Is it common for a blank to be slightly out of round ?? I have never noticed any blanks before being out of round, but to be honest I never looked before. I put the blank on the wrapper ,rigged me up a dial indicator type contraption with a pencil ...,and it is slightly oval. I think I’m going ahead and build with it and hope for the best.. Unless I hear that it’s a not good idea to do...
Thanks
Ken

Should be pretty darn round.....I'd stress test it!!!

I've seen blanks in mass shipping become crushed.

DR

never seen an oval blank.... I would see about an exchange.

______________________________________
Super Tight Lines......Don

I would call Mud Hole

Bill - willierods.com

I'm pretty sure the blank hasn’t been crushed. It's still solid and really straight... the high part of the oval is also the spine or really close to it..I guess I’ll call MH tomorrow..Ken

Using a dial indicator can indicate as little as .001" out of round. How much did it indicate it was?

It would be extremely rare to ever find a perfectly round item - car tires, bar stock, etc., are all items we think of as being round and yet none will ever be perfectly round. Rod blanks are no different.

What you'd expect, however, is that such an item is reasonably round. By that I mean that your human sense of sight and touch wouldn't reveal any indication that the object wasn't round. If you measure the blank, or any blank for that matter, with a high resolution dial indicator, it's unlikely you'd ever find a blank that is anywhere near perfectly round. However, if you're indicating the blank is slightly oval by your own human sense of sight or touch, i.e. the blank can be felt to be oval, or just looking at it shows it to be oval, I'd call MudHole and ask about a replacement.

..................

Actually, there are lots and lots of blanks that are not round. As Tom said, most things just aren't round.

A few years ago, there was one manufacturer that had an entire series of blanks that were quite oval shaped. This was part of the design and not done accidentally. These blanks are still some of my very favorite balnks.

If you like the blank, build it. Nothing wrong with oval blanks.

Roger

I think if I were to build with an oval shaped blank I would orient it with the wide direction up and down and the narrow side to side. Seems to me like that would be the strongest. Anybody else?

If you flexed it on that axis, yes, possibly. The thing is, the blank isn't likely supposed to be that way. I'd make a call and ask.

..................

From what I have been told an oval blank is caused by not being rolled with enough pressure during the manufacturing process.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/2015 10:30PM by Daniel Grossman.