Okay someone please correct me if I am wrong here. first you start with the handle, then second is the reel seat. third is the for grip.... (all this of course after locating the spine) so do you continuse this way, from the butt end up the rod to the tip, or does it matter which way you work either up or down when wrapping the guides in place?

Bobby

That all depends on if any guides are on your bottom section. It sounds like your building a spinning rod. If any guides are on the grip section then yes grip and seat first. I build on a lot of 4 pc rods. Sometimes do all my wrapping first and grip last as most times there are no guides on the bottom section.

Make it easy on yourself and forget about spine. Most blanks have a natural curve. Place your guides either against this curve or with it. If you do a search you will find loads on spine. It doesnt really matter just build on the straightest axis.

If you dont have any reading material I would suggest a good book such as Toms(Amato) Rod Building Guide. Read it through and you cant go wrong. There are several other how to books and DVD's that you can use as a guide. Trust them before you trust internet info. Everybody has their own little ways of dong things. Find yours.Not rocket science just rod building. Have fun make mistakes and go fishing

I'd suggest installing the tip top after you glue the grips and reel seat. Then you can load the rod and determine the best place(s) to put the guides.

Since this is your first attempt, I'd wrap the butt guides first. They're larger, the blank is larger, so they'll be easier to work with while you start to get into the swing of things.

The spine isn't going to make any difference but it won't hurt anything if you want to find and align it to suit yourself.

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

For me it typically goes like this.

Reargrip and butt cap, reel seat, trim ring if applicable, foregrip, winding check, tip top, tape guides in reasonable locations, static and casting tests, guide placement adjustments. Then I wrap the guide farthest from the tip first and proceed up the blank. After that: hookeeper, label appliclation and wraps then signature.

I left out the part where I try 15 different guide wrap designs before finally settling on one...and a few other details like over reaming the cork and reel seat arbors, getting rod bond all over the grips, spilling my can of denatured alchohol all over the work bench, forgetting to put a tie-off loop in a trim band and my all time favorite...wrapping a guide on backwards! duh.....

Most of the time things go well but for whatever reason there are projects that just seem to kick my tail right from the beginning and no matter how many times I step back and restart they just wanna fight and they become epic calamities.

Scott,
these are one piece 7 foot rods. They are baitcasting builds, but I am planning on a simple spiral wrap.

Rusell,
Thanks on the advise, I have a friend who give me some measurements to start with on guide placement, and he gave me some simple instruction on how to fine tune from there. So this was my plan from the begining. I made a simple rig to hold the rod, and am useing an eyelet to load the rod to check the guide placement and make my adjustments.

Tom,
Thank you so much. Starting that way make s good sense put that way, and i think this will be the way I proceed.

Ron,
you are truly a man after my own heart. Murphy and his law seems to plauge my life so much, that it amazes me when something does go right. i am sure there are going to be plenty of spills, mishaps and changes as my build goes on. I am a perfectinist so it just goes that much more. I am already predeicting many threads being cut off the rod, cuase I wont be happy with the results. and if just one bubble appears in the finish, i am going to go nuts!! As for over reaming the cork, no fears, I went with EVA foam on these first builds to rerail that possibility. I didnt want to lose my mind trying to perfect cork handle turning this first time out. dont get me wrong. I made a cork lathe, and am working on shaping jigs for it. and i bought some cork to play with on it and have ben doing so some what, but i didnt want to worry about that on this build.