One more question. The rod I'm building is a 4 piece and I found the spine/spline on the 3 tip sections easy enough, but the but section is stiff enough that I'm having trouble finding the spine. Is it really that critical to find the spine on the butt section of the rod? If it matters the blank I'm using is a 10ft 5wt 4 piece MHX fly blank. I believe it is labeled a fast action but I haven't done any CCS stuff on it yet.

If it does make a difference in the finished rod, are there any tips for locating the spine by hand (I don't have any of the spine finder tools available) on stiff rod sections?

Thanks,
Josh

Hello Josh.

The spine is no longer thought to be much of a factor in rod building, the method used mostly these days is the straightest axis, so I would not sweat it, it does not hurt to find the spine but it is really not needed.

Tight Wraps.

Bob,

New Bern, NC.

Josh,
Just lay the blank on a flat surface and roll the blank.

If you note any bends in the blank when you roll the blank,, make a decision if you want the bend in the up direction, or in the down direction.
Then, for multi piece rods use the same direction for all pieces of the multi piece blank.

Be safe

I don't worry much with the butt section. It is normally too stiff to make a difference and besides, a lot of it is covered by the grip anyway. I still spine my blanks unless there is a noticeable bend in the blank.

Robert A. Guist Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hello Josh.
>
> The spine is no longer thought to be much of a
> factor in rod building, the method used mostly
> these days is the straightest axis, so I would not
> sweat it, it does not hurt to find the spine but
> it is really not needed.
>
> Tight Wraps.


X2

I put a piece of tape in two places on the blank
Put it in my wrapper rollers turn it watching the tip When it is at it's high I mark that as the TOP or 0 degress

Or if you have a long table you can roll it on it

Bill - willierods.com

Robert A. Guist Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hello Josh.
>
> The spine is no longer thought to be much of a
> factor in rod building, the method used mostly
> these days is the straightest axis, so I would not
> sweat it, it does not hurt to find the spine but
> it is really not needed.
>
> Tight Wraps.

Interesting! Is there an easy explanation as to why chose the straightest axis vs the spine? I haven't seen much about that.

Josh, there is a good article regarding the rod spine and its irrelevance. Unhide your email and I will send you a copy, or email me for it.

Josh

Do a searsh on this site on The Spine You will get so much to read about it
Then you can make your own desition on weather you want to use it or not

There was a post here a while back whare a builder was told that If he did not build acording to the Spine a spinning rod guided rod the guides would ( tend to go up from he 180 ) or lowest point they were at

IMPOSIBLE
Look at a Spiral wrap where the main guides are at 180 and hold the rod Upright
Take a spinning rod and with a good fish on try to turn the guides and bring them UP

Bill - willierods.com

At least two such articles are in the online library here.

.......

Another sourse of Quality Information

Bill - willierods.com

Josh,
I spine all my fly rods.

here is how I do it.
1. Spine the tip section (S4) by flexing and the spine is located when tot section jumps. Mark it with a grease pencil.
2. Spine the next section (S3). Mark it.
3. Assemble S4 and S3. Spine it again and adjust the spine mark on both if it changes.
4. Spine S2. Mark
5. Try to spine butt (S1). Mark if successful.
6 Assemble S1 and S2 and re-spine. Change spine marks if different.
7. Assemble all sections and check spine. If it changes - re mark the spine.

When you assemble the sections there is a good chance the spine will change. So final test is to assemble all sections. Takes longer to explain than do.

BTW - if after spinning a 4pc rod and it is crooked. Just rotate one section 180 degrees. You will still be spined with all sections assembled and it may straighten the blank.

Herb



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/04/2014 06:19PM by Herb Ladenheim.

Tom, when I go to the Library, I do not see the "spine" article listed. I know it was there in the past.

Tom,

Can you point me to the articles in the library? The only one I see is the "home-brew spine finder". I also only seem to see a category labeled "Most Recent Added" when I click on the library link with about 38 articles in it. Are there more articles than that? Maybe I need to learn to navigate this site better.

Phil,

Thanks for that article! It was a really interesting read. Now I'm gonna have to go home and redo all my markings. Glad I asked around here first. :)

Josh

Here's a couple from the library:

[www.rodbuilding.org]

[www.rodbuilding.org]

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

The good news is you can buy spine-finding tools at a great discount these days.

Tom,

That first one about blank strength settled my last question about building on the spine (although I suppose I've been doing it backwards cause I would mark the stiffest axis and build on that not the true spine). Looks like the difference is fairly negligible.

The more you build and actually fish with your rods, the more you will find that there is just a plethora of things in rod building that have minimal to squat influence on the fish-ability of your rods! My humble opinion after many years! ....... I caught several nice walleye and bass on my father's fiberglass rod from the 50's, last year in Minn. Built the same way today, it would be considered a piece of $%#@! rod. And I used an old Johnson Century reel with 10 year old mono on it. It was just fine. I felt the strikes, set the hook and fought the fish. Don't get caught up splitting too many hairs in rod building. Time is too short. Build, fish and enjoy!