Well here are the Plans on my first project. First I got lucky and found the only person alive who is athurized to sell Kistler Helium Blanks. They are close out blanks, and after inquiring from Kistlers Web site about them, and the gentleman selling them, I was pleased to recieve a Email form Trey Kistler, confirming that these are true Kistler Heilum Blanks. I ordered four blanks. here are the specs: two of my blanks are as follows...

Model IP703
IM7 Graphite Plus
Color: Raw Matte Graphite Grey
Brand New
Line wt: 8 - 17 lbs
Lure wt: 1/4 - 5/8 oz
7' in Length
.500 Butt
5.5 Tip
Mod-Fast Action
Medium Light Power


The other two are as follows...

Model He69MC
Color: Graphite Matte Gray
Brand New
1 piece
Line wt: 8 - 17 lbs
Lure wt: 1/4 - 3/4 oz
6' 9"
.500" Butt
.085" Tip
Extra-Fast Action
Medium Power


My plans are simple.... One baitcast and one spincast out of each type of rod. The baitcasting rods are going to be with a simple spiral wrap, exposed blank reel seats, 8 inch cork fighting handles, 3 inch fore grip, and fuji alconite micro guides....


i am building one of the cork handles from scratch with a store bought back up incase i goof it up. the others are going to be premade handles. So any suggestions, tricks or tips? I built my hand wraper off of my own design, and looking at others online.

Bobby, no disrespect intended, but if this is your first rod building experience I would purchase a low cost blank or two and start there. It is hard to give much more for tips or suggestions without knowing how much you know about the various tasks involved.

Chuck

i paid around a hundred dollars for these four blanks, though i got them cheap, i know they are not cheap blanks and daddy didnt raise a fool, no epoxy is touching these blanks until i am staisfied with the poistion, and wrap of these guides, handles, and seats... i have a good friend who is a builder and he is walking me through the process, through phone calls, emails and pictures. he lives just too far away to be here to help in person. I am a beginner in all since of the word, these will be my first builds. I know how to find the spine in the rod, I know to keep the windings tight. Where I am going to be shooting in the dark is proper guide placement. I have a chart I down loaded off line to give me a basic starting point, but fine tuning the placement is going to be my best guess. I plan on useing masking tape to hold my guides in place as I wrap them, once the thread reached the tape, I will remove it, and finish wraping the guide. after they are all finished, then I will look at them, and see if it meets my standard to finish or not... if so then I will mix the epoxy, if not, I cut the threads and try again...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/2009 12:27AM by Bobby Haynes.

Bobby,
I agree with Chuck,
If these are really the blanks that you mention, it only makes sense to put together a couple of rods that use inexpensive components to insure that you are up to building a rod that has better components.

Good luck
Roger

what i would do(what i did, i was new not too long ago) is strip some old rods down and redo them. that will give you a basis to know what questions to ask. there are too many variables to just ask for tips or tricks. once you put the rubber to the road, you will be able to ask for solutions to all kinds of problems you didn't know existed. everybody has a first rod, but everybody cringes when they look back at it later on . if you like these blanks and plan to fish them for some time while also getting a feeling of accomplishment from building them, give yourself a break by having tried these techniques at leastt once before tackling them. my dos centavos. good luck

I guess my biggest problem about this is that i am a perfectionist... which means i have major issues buying less than what I want. I researched the heck out of this before making my decissions on what to buy. I actually had my friend talk me out of the silicone carbide gudies i wanted to use. my question is this, am I going to find blanks much cheaper than 25 each? and still be worth having? I buy good items, and generally buy them cheap, because i dont have a lot of money to waste. If I practice useing my good blanks with out using any epoxy, ummm whats the differance? I have been playing with dowell rods, practicing wraps and color changes and such.... even expoxied a few of my practie wraps to get a feel for how the epoxy spreads on the threads. so, if I need more practice, how am i going to do this, umm without wasting money... cause to be honest, the wife is at her limit now....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/2009 01:41AM by Bobby Haynes.

My advice is not to fret over it and just do it! You seem to have a good grasp
and help an earshot or email away so go for it.

As a perfectionist myself I will causion you NOT to be to picky. We are
our own worst critics and I wouldn't want you to be forever starting over
because it "just isn't perfect". It's just a fishing rod! Have FUN!

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

Raymond,

That happens to be my biggest fear right there! I am afraid that I will be continually starting over again and again. I like with fishing confidence plays a role in anything you build, so I try to keep my confidence level up. (least that is my experience in the past with building things...)I will see about posting some pics on here when I get finished with it. I do have a question, and it is a simple one, any recomendations concerning thread size?

Size "A" is my recommandation and get a pair of optivisors or an off brand (cheaper).

email me rcadams1957@msn.com or unhide yours Bobby

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



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/2009 03:13AM by Raymond Adams.

does mettallic thread make a differance?, I am actually on Mudhole right now looking for thread for this project... I might buy some metallic as an accent, but if i wanted to use it to hold the guides, is it stronger or weaker?

I would caution you against mettalic thread at first unless you want to use it for some end bands
or inlays. It's got some funny quirks that could be troublesome until you have some experience
with thread under your belt. Strength it not an issue either way. Does your thread tensioner apply
pressure to the thread itself or to the spool it's wound on? Mettalic threads do not like the sewing
machine type tentioner that has the 2 plates that squeeze on the thread. It tends to cause the
mettalic sheithing to seperate sometimes.

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

When I designed my wrapper, I took my friends advise and put the tension on the spool. used all thread, a spring, couple of washers and a wing nut. I run my thread through metal eyelets to the rod..

Good,
Got your email and reply sent.

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

I started with some high end blanks and a helpful word from someone more experienced than I when I began and I made some very sweet fishing sticks (this board helped too!)
Welcome to a passion more addictive than golf!

That is where my prayers ly for these rods...

Bobby, I'm at the same place. I have the blanks, grips, handles....but that is it. I think I have decided on guides. Of course I'd like my fist rods to be the best rods I have ever owned. Towards that end the best advice I have heard is to forget about looks and work on function. The 27X rule for spinning rods makes the guide placement easy. If you stick with single foot guides (with no underwrap) you cut way down on your work load and chances for problems. The fish don't care how it looks and the more thread and finish on the rod the worse it performs.

If this hobby is like others I have been involved with, chances are very high that you will be rebuilding that rod....perhaps several times....in the future. You can always go back and add a butt wrap.

Chances are there are any number of easy "tips" for dressing rods up. I just don't know them:) Winding checks, reel seat and but caps, (faux) inlays and decals, etc. Maybe someone here can suggest some of those things?


Russ

Russell Brunt Wrote:
>
> Chances are there are any number of easy "tips" for dressing rods up. I just don't know them:)
> Winding checks, reel seat and but caps, (faux) > inlays and decals, etc. Maybe someone here can
> suggest some of those things?

> Russ

Back in the day it was frowned upon to put anything at all on a custom rod as decoration except
thread or tuna cord and even though I'm a devout "thread-head" myself I'm happy to say that it's
not that way anymore. Nowadays one has many artistic choices like finish marbling, paint, skins
& abalone, custom decals, even photographs printed on water-slide or peel & stick media to
use to "customize" their fishing rods, gaffs, walking canes, ect.

Also, unlike back in the day, the rod builders who have developed, perfected, & modified those
techniques are freely sharing their ideas & results with the rest of us. The pages of RodMaker
magazine, the Library section of this Forum, and many other tutorials and websites abound
with those ideas and techniques.

On top of all that, our suppliers have stepped up and now offer lots of "bling" in the form of fancy
checks, accent rings, custom painted or anodized parts, ect..

It is truly an awesome time to be a custom rod builder!

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

Bobby
I’m in total agreement with Raymond in all his replies. I started with a Loomis IMX flipping blank and never regretted that decision.

I would suggest reading most of the articles in the Library. There are some articles that will help with your guide placement and improving your epoxy results. I would also suggest staying away from metallics to start with, but if you are committed to using them I would suggest the “Fish Hawk” brand as they IMO are the easiest to work with.

On the Micros if you split your tape to about 1/8 inch wide it will allow you to have more wraps on the guide before removing it.
Also to start with if you tape a little piece cardboard or cork or some other object for blocking against the upper end of the guide to prevent it from moving or pulling out when you remove the tape this will save you some frustration. Then remove the blocking as your thread gets to the guides neck. Later after you have trained your brain and fingers a little, you can dispense with this procedure.

Bobby,

My second and third builds were HE66MC blanks I got off @#$%&. I'm real glad they weren't my first. Scrap those charts for guide placement and read the library article on static guide placement. Take the time to do that and you will not regret it. The third rod is now in the hands of a pike head and he's landed 16 pounders on that rod. I believe that it's the static line placement that allows him to abuse that rod like that. I wouldn't strip an old rod down first, I'd buy a $5 fiberglass blank to build first. Sounds like you have your mind made up. If there's one thing you want to practice before you do it on the rod, it's finishing, get a practice piece and wap a few guides on it and then finish the wraps. I'm working on a few re-guiding projects and the finish is not my strongest point but I'm getting better.

Just do it! It doesn't matter if your blank is cheap or expensive, the end result will be the same. However, keep that first rod and look back on it when you have more builds under your belt. You will learn more on each rod but the only way to get better is to just do it. This is one of those things that you never learn completely and you will keep on learning and improving evey time you do one. I still have my first rod that I built back in 1976 and I take a look at it often to remind myself how far I've come and then I look at my newest to see how far I have to go. Use all the information you can get from other builders and other sources but let your imagination be your guide. As a builder you can try all kinds of innovations and if they don't work you can either redo it or build another.