so i am new to rod building and i am about to start a new rod.my question pertains to static testing.when i load the blank tied off to the tip top or tied off to the line from the reel?i tried both on my last rod and had two different results.in my brain i would think tied off to the reel because that is where a fish would be but i really dont know specifics about all this.so which is the prefered way and why? thank you for the help

Hi Gaston,
Get the tip glued on and tie it off to there. If it comes off the reel then you don't get a natural bend in the rod, hence your different results.Put a good bend in the rod so that is close to your drag setting but don't bend the rod more than 90 degrees. You will be better off if you are away from the tie off point and not over the top of it. After that run the line through the guides and tie it off also but have it so it's just tight. Position your guides so that the line follows the blank curve as close as you can. The angle that the line makes at each guide should be as close as possible. The last three or four won't have that angle as the tip is usually fairly straight.
It's not that difficult or time consuming once you get the hang of it. Good luck.

ESFNEM Col
Port Kembla, NSW
Australia

By tying to the tip you flex the blank in it's natural curve. Then you position the guides so that a line, with just enough tension to keep it taut, passes through the guides forming angles that match the blank curve as closely as possible. This causes the line tension from the force of a fighting fish to pull on each of the guides in a way that pulls the blank along its natural curve and you eliminate (drastically reduce) undue stress points.

Now if a fish would just jump out of the water and grab the rod tip so that it would have a natural curve in it so that you can reel his friend in.

I build to real life situations by running the line off the reel and applying what I think would be the maximum drag experienced.

The thing wrong with that is - each guide will pull on the blank at there location and give a false reading
When holding the tip itself down and putting a line though the guides you read the blanks arc

Bill - willierods.com

Jay,

Your method will work just fine, provided that you use enough guides spaced well enough that the added stress doesn't cause a blank failure. The force applied by the line on each guide will dictate the curve that the rod takes. The goal of the static test is to make the real life situation approximate the natural flex of the blank as closely as possible. Doing so reduces the amount of stress on the rod.

Joe

The only way to determine the natural and preferred flex curve of the blank is to load it from the tip, only.

From there you set up the guides so that once you do load it from the reel in an actual fishing situation, it will mimic that same original curve.

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

Curses...foiled again!!!

Some of my rods are just gonna have to learn to live with stress then, like I do. .

That's the point - if you load from the reel while spacing guides, you will never have the blank's natural and preferred curve in play. You have forced it into something entirely different. Although, as long as you use a sufficient number of guides, I doubt you'd have any problems.

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

I have been getting lazy
I put guides on space them however

Run a line though the guides with a weight on to put tension on it

Then - Very Carefully - Press down on the tip of the blank and check out the line to see how it Follows The Blank

Static Test

Bill - willierods.com