I've got a great new neighbor. Loves to fish. Flats, bluewater, lakes, ponds and ditches. He has a boat for each one. He's generous to a fault. Took me dolfin fishing last weekend. We ran almost to Cuba and back and he got all upset when I insisted to pay for the gas. I think I offended him with the money, so to save the relationship I'm gonna build him a new rod for a light weight Penn reel he picked up on @#$%&.

I'm a newbe, but I make a pretty nice rod thanks to this forum and all you guys great advice. I'm a sicko, but now I have another excuse to make another rod! I find a bunch of reasons to start a new rod.

The area of the butt wrap starts right at .75"s and tapers from there. I measured my passes based on about 4 size A threads/mm and with 5 passes, I end up with a finished pattern of about 35 mm. I don't want the finished pattern to wrap beyond the horizon of the rod diameter as you look down on the rod.

Other than cutting out the square and placing it on the blank, is there another easy method to understand what you might come up with before you get started? Is there a search topic that will help me?

Thanks,

Greg in Cooper City, FL

visualwrap software.
does all that you ask for plus much more

I'm jealous Greg. I need a neighbor like that!

If I can be of any help ( on static testing or whatever) drop me an email. I'm close enough to be able to drop by. My dad used to build rods many years ago. I just started myself so you likely know more about the actual wrapping part. I need someone to get me started on butt wraps. I'm lazy and don't really care about bling....but it never hurts:)

Russ in Hollywood, FL.

YOu need more details to get a btter answer. What pattern are you wrapping? 3/4's of an inch is a larg diameter blank, so you can mak quite a few passes before it starts to wrap around the blank. If you are wrapping a Spider +!, you can probably make 9 or 10 passes before it wraps on that size blank, if you wrap the Spider with the background x4 (4 threads ata time) you can make 12-14 passes - the spider itself will be thicker and not have as much curvature as the +1 if you do this.

Be more specifc, and if possible talk in mm's and not inches.

Billy your DECORATIVE WRAPS book has been a tremendous help for me. It was great to have your response. I had only done chevrons and diamonds prior to the recent spiders I have completed thanks to your book. You kept referring to doing simple wraps, like spiders and St Johns crosses, so I finally gave it a go. I loved how they came out. This one will be my first St. Johns Cross, with a twist. Here’s the details (in MM).

A Cross out
B Box in +1
C Box out, and I’m not sure how to describe the progression,

Pass 1, 2
Pass 2, X2+2
Pass 3, X4+4
Pass 4, X6+8
Pass 5, X8+16

This yields 142 threads/4 (A) = 35.5MM.

It will be 2 axes. A & B will be mostly metal and C will fade from dark to light. I’m trying to get it to look like the purple and gold on your cover, 5th down on the left. I hope I am heading in the right direction here.

Is there a way to plug this into visualwrap? I’d like to try it before I buy it, but this may be the right time to do so. Let me know if you need more detail, and thanks for your help.

I'm tired now going to bed. Please e-mail me so I dont' forget to answr this in the AM. I will answer some of th Q here, th rest in th e==mail with VW scren shots.

unhide your email greg
or fire me over an email

Greg - that sequence you posted, with B> Box In +1 - take a look at page 54 the Spotlight Star, that is what you're going to end up with. The layout spacing chart G.

The purple one on the cover was done by Mike Joyce, it's a St J's Variation - he did the center part as a big diamond, then did the standard St J's cross sequence, closing with 1 yellow thread which connected all the patterns, here's a close up: [www.rodbuilding.org]

Thanks Billy. You saved my butt, and the wrap too! I do not want the look of the Spotlight Star. I went the wrong way. It's back to the drawing board for me, I have much more to learn.

I want the "look" of the one by Mike Joyce. I'll chase that effort and get into more trouble, but have fun doing it.

No drawing board, it's the St J's Variation.