If it makes you feel better, add one more running guide into the mix.

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Ha...perhaps that what the app should spit out.... "4 running guides. 5, if it makes you feel better."

The problem you always run into any time you are working with a mathematical program for guide spacing, is that it is impossible to put 4.5 guides on a rod... So there is a break point where the program will either round up or down, creating opposite situations where sometimes you're a bit shy of having enough guides and other times a bit more than you need. That's why any of these guide calculators will always be starting points from which the builder then applies his own knowledge to arrive at the optimum set up.

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I understand what you're saying, and it makes sense. But the application in question is not merely a calculator, right? It's a custom written program. I am a computer programmer myself. If the GPS application calculated 4.5 guides then rounding down is a bug, IMO, as I doubt any of you long-time rod builders would agree that 4 running guides for 29" of blank would be a good idea. 5 is probably a better starting point - and maybe 6, or 7, is ideal. A mathmatical calculation can't be done to tell you EXACTLY how many guides to use, I get that. My point is...if the application is inended to de-mystify the KR Concept guide placement, it would make sense that the programmer would decide that simply spitting out a number that is merely a starting poiint - and a conservative one at that - is not much help to a peson in need of the app in the first place.

Perhaps I'm just bitter becasue I had to order a single $2.50 guide from Mudhole and ended up spending an additional $3.5 in S&H, and now my build is 5 days behind and I'm itchin to get done. That's probably it. Now that I know a bit more about guide placement I can read between the GPS lines - but still...give me that source code and I'll fix it for free! "4 guides, minimum, 5 (or 6) if it makes you feel better!" That's what I'd output!

Thanks Tom.

4 running guides isn't necessarily too few - what you'd need for 29" on light power blank versus what you'd need for 29" on a heavier power, ocean-boat-surf type blank would be completely different. There's a lot of variables involved in this guide placement stuff.

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