Does anyone have any tricks for the easy installation of micro guides on a typical ultralight. On small micros it is hard enough to hold the guide in one piace, but due to thread tension it tends to distort the rod when getting toward the tip section. I have thought about installing a second blank inside the original rod to make stiffer. It just seems like an extra amount of work. Come on guys, get the creative cells working as I am going nuts trying to come up with a solution.

I recently did a couple of rods using the nanomicro guides (size #1). I used elastic sewing thread to hold the guides on the rod and a tooth pick through the eye of the guide to place them under the elastic thread I had tied on the rod. With the guides held in place with the elastic it allowed me both hands to start the wrap and minimize the rod flex. Once I had the wrap half way up the eye I just cut the elastic off and continued up the guide. I bought the elastic thread at Wal-Mart for $0.98 and it was a lifesaver for these microscopic guides. I have used it on lager guides with good success, but the cut up surgical tubing holds the larger guides more securely for me.

Have you considered passing a wire such as Malin stainless steel wire through the blank? Probably about 110 pound wire. You could run a dowel across the butt end to fasten the wire. At the tip you would need to keep the wire straight. This would require a clamp for the wire that attaches to a swivel that is mounted to a stantion. Of course, the tip top would be installed last.

Don

Don Becker

I'm going to try very small orings with a 1/32nd width to secure micro guides next time I use them.

I use dental ligatures (very small o rings) to hold the micros in place. They won't solve the flexing of the tip section of the rod but certainlyfree up both hands, they are cheap and work amazing.

Robert,
A very simple solution.
1. Use the very small 0 rings as Don posted to secure the guides.
Very inexpensive and very simple to use. Just slip enough 0 rings over the tip before starting to wrap and of the smaller guides. Put on an extra one or two in case you need a spare. Then, just slip the extras up toward the tip as you wrap and finish a guide.

2. Then use a simple setup as shown in the following picture:
[www.rodbuilding.org]

This is a simple piece of plastic cutting board, drilled with multiple holes to hold the end of a piece of solid glass blank. Use a dremel tool with a grinding wheel to notch the top end of each blank piece.
Then, when wrapping the small ends of rods, simply place the portion of blank with the guide on it that you will be wrapping, between the two posts.
Because the multiple holes drilled about 1/2 inch apart on the base, you can have the vertical pieces as close as 1/2 inch or as wide as the widest hole spacing while holding the blank section stable.

Set up the base and the length of the vertical pieces to be able to set the base on the bench, or on top of your wrapper base to have the slots in the solid blanks end up being at the same height of your rod being wrapped.

Basically the cost of the rod support is 0, since the support can be made from scrap laying around the shop.

If you don't happen to have any solid blanks, you can easily order a solid ice rod blank in about a medium power for about $3 from various vendors.

The dental elastics and the support for small blank sections make wrapping these thin blanks an easy thing to do.

In the picture I happen to be drying ice rods that have been wrapped with small ice guides on very tiny and flexible ice rod blanks. Even these flexible rods were easy to wrap using the afore mentioned technique.

Be safe

for small guides on ice rods, which are like wrapping a wet noodle, I scuff the bottem of the guide with a round file then put the smallest dot possible (using a pin point) of CA on the blank and set the guide on top for a few seconds to set. when I wrap it, it stays in place if I need to move it I can as the smallest amount of CA does not hold it there that well just good enough to wrap.

I would guess that this would work on a normal ultra light as it does on a 2/64 ice rod tip.

Eric



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/2014 12:43PM by Eric Viburs.

Roger,

Thanks for posting the picture of the rod tip support stand. I have always struggled with wrapping the tip guides....'guess I've gotten brain dead in my old age! I'll have to build one today!

Don Campbell
don@sensorfishingrods.com

Don,
You are welcome.