Hi folks, I'm very new to rod building. I live on the OBX and well I fish mostly saltwater. I plan on building a tuna rod andhave no Idea how to install a slick butt. What I really want to know more so is; How far does the blank go into the slick butt? How do I determine the proper size blank to match the slick butt? Any bit of advice related to or just in general, I'm all ears. Thank you for taking the time to read this and responding for those that do.

use the mesh fiberglass drywall tape to 4 arbors evenly spaced. they should be snug. unroll them and coat them with epoxy as you rewind them on the blank. I tie them off with thread when rolled tight, then just slide the butt on and twist it around the arbors to get a good bond. be sure to allow room on the butt for your gimbel or butt cap

Its the slick butt that has the reel seat and gimbal already attached. almost as to be a single unit.

I have just done some so maybe I can help. First we must be careful and be sure we are talking about the same things, In general it is always good to post exact part#'s and brands so we can be sure.

Stuart offers a compelete tuff-butt assembly. It includes a reel seat mounted on an aluminum tube with a nylon covering over that tube. Because of the tube one could use this to extend a rod some.

In most cases a "slick butt" is simply a nylon covering that one would use in place of EVA, hyplaon, or cork for a rear grip. In that case the blank is intended to go completely through the slick butt. It seems most of these slick butt offerings have an inside diameter around one inch. As long as the butt of your blank is under that you are okay. You would fit, and glue, some type of arbor to your blank to bring its outside diameter up to the one inch mark and glue the slick butt to those arbors.

The whole concept of building up an area of a blank with an arbor will occur a lot in rod building. Reel seats are a common example. Always buy a reel seat to fit your hand. Of course its ID must be large enough to fit the blank but generally the ID will be much larger than the blank. In such a case you will build arbors out of masking tape, drywall mesh, or use pre-made graphite arbors.

The other point that will come up is guide placement and sizing. Read up on static testing. You can purchase a CD from Tom on the subject too. Once you learn how you will never ask where to place guides, instead you will know the best possible place. That and good arbor technique will take you a long ways. From there all that is left is good color selection in threads and the right technique for your chosen wraps. That I'll leave for another:)

Russ in Hollywood, FL.

Stuart Slick Butt (aluminum assembly) is .820 (inches) inside diameter of the aluminum tube. Check the butt diameter of the blank(s) you are considering. You can position the blank at any depth / distance down into the aluminum tube (leave minimum 4 inches inside the tube- 6 inches inside the tube is better). If the rod blank is thick walled (like CalStar) it can be turned down / sanded to fit into the tube - or cut off to fit (remember that 6" depth though) or a combination of sanding/trimming. If the blank is a fast taper you may have to put a few wraps of fiberglass tape / epoxy at the exit point (front end) of the aluminum tube to keep the blank centered and for reinforcement. Using the Tuff Butt you can make a 6 foot blank a 7 foot rod (with the 6" inside the tube). I do a lot of these for charter captains - everything from striped bass to tuna. Generally the tuff butts are good for fishing up to 60 - 80lb class rods - beyond that not so good because the diameters of the heavier rod blanks are in excess of 1" and that's just too much trimming for my taste.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/2011 10:08AM by Ken Preston.

Hey thank you all. Really helped me a lot!