I have built several rods using the simple spiral wrap with bumper guide, and several using the 0, 60, 120, 180 degree method. With the later, I placed the butt guide and did a static guide test. I placed the guides where they should go according to the static test. The second, third, and fourth guides from the butt I then placed at the 60, 120, and 180 degree position.

In reading some of the older posts on spiral wraps, I see where it was suggested to place the 60, 120, and 180 degree guides approximately 4" apart which would be different from the static test.

My question to this group is which is the better way of positioning these three guides and does one way work out better than the other. My first concern is stress on the blank and second is casting distance?

Thanks for your input.

Ron Jack
Bowdoin, Maine

Ron,
I simply put the butt guide in place, and put another guide about 3 feet down the rod on the bottom and let the line flow tell me where to put the guides.

Pretty simple.

By the way, I never put my butt guide at 0 degrees. I almost always put it at 3-10 degrees in the direction of the spiral to have the line stack in the best possible way on the reel.

I pull off about a 100 feet of line and then reel the line back on the rod under slight pressure. If I find that the line is stacking on either one or the other side of the reel, I will realign the butt guide until the line stacks straight on the reel.

Be safe

3 feet down?
why so far?

I would think because there will be several more in between ???

Bill - willierods.com

Thanks Roger

Ron Jack
Bowdoin, Maine

Correct bill.
All guides are just taped in place, until the final alignment and positions are determined.

Be safe

Roger, Am I correct that you don't worry about stress distribution for the three transition guides - but try and get the straightest path?

Ron

I check those guides with out pressur Addjust

Then with pressure on them try to get the guides where the line sits on the bottom of the ring close to the blank
I may change guides several times till I like the path and the way they rest on the guide rings

Then test cast

And addjust and even change guides --- again
I do this 2 - 3 hours Then when I think it is Nice
I put the rod up

The next day I play with it again With a FRESH mind
Ya a little over kill BUT -- It is custom built !!

Bill - willierods.com

Depends on taper of the blank.

In contrast to Bill, I put on the butt guide one of the running guides midway down the blank, place the other guides on the blank with tape. Then, tweak for a few minutes, reel in about 100 feet of line under slack tension to be sure that the line flows correctly.

Total time spent about 10 minutes.

But, which ever works.

Be safe

Ron, you don't really tell us what the rod will be used for, other than your primary concern is to mitigate stress on the blank and the secondary concern is casting distance. What I get from this is that you are building some type of casting rod for large predator fish not smaller fish (the mitigate stress part). It would help if you clarified the target species, bait/presentation, and line test intended for this rod.

In general though, I would encourage you to think of the line traveling through the guides in 3-dimensional terms, not just 2-dimensional terms. What I mean by this, is that I have seen people build rods with unnecessarily large (tall) second/third guides, with perfectly straight line profiles viewed from the side, that hold line far away from the blank when loaded. In many cases, once you get past the first guide, you can go straight to runner guides for the rest of the rod. As Bill mentioned above, load your rod and adjust the spacing and rotation in an attempt to get the line touching the bottom center of the ring in the straightest 3-dimensional line path you can. Then take it out and do some test casting.

If you indeed are after large predator fish and will be using a levelwind reel, make sure that the angle of your firstguide will allow you to properly rewind on more line than will ever be removed by the largest fish. Line stacking to one side of a reel's spool can be a huge problem on certain types of heavy duty spiral applications (like trolling rods). On really heavy rods where large-diameter spool conventional reels are used without levelwinds, you may want to have your guides twist to the left instead of the right to encouirage stacking to the left of the spool; in this way it is easier to use your left thumb more to push the line to the right of the reel than to pull line to the left side of the reel.

There are lots of considerations like these that may or may not apply to your particular build, but you just don't give enough info to really nail down the salient points.