Hi, Im working on my first 4pc rod which is almost 11' long. I dont have room to place the entire rod in my rotating machine. Any ideas on how to install the top 2 sections of the blank into the machine for applying finish? I have ferrule wraps to contend with. What i did so far was take my smallest reamer and wrap some tape on the end. Insert female ferrule into that and mount to machine. It worked but the reamer was not perfectly straight so there was some wobble. Looking for some suggestions. Thanks, Mark

I took an old 7' blank and cut it in 12" sections, mounted 1" long round pieces of eva on the end, and they will fit just about any section out there

Ron Weber

I will sometimes place small dowel rod, or even an Ice fishing blank into the tip sections, and arbor them with masking tape so that they fit snug, and then use that in my dryer. A little tape where the ferrule lays over the ice blank will help if you happen to get epoxy on the inserted ice blank.

Dowel rods......shim them with tape if they need it.......

I like Ron's idea of the EVA......

I use the tapered handles from various sized cheap artists paint brushes (Hobby Lobby). Just cut off the brush end then cutt the handle into smaller sections (2 to 3 inches) and they will rotate true in the wrapperYou can add tape arbors if needed. Inexpensive and easy.

John A.

never throw away a broken fishing rod without cutting some 8-10" pieces for mandrels

Ok great. Thanks guys!

If you have a chuck style wrapper that is designed to work with handles in the 1 inch range use a piece of EVA grip or a cork ring.

Just use a reamer to ream a tight fitting hole in the grip or the ring that will be a nice tight slip fit on the end of the piece that you need to turn. Simple and easy to do.

However, if you have a jacobs style chuck on your wrapper, like I do, I use a piece of solid stock. I have a bunch of larger pieces of solid rod stock. I will chuck a 4 inch piece of stock in a variable speed drill and then, will hold the spinning solid stock against a rotating belt sander. If the solid stock is larger than the piece that I need to turn, I just do a taper sand down of the solid stock so that the tapered piece of solid stock is a nice firm slip fit on the inside of the piece that I want to turn.

If the solid stock is smaller than the inside diameter of the piece that I want to turn, I just build up the diameter of the solid stock with masking tape so that the solid stock with the tape on the end is a slip fit into the inside of the solid stock.