Re: Help needed wih guide placement
Posted by:
roger wilson
(---.hsd1.mn.comcast.net)
Date: January 22, 2011 04:23PM
Kevin,
This blank like all blanks is pretty easy to position guides.
Have a roll of 1/4 inch wide tape on hand.
Take a scissor and cut a bunch of 1-2 inch strips and have them ready to use.
After you have the butt, reel seat and fore grip in place with the glue dried do some rod flexing to position the blank.
Put the butt of the rod on a capeted floor to keep the butt from sliding. Then, began to flex the blank, from the tip down. Mark the spot where the blank first flexes, for the first guide. Flex the rod some more and use the tape to mark the spot where the blank flexes next.
These two marks will be a good starting point for the rest of the rod. I assume that you are using a bait casting reel on this rod, so position the butt or first guide at about 18 inches from the center of the reel seat. Then, from the two front guides that you have marked, see if you need any more guides toward the tip, if so, divide the distance to the tip to find the position to the tip. Then, from the guide that flexed first and the butt guide, divide the distance, so that you can simply install guides at decreasing spacing (matching the taper of the rod) from the butt guide on up to the tip of the rod.
Mount the reel, and with guides taped in place, flex the rod, and see if the line is flowing nicely, and if necessary, delete or add a guide and or decrease or increase the spacing of the guides.
Bottom line, use as few guides as possible that is consistent with the line following the curve of the blank and nicely loading the blank. If you are concerened about the line touching the rod under flex, use tall enough guides and or enough guides to keep the line off of the rod. Some folks don't worry about the line touching or even going under the rod on a big flex, but that is up to you.
By the way - on some blanks, you may find that the first guide down from the tip is further away from the tip, than the distance between the first and 2nd tip guide to match the contour of the loaded flexed blank. If so, don't worry about it, just place the guide where it is needed to allow the blank to be loaded and meet the rest of your criteria.
Good luck
Roger
