I took a recent class and the instructor insisted we apply the underwrap from left to right . I was experimenting with thread art on a golf club and found it was darn near impossible to wrap from left to right. (I use a power wrapper). This, of course is because there is a pretty good slope on a golf club as the shaft gets smaller towards the club head. I decided to try it going right to left, or "uphill" and it worked great.
I was wondering if the same thing would apply to a rod blank, although the slope is much less. I did an underwrap from right to left and it also worked so much easier. I ended up with a nice tight wrap without any overlaps. Don't know if this works for everyone but it sure worked for me and cut my underwrap time way, way down.

I have never used a power wrapper so don't understand issues with them. I hand wrap and do it both to the right and to the left and have never noticed any taper effect or increased difficulty in either direction.

Since you should wrap towards the guide ring, at some point you're going to have to wrap "downhill." At least on one side, no matter which way you turn the rod in the wrapper.

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I use a handwrapper and a power wrapper. I wrap from left to right and right to left. Doesn't seem to make a difference.

Ron,
Out of curiosity, are you right handed or left handed.

I am left handed and I also find it very difficult to wrap from left to right.

This is one of the reasons that I build my own power wrappers so that I can easily reverse the direction of the wrapper motor.

This is the exact same reason why a lot of left handed folks have issues in hand writing. When a left handed person writes from left to right, his hand covers his writing.

This is the same thing that happens when a left handed person power wraps from left to right. The wrapping hand tends to block the view of what is being wrapped.

But when one wraps from left to right, there is always a clear field of vision.


The same is true when a work bench is being set up. For convenience, when a right handed person sets up his work bench, he/she tends to have all of the hand tools located on the right of the person for quick and easy access.
However, in contrast, a left handed person much prefers to have all of his hand tools located at his left for easy access.

By the way, this is not a trivial or minor question. It is very very important to the person that is doing a job to be able to have quick and easy access to his tools without reaching across his work space.

I am a former electronics and computer engineer. I always had a place in a lab where I did product development. I was very specific about the lab layout and how the tools were arranged, as well as instruments etc.
i.e. all of the hand tools in a tool box located to my left, and not my right.
Conversely, my right handed co workers all had their tool boxes located on their right, and not their left.

Very practical, and it worked very well, but definitely different between right and left handed folks.

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For the conventional commercial wrapper, it may be difficult to wrap from the left to the right if you want to have the butt of the rod on your right.
The reason is that most commercial wrappers do not have an easy reverse on their wrapping motors. They are all designed to rotate in one direction with the thread pull to work in that direction.

I likely wrap about 80% spinning rods, and when I wrap, I always start on the blank and wrap to the guide side of the ring. It is so much easier to wrap up the guide foot, than down the guide foot.
As a result, I always like to have the butt of the rod on my right so that when I wrap with my left hand, I am wrapping - starting on the blank on my right, and wrapping toward my left which is moving toward the guide ring and upright.

Sure, if I wrap casting rods, I may wrap in the opposite direction, but even then, I prep the guide foot well enough so that I can start at the guide ring and wrap down to the blank. It is a bit tougher to do, but I do it, simply because it is much easier to see my wrapping that is not covered by my wrapping hand.

Be safe

I use a power wrapper now, but even when I used a hand wrapper, I taught myself to wrap either to the left or right. I also wrap in both directions using the power wrapper as well. I've never had the issue of wrapping downhill due to the taper, but I know that golf clubs may have more of a taper than some rods. However, if you angle the thread, this should be less of an issue. A good practice exercise is to start using your other hand for manipulating the thread when going the opposite direction. it will be awkward at first but stick with it and it will get easier.

Terry

I have always wrapped in both directions. If not, while working on a double foot guide wrap, you would have to wrap down the guide foot starting at the base of the guide, on one side of the guide. On butt wraps and underwraps I always wrap from left to right. I am right handed and it has been natural for me to do this for over 40 years. If you are wrapping a slip over ferrule, I think it would be very difficult to get a good wrap by wrapping from left to right, so I always wrap from the tip to the butt on these.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/19/2014 04:16PM by Randolph Ruwe.

If you are using a hand wrapper, just flip the rod around ... that allows you to always wrap from left to right.