One for Mo Yang as it involves SiC guides and weight!!!!
I've been using SiC guides for almost as long as I've been building rods and I've had very few problems with them, a couple of broken frames and a couple of rings coming out. Not many for the number used. Fugi SiC guides were what i've used for a lot of rods but in this neck of the woods the cost of them has jumped heaps in the last 20 years and for me they are now too expensive. Fortunately I found another source of SiC guides. They're not as good as the Fugi's but for the price they're excellent value for money and perform more than adequately. A while back they started making titanium framed guides with SiC inserts and claimed a 30% weght reduction. I have built several rods using them and the performance has been very good and the corrosion resistance is excellent, far better than their stainless steel frames. I decided to check the weight savings by weighing all the guides I've got and the Fugi size four micros that I've got left. The sample size isn't large but good enough to give a ball park figure. Used the laboratory scales at work which are accurate to four decinmal places. They get checked regularly for accuracy and are pretty spot on. Rounded the results to three decimal places and the weight is in grams ( 30 grams = 1.06 ozs)

Fugi TLSG-4J Average weight - 0.0502 grms Sample size - 10

Dblue Ti-SiC-DBSG-B1 Single Foot Dblue SS-SiC-DBSG-B1 Single Foot

Size Average weight Sample size Range Size Average weight Sample size Range

30 4.193grms 7 4.130 - 4.302 30 7.619grms 1 -

25 2.683grms 6 2.617 - 2.759 25 - - -

20 1.516grms 7 1.478 - 1.562 20 2.574grms 2 2.177 - 2.972

16 0.973grms 6 0.931 - 1.011 16 1.608grms 2 1.602 - 1.613

12 0.642grms 6 0.632 - 0.665 12 1.086grms 2 1.076 - 1.095

10 0.431grms 7 0.393 - 0.456 10 0.775grms 2 0.767 - 0.783

8 0.304grms 13 0.294 - 0.313 8 0.569grms 2 0.556 - 0.583

6 0.190grms 12 0.188 - 0.192 6 0.311grms 5 0.287 - 0.326

Dblue Ti- SiC-LNTSG Double Foot SS -SiC- LNTSG Double Foot

30 6.056grms 9 5.747 - 6.278 30 9.924grms 1 -

25 4.079grms 5 3.998 - 4.160 25 6.100grms 3 5.946 - 6.394

20 2.110grms 7 2.010 - 2.275 20 3.990grms 4 3.842 - 4.583

16 1.437grms 4 1.423 - 1.457 16 2.212grms 4 1.940 - 2.459

12 0.877grms 4 0.847 - 0.899 12 1.312grms 4 1.246 - 1.354

10 0.679grms 4 0.674 - 0.685 10 1.019grms 5 0.814 - 1.021

8 0.437grms 4 0.432 - 0.444 8 0.667grms 7 0.595 - 0.732

6 0.263grms 14 0.259 - 0.271 6 0.387grms 3 0.363 - 0.414


I think the manufacturers claim of 30% weight reduction are conservative and there is also a large percentage diifference between size four micros and size 6 single footers as they are less than half the weight. Hope this helps people decide on the benefits of titanium frames, pity they're not as robust as the stainless frames.

ESFNEM Col
Port Kembla, NSW
Australia

Col,
Good job. Much appreciated.
Must have taken a fair amount of time. Hope you didn't recieve too much abuse on your "G" job.

Eugene Moore

Eugene,
No Probs on the job. Unfortunately the results didn't post the way I had them laid out on my computer and hopefully their not too confusing all squashed up.

ESFNEM Col
Port Kembla, NSW
Australia

G'Day Col Have to agree with you on the cost of Fuji these days(Frogleys seems to be getting to greedy) .If I have to use them I now source them from the U.S. I've just ordered 2 sets of Alconites & they cost less than 1 set from here in O zeven with the shipping charges, Have to wait a couple of weeks for them to arrive but at that saving it's worth the wait.

regards

Baz

Bundeena NSW

Hi Baz,
90% of my rodbuilding dollars go to the States for the same reason. Would be nice to keep some of it in our own country but the prices here aren't worth it.

ESFNEM Col
Port Kembla, NSW
Australia