As I mentioned a few times I been out of rod building for some time now and have recently ordered everything to build 2 new rods. Well of course half the guides are back ordered. Tonight I started taking a look at what rods were good and which needed to retire. I have a rod that was my second rod I ever built that I'm very partial to. It has served as my work horse since around 2002. It was built on a Pac Bay blank whichever was there best back then with Fuji Concept guides and a purple heart wood split grip. I have fished all over the united states and canada with that rod. When I would go on a trip that was the first to get loaded. When a buddy calls to go fishing that rod goes. Im sure you all have that one rod that gets more work than all the rest. It was beat hard not very well taken care of and showing its age. Guides would sometimes pull out. The wood grip was faded. I had been thinking of rebuilding it for a few years now and I couldnt bring myself to retire it so tonight I began stripping it down and will rebuild it over the next couple weeks. I plan on extending the blank 5 inches as I always felt it should have been a little longer. I plan on machining on my lathe the extension out of aluminum to fit perfectly inside and flush on the outside. I plan on making a flo green and black composite handle. Machined aluminum bushings/Spacers for the reel seat instead of foam or tape. Something else I have been thinking about over the years is using fiberglass roving thread to wrap the guides instead of standard thread. I been thinking about how I wanted to do this to work better. Ill keep you all posted with pics as it goes back together. I wasnt able to take pics before stripping it down.

Won't an aluminum bushing - unless it is in short pieces - create a hard spot in rod that may cause failure. Also - aluminum ins't as good a material to epoxy as foam. Use an etching wash before epoxying seat. Why not use a graphite tube to extend vs aluminum? CTS manufactures graphite tubes to specified diameter and wall thickness.
Regards,
Herb

The bushings will be short .5" pieces and they are in the but section of a spinning rod If it doesn't flex there im not too concerned.

Certainly your plan will work just fine. However, I suppose that if I were building it, I would just take an oversized piece of graphite and slip it over the current blank. Let the two pieces of blank overlap by about 3 inches and you would be good to go.

Why are you planning on using fiberglass roving thread to wrap the guides?

Be safe

[www.eas-fiberglass.com]

Or would you be better off using fiberglass industrial thread?

[www.eas-fiberglass.com]

Something different and should be totally clear and maybe a touch lighter? . Yes I know you can use white silk to get clear.