working on a 7' spinning rod, i personally like the rod to feel balanced, not tip heavy, with rod balanced, may be a bit heavy after guides but not much, i tried to figure that in, she feels pretty good till you put the reel on then i have to admit she feels a little heavy, this is the reel that will go with rod, should i forget the balance part,

i know there has been a lot said on here about the subject, but typing in rod balance or just balance does not pull up what i need in the search box



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2010 04:44PM by Jim Creed.

There is a lot of threads on balancing, I beleive you have to select "All Dates" under option and it will pull a bunch of stuff in. Funny is I found that out today while doing a hopeless search on painting blanks. Heres a link:
[rodbuilding.org]

My personal preference, as well as it sounds like yours is that you like balance. I would rather have to add weight if need be than to have a rod too butt or tip heavy.

you were right the all dates thing worked out real good. i don't do many searches and missed that completely, thanks.

TRy adjusting the butt grip length, or the materials you use in the grip. An unbalanced rod feels a lot havier than a balanced one, throw the actual wight out of the window. ALso kp in mind how ou will be fishing, whn casting and a lure on, that might mak a balancd rod feel unbalanced when actually fishing.

Isaiah, Hopeless search on Painting Blanks?????? Take your own advice hit " All Dates " on the search feature. I tried it, and got 17 pages of info!!! Dating from 8 months ago to 9 years ago!!! By the way im not trying to be a Smart @##. im trying to help. Check out the search function again .There is a great deal of info on the subject. Cheers My Friend!!

It was a hopeless search on myside prior to changing the date range option.

Jim,
If you do like to balance your rods, you might try lead tape:
Some folks use weight on the inside of the rod blank. This is really not a very good idea, because if you use weight on the inside of the blank, you end up putting weight up a good distance into the blank in an attempt to balance the rod.
Rather, you want to try to keep your weight at the extreme end of the rod handle. That way, you get the maximum weight balance arm, with the minimum amount of added weight. That is why some of the manufacturers have a threaded butt cap that allows a person to screw different sized weight on the extreme end of the butt cap to perfectly balance the rod.

If I decide that I am going to be using a short back grip on a long rod, such that I will need to have some weight in the butt section of the butt tip of the rod. I do this by wrapping lead tape around the extreme 1/2 inch butt section of the bare blank.
Basically i have found that if you place the reel seat and the reel - taped on the blank - that you can balance the bare blank, by having the rod and reel seat on the rod, and have a balance point that is about 2 inches in front of the reel. This generally works out to the correct balance point when the rest of the rod is put together.
So, I wrap a wrap of 1/2 inch lead tape on the outside of the blank, at the extreme butt section of the rod. For the typical cork handle, I make sure that I don't exceed a lead tape diameter that is any larger than 1/4 inch smaller than the outside diamter of what will be the rod butt. If I am using a rubber or vinyl butt cap, I just make sure that the butt cap will still fit on the outside of the lead tape.

This is a very simple and easy way to add weight that is invisible to the completed rod, and can make a very tip heavy rod, come out balanced. It is easy to overdo the weight, so use only the absolute minimum weight required to get the rod to where you want it to be.

[www.google.com]

Roger

You may have noticed that today's rod blanks are so light that when an ordinary reel is attached the outfit becomes quite butt heavy, or "out of balance." Does this mean that savvy rod builders should pour lead or concrete into the tip section of the blank to restore the elusive but desirable balance?

I will not add any weight to a rod to balance it. The lighter the better. The issue of balance comes right up against other dimensional issues. Even with premium blanks and guides, most likely your rod will have a balance point slightly in front of the reel. To balance it, you have to move the reel forward. When you do that, just make sure that the butt behind the reel is not too long for the rod user. It can hang up on the clothing or arm of the user. I made a St Croix SCV 7 foot rod before I had the proper understanding of all this, and the butt was too long. It kept hanging up on my arm when jigging. I took one inch off the butt and solved the problem. This demonstrates, in my opinion, the importance of dimensions over balance. The rod, after altering, was a little more out of balance, but sure fishes a lot better. If making rods for small people, pay particular attention to how long the butt is (spinning rods, mostly).