick,
All Lowe's is gonna have is 1/2 and 3/4. Usually won't work. If you must use tubing, try Speedy Metals on the web.

[www.speedymetals.com]

They've got just about any size you want and at a reasonable price. That said, I wouldn't use tubing unless on a heavy salt water rod. I once extended an old Berkley Series one for a bass fisherman using tubing. It worked out okay but I could feel a significant difference in the weight in the butt end. Especially after he asked me to do another and I did it with a piece of thicker wall graphite. The weight difference was incredible. If you can find a suitable piece of graphite or fiberglass, it works better on freshwater and light saltwater blanks.
Greg

Check your local mom and pop 'everything under the sun' hardware store. There is one such store near me and I swear they have at least one of everything!

The aluminum does add some weight, but there are times this is not necessarily a bad thing if you want to balance the rod in a certain way. In general, I don't like to add any weight, but I did a build recently where adding a 2-inch extension to the blank (approximately 5-inches total tube length) did just the trick.

Keep looking and asking around.

Les

Its actually going on a New older Fenwick blank SP967. The blank is 8ft and i want to make it a 9ft rod to use for Kings off the piers in Florida. Thanks for the advice.