Do you have issues storing blanks, unfinished or finished rods in a small space while insuring that the blanks and works in progress are not damaged?

A very inexpensive and easy to build rod stand is to take a piece of 2X lumber , a piece or pieces of PVC tubing, a saw and a drill and go to work.
First select the size pve tubes that you want to use for stands. Depending on what you want to store - use the size pvc that makes sense for you.

If you want to mass store blanks - 4 inch pvc tubes work very well. You can get about 50 or so blanks - depending on the blank size into a 4 inch pvc pipe.

If you are storing rods in progress with glued up, but unfinished cork, you will need to have pvc tube sizes that will be just large enough to accomodate the glued up - but not finished cork handles.
If you work with harge handled salt water rods, you will need to use pvc that will be sized just a bit larger than those handles.

For most routine freshwater rods that have a finished handle, you will be using pvc tubes of between 1 to 1 1/2 inches inside diameter.

At any rate, after selecting the size pvc tubes that you want, cut the lengths of pipe to the length needed.
For storing bunk rods vertically, a length of about 2-4 feet is about right - depending on the height of your storage area ceiling. If you have the pvc pip standing vertically, you want to have sufficient head room to be able to insert and remove rods.
If, you want to store rods horizontally, then you might just want to have the tubes about as long as the rods to be stored. This allows the rods to lay flat, and be fully supported. The various tubes that you might have bundled together, allows massive storage, but still keeps blank types separate.


If you are working with rods in progress and want to store them by droping the handles in vertical pvc tubes, then tube lengths of about 8-10 inches are about right - depending on the rod size, handle size, and rod lenght. Obviously rods having short handles can stand well with fairly short pvc storage tubes.

Once you have the tubes cut to size, simply take the 2X stock - whether it is a 2X6, 2X8, 2X10, 2X12 and drill appropriate sized holes, leaving a bottom in the hole to have a firm fit for the pvc tubes.
A one size fits all adjustable boring bit fit into a drill press works very well. You can obtain a size adjustable boring bit form your local home building store for less than $10. Typically, these bits have a boring bar adjustment that allows hole sizes to be adjusted from about 1- 1 1/2 inches. Normally, this will cover the bulk of the needed hole sizes. Drill the holes about 3/4 way through the tX stock and then tap the appropriate pvc pipes into the holes to hold the pipe secure.
Drop the finished product on the floor and drop the rods in progress into the pipes for temporary or long term storage.
As you work on a group of rods, it is nice to be able to work them down the line, in batches to maximize your production efficency. Having the rods handy to the area of the shop minimizes walking and improves efficiency.

When you drill the holes, think about the potential size guides that are going to be on the rods being stored. If you are storing only unguided blanks and handles, the pipes can be virtually touching. If, you are working with casting rods, the pipes can still be quite close together and still accomodate the casting guides without rod interference. If, however, you are storing spinning rods, with their larger first spinning guide, you should space out the pipes enough to allow for easy rod storage and removal from the pipes.

Most of these pvc pipes are readily available from your home building stores for prices of $1-$6 for a 10 foot section - depending on the size of the pipe. The lumber is likely available in your scrap boxes, or again availabe quite cheaply from your home buildijng store.
So, it is very easy to be able to build storage for many rods / blanks / works in progress for less than $20.

Take care
Roger

Thanks Roger, And I am sure you have done this, but add a cross piece at the end of the base so when you happen to get enough rods/blanks sitting in the fixture that the top heavy unit won't topple over.
Kerry