I hate to be such a newbee, but you all have been so helpful so far, and I don't know of anyplace else to go for this type of info.

How do you temporarily secure your guides to the blank so that they can endure test casting? The two rods I have done so far, I have just used the little dental rubber bands for braces to loosely hold the guides before wrapping.

Thanks again for tolerating the total newb!

Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he may never be home in time for dinner again!

Those work pretty well, do a search on this site and you will come up with a ton of examples and what folks are using to hold there guides in place. The list is long and the ideas are great ! some work better than others ..find the one that works best for you ! I believe I even have a Pic post on some products I use to hold micros in place ! Let me look and see if I can find it ![www.rodbuilding.org]

OK I updated the pics with what I am using. These little critters are very elastic and strong. You can be very inventive on there use and tie them up any way you see fit to use them to hold your guides. There cheap and you can leave them on after testing and wrap from there and cut them off as you go ! I recommend clean hands as the oil from your hands will transfer and make them kinda slip out at times but for the most part they work for me ! Good luck ! Hope it helps !

Rick H.

rwheil@msn.com

Website
[www.facebook.com]
[home.comcast.net]



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/2011 04:51PM by Rick Heil.

Could be I'm doing something very wrong as I haven't had much luck. I have gone as far as to wrap double foot guides on the normal manner and just forego the epoxy. It was an 8 foot spiral wrapped rod casting 2 ounces. I ripped the guides of in 5 miniutes of test casting.

Russ in Hollywood, FL.

I use the dental rubber bands for small diameter stuff and o-rings for larger rods. I have never been able to get tape to hold well enough even after cleaning the blank with DNA.

David Dosser
Coshocton, OH

Just cast lightly. You just want to see how the line flows through the guides. No need for power casts.

David Dosser
Coshocton, OH

Surgical tubing of different sizes cut into 1/8`` rubber bands or Gas line tubing from a remote control airplane, available from a hobby shop. Also cut into small pieces.

Bill

Ohio Rod Builders

Canton, Ohio

I just use either 1/8th inch wide or 1/4 inch wide masking tape, the same thing that I use to hold the guides in place when wrapping. The tape will hold the guides just fine for test casting. I always make a point of securing the tip with hot melt glue - as if the rod were finished, and generally don't do anything different with it after test casting. The bulk of the force during test casting is on the tip and if the tip is secure, you generally don't have troubles with the other guides, unless it is a casting rod, with the guides on top. Then you are still all right, as long as you don't try to retrieve a very heavy weight or do a deep flex to bend the rod.

Good luck
Roger

I use 1/8th masking tape. I test all my guides and never had a problem. I can adjust by re-taping easy enough. No power casting or anything just lightly cast and wath the line through the guides not how far the line goes. I tried all those rubber bands etc. they maybe good for some people. For years the tape has not failed. Hope it helps.

I use Bow Sight straightener tubing found in any Archery shop. Up in the tip area I use the dental rubber bands which are quite smaller and work better when using Micro guides.

J.B.Hunt
Bowling Green, KY

I use masking tape. I was having problems with the tape leaving a residue on the blank and guide foot. I don't build a lot of rods, and with my current situation, I was tapeing the guides, and testing the rod, and it might be a week or a month before I wrapped it. I started using the blue "painter's tape, and didn't have any more problems with the residue. Don't over think this. I can buy a 1" roll of "painters tape", tear off a 1 1/2" long piece, and cut it into 1/8 inch strips. I can tape a lot of guides, remove the tape, and reposition the guides for little or nothing as far as cost. My question is how many rod builders don't have a roll of tape on their bench?

Mike Bradfrod
R.M.B. Fishing Rods
Nampa, Idaho

I use fuel line tubing from hobby shops. Comes in various ID's and is inexpensive. A razor bblade, cutting board and a few feet of tubing and you can slice up a ton of bands. Roll a bunch on the blank and just slide the foot underneath. During the static test, just slides the guides to get the best line path. When wrapping, once the guide is secure, just nick with a razor and the fly off

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

Thank you all for your suggestions. I am just finishing a 2wt rod & the dental bands I have are just small enough to LOOSELY hold the guides on. I wouldn't even attempt to cast it. The bands were tighter on my 5 wt & probably would have worked. But it wasn't until I started reading THIS site that I even thought about test casting for optimal placement of guides. I just thought that the recommended size & placement was THE size & placement. I have a fair amount of hobby fuel line tubing lying around as my other big hobby is R/C planes, so I'll try that route.

Again, thank you all for the insight & I'll keep searching here for more.

P. Marecic