Hey guys newby question here. When loading a blank to find your guide spacing how are you supporting the rod and where?

Hi Scott,
Take a look at the following link [www.mudhole.com] , our static deflection tool is a great way to safely load your rod when figuring out a guide spacing.

Kind Regards,

Brook Oliva
Mud Hole Custom Tackle, Inc.
brook@mudhole.com
(866)-790-RODS

I simply clamp the rod down to the fireplace mantle by placing the clamp on the grip. Not to tight. It works for me and doesn't cost 47 dollars. being at eye level I can sight down the blank to place the tip and the rest of the guides.

I mounted a sand spike rod holder to the side of my porch. No doubt the neighbors wonder what I'm hoping to catch on the sidewalk or mud puddle:)

My $64K question is just how far do you load a rod? Is it even fair to inquire of the maker? I have plenty of salt water blanks I feel fine loading to their published ratings. On the other hand I have a (well known brand) musky blank that I'm reluctant to load to even the bottom end of its rating.

Russ in Hollywood, FL.

I asked a maker, and was told you should be able to bend a blank to 90 degrees. Anything more, and you're asking for trouble. Not sure if that answers your question, Russ.

George Forster
Fort Collins, CO

Thanks for the answers this site is outstanding for a beginner.

I use a $10 rod holder clamped to the end of one of my work benches.

J.B.Hunt
Bowling Green, KY

Take a 1 1/2 inch of pvc pipe, bolt it to a 2X4 floor mounted brace and you have your blank tester. If you use long blanks with short ceilings and want to do the testing indoors, angle the brace.

Roger

heres my static test jig

[www.rodbuilding.org]

[www.rodbuilding.org]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/2011 09:55PM by Barry Thomas Sr.

Support it as you fish it buy the reel and the butt or handle

I use my own home made system and after a line is run thought the guides I just press on the tip with a -- FLAT -- hand -- as not to break the tip and just check how the line Follows the blank

Even use a draw in your clothes chest -- but wrap the handle so as not to make any marks

Bill - willierods.com

bill boettcher Wrote:
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> Even use a draw in your clothes chest -- but wrap
> the handle so as not to make any marks


Drawer?

Use whatever you have. It might be a commercially made static testing devise or a rod holder bolted to a bench or deck...it could be a rod holder on the boat (preferably a boat that's on a trailer). Use whatever you have or can come up with.

I typically don't try to bend a rod a specific number of degrees. What I do is determine the heaviest #test line that will be used on that specific fishing outfit and use that information to further determine the highest amount of drag force that it will be exposed to. This is the force I use to perform my static test. I attach a reel and pull the line with a scale if necessary. If I static test to the extremes, I'm confident that everything will be fine under normal fishing conditions.

But Jay, sometimes things happen. Line gets wrapped around something like a reel. Wouldn't it be nice to know the line would break before the blank does?

For me it depends on what I'm building. Clearly I don't think the average bass rod will break the braid I might use on a bait caster. On the other hand I have live bait sticks it the 15 to 30# range that will certainly break the line first.

Russ in Hollywood, FL.

Regardless of the type jig, it's important to secure a top guide and load the rod using a string tied to the top. Doing this allows the rod to assume a NATURAL BEND and that's what your final guide placement is supposed to support. Running the line thru poorly placed "test" guides and then loading will force the blank to do things it wouldn't normally do. The exact opposite of what you want to accomplish with good static loading. Load from the tip to about 90-degrees and place guides to support and enhance the rods own characteristics. More power and better hook sets.

If you pull a string tied to the tip top, you can also influence the bend of the blank in an unnatural manner just as easily.

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Scott,

You will find in the Rodbuilding library an article about static guide placement. I think you will find it very informative.
Here's a link: [www.rodbuilding.org]

Don Campbell
don@sensorfishingrods.com

Alex,

Not if you let the weight hang naturally, with the blank supported in a horizontal position. From that position you can apply as much load as you want and the blank will never go beyond a 90 degree bend nor deviate from what Jim is calling a "natural bend."

It might be good that you brought this up so folks will understand that the blank should be supported horizontally while performing this process.

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

Bingo... I should have been a little clearer on what I was saying but you caught it. A lot of folks tie off the line to a weight or other immovable object. They aren't letting it hang naturally. They are also using various angles, for holders. All of it impacts the bend.

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Thats exactly what Ive been doing.Tying off the tip to a solid eye with the rod holder angled about 30 deg. with line from reel with small weight attached through the guides.I had never considered the importance of the rod being supported horizontal and the load straight down.What I was doing was putting the rod in an unnatural bend and not realizing it.Thanks guys,sometimes what is old hat to yall is valuable info to some of us.

You can point a rod straight at a fish at which point you are taking the rod out of the equation and simply pulling the fish in. This is the most powerful position you can put the rod in because there is no flex, it's a winch. It doesn't matter where your guides are either. At the opposite end you can high stick until the rod fails, but I can't imagine why anyone would consider that in guide placement. In the middle is a whole variety of bends you'll probably go thru every time you fight a fish. The average of those bends would be 90-degrees tip to butt. We put the rod at 45-degrees but horizontal would work just as well. We bend with a weight from the tip until the tip is at 90-degrees to the butt and some flex shows in the lower 1/3 of the rod. It's IMPORTANT to get the bend in the lower 1/3 since that's going to be about as much as you flex the rod in a real life situation. Set up like this we can work in a smaller area and we don't have to put the rod so high off the floor. We tend to have very good placement when the rod is bent a little more or a little less AND we are almost identical to the exact bend Tom describes with the dangling weight. He also recommends checking the placement at two or three bend loads and we agree it might help, but a 45-degree rod, fully loaded (bend in the lower 1/3), at a 90-degree angle, in our observations, works well and it's a little easier to visualize because the rod is in an actual fighting position. Under any load from any direction a rod pulled from the tip bends the way it wants to under that specific load; that's what I was getting at with "natural bend". All we're suggesting, and Tom too, I think, is a static position and force that will give us acceptable performance in a RANGE of bends. Horizontal or 45-degrees or 20-degrees or any angle, just make sure you have enough load and a 90-degree tip to butt bend.