Hi All, I am currently building my first rod and I have yet to purchase or make my own rod dryer. I am uncertain that the diaphragm on the store purchased dryers would fit the butts on any salt water rods...Also the parts to build one seem pretty cheap...Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Mike

Mike it is really worth it to invest in a single unit flex coat. I still have the one I bought 20 years ago and use it more then my five rod pro dryer. It did need a new motor 5 or 6 years ago and I have replaced the diphram once also. I keep an extra motor on hand just incase but the thing is really a bull. It will hold some pretty big butts and in fact I cannot think of an instance where I couldn't work a butt into it.

Mike,
If you have a few tools, you can easily make your own dryer.

A bit of an issue is getting a decent motor. Many of the motors out there are just not the best thing to use as a dryer motor.

In recent years, I have been using low rpm DC gear motors that run on a low voltage plug in power supply.

The issue with some of the motors that folks try to use for a drying motor, is that they don't have an adequate shaft to support a dryer chuck.

You can easily make a chuck, using a PVC pipe cap. Simply obtain a piece of 1/32 inch thick neoprene, punch a 1/2 inch hole in the middle of a piece and then with someone helping your, pull the neoprene tight over the pvc cap, and have the other person use a plastic tie wrap to secure the neoprene tight to the pvc pipe cap. then, put a 2nd tie wrap on the cap for security.

Have a centered hole in the back of the cap and you have a chuck that you can screw into a shaft adapter that mounts to the motor shaft.

Then, simply mount the motor in a simple L bracket for support.

But, if you don't have the tools, time or skill, then by all means, simply pick up one of the many commercial units that are available.

If you don't have roller rests for your rod, just use a simple v block in a piece of wood to support the rod. Put a couple of wraps around the blank where you support the rod, if you don't have rollers or a cushion on the v-block to avoid scratching the blank.

Be safe

You can do a search in the photo section of this forum to come up with some of the different ideas that folks have used in the past to make functional dryers. (as follows)

[www.rodbuilding.org]

These are typical of some of the small excellent low rpm dc gear motors that work very well for drying motors:

[www.servocity.com]

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Or, tough to beat in a commercial unit:

[www.flexcoat.com]



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/29/2013 03:54PM by roger wilson.

I made one out of a cheap rotisserie motor, mounted on a couple of pieces of 1x6. Attaching the rod is not too difficult. I epoxied a piece of square aluminum rod into the opening on the motor, so this turns like a spindle. I too build large diameter salt water rods, and I build up the diameter of the square rod until it fits tightly inside the rod butt. Then I wrap a few layers from spindle to rod to make sure nothing is going to come loose. I glue butt caos on after finishing the rod.

I am not very skilled in the mechanical arts, however, my $40 setup lays down a very nice finish.

Tim

X2 on a Flex Coat dryer. BTW, you can have a custom diaphragm built for one ... just call the factory and make the request. Roger did four of them for my quad wall mount unit. Years and years later, it still performs perfectly day in and out.

Awesome...Thanks for the input everyone. I'm leaning towards a commercial unit for now...and save my "in the shed time" for building the rod. Once again thanks for the input.

Cheers,
Mike