Just finished building the spiral wrap rod device as shown in RRM. I seen the one that Tom built at the Big Show several times. When I applied weight to both rod ( one spiraled and one not), both turned to the bottom. My confusion is that the spiral wrapped rod was not suppose to do this. If it spins it is suppose to come back to the reel being on top.. What did I do wrong? My only thought is guide placement on the spiral wrapped rod. The problem is it is the same way that I wrap all my rods in this fashion.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/17/2009 04:44PM by Brad Young.

That's pretty much impossible, so something is definitely wrong.

When you say they "both turned to the bottom" exactly what do you mean? The guides on both should be on the bottom once you load the rods. Is this what you're talking about?

Now if you have reels mounted and the load is not enough to offset the weight of the reel, just load the rod some more. The reel will spin to the top. The device I carry to the ICRBE each year has a full pound of load on it. Generally that's all it takes to upright most common bass type reels.

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Both reels turned to the bottom. Like you said, maybe not enough weight. Will try again when I get back home.

What blanks are you using and how much weight is involved? As the load increases, the effect will become greater and greater. But you have to start with at least enough load to offset the reel weight - it won't take much but I'm betting you don't really have as much on there as think.

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It would seem that guide height would influence the effect. The shorter lever effect from using micro guides....would that require more weight to produce the same effect?
Brad..did you use the same size guides as used in the magazine?

The higher the guides the greater the effect is going to be.

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Should I use the same size guides on both rods? On the spiral rod I used 8-7-6-5-5-5-5 and on the conv wrap I used 16-12-10-8-7-7-7... I can rewrap the spiral if I need to change them to match.

No, that's not necessary.

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Brad,
As Tom has suggested, with a spiral wrapped rod - i.e. with the last few guides on the underside of the rod, it is virtually impossible for a rod to not snap back with the reel on top - IF- the rod is loaded enough.
The simple physics of the design mandate that this must happen.

Granted - you may have to put a pretty fair load on the rod, but it will turn over correctly.
You should be able to easily put a 90 degree flex in the rod with no issues with sufficient weight applied tot he blank. If you do, the rod simply must upright itself.

My guess is that you simply have not loaded the rod enough to get the appropriate forces to act on the rod.

Take care
Roger

Notice on Tom’s device he doesn’t use reels, just a little plate and eye bolt to hold the line. That allows you to show the effect with a lot less weight than if you have to overcome the weight of reels, but even with reels it will eventually work once you get it loaded enough

Very true. I have installed bass size casting reels on the rods in the device on a couple of instances. Yes it takes more weight to get a reel upright but not by a great deal. Of course this depends on the size and weight reels you're using. But even a large heavy duty boat or trolling reel will be help upright on a spiral rod under enough load.

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Tell us how you set up the spiral wraps. If you used a gradual spiral and only a few guides near the tip are on the bottom, then it will take more weight to rotate the reel upright. The quicker you transition the guides to the bottom of the rod, the more obvious the effect will be. I've seen the demo done with 6' salt water rods and large reels and it works every time as long as there are enough guides on the bottom.

Terry