I hope nothing. I hope it was good. I know I messed up a bit on the epoxy, but yeah. Let me know if there is anything else I missed?

I haven't ever built a fly rod before, and this turned out pretty good. I thought I would give it a try. Let me know what you guys think. I know already of a few mistakes I made, but the rod came out looking great anyway! In the video I show the unboxing, grip and but section instillation, rod wrapping, guide placement, and epoxying of the rod. I bought this kit from the Hook & Hackle, and they sell some really nice products for a great price! Also they were very helpful with my questions.

You can get this exact kit at:
[store.hookhack.com]

[youtu.be]

You did a great job on the video! As for fixing the epoxy you can do a search on YouTube of Docski's channel. He has some great instructions covering almost everything about rod building. You'll probably end up buying actual reamers and an actual rod wrapping stand. Since you didn't show how you applied your epoxy I'm guessing you turned it by hand. Once you pick up a dryer motor you can turn it by hand for about an hour or so and put it on the dryer after that to make it 10x easier. Also if you do some searches about how to do a static displacement test on your rod you will surely get a much better guide placement and a better overall cast and durability. I can tell by the way you felt about this rod that you're going to build many more! I wish I had my reaction of my first rod I built on tape. It captures the essence of a budding hobby that will last you a life time. I hope your next rod is as easy or easier than your first, and good luck my friend.

P.S. im kinda jealous of that amazing beard LOL

Michael Maclean Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You did a great job on the video! As for fixing
> the epoxy you can do a search on YouTube of
> Docski's channel. He has some great instructions
> covering almost everything about rod building.
> You'll probably end up buying actual reamers and
> an actual rod wrapping stand. Since you didn't
> show how you applied your epoxy I'm guessing you
> turned it by hand. Once you pick up a dryer motor
> you can turn it by hand for about an hour or so
> and put it on the dryer after that to make it 10x
> easier. Also if you do some searches about how to
> do a static displacement test on your rod you will
> surely get a much better guide placement and a
> better overall cast and durability. I can tell by
> the way you felt about this rod that you're going
> to build many more! I wish I had my reaction of my
> first rod I built on tape. It captures the essence
> of a budding hobby that will last you a life time.
> I hope your next rod is as easy or easier than
> your first, and good luck my friend.
>
> P.S. im kinda jealous of that amazing beard LOL

Thanks! I tried hard to do the rod correctly. I did put how I applied the epoxy on the video. Basically I said that I was just going to use the box I used for wrapping. Then I showed me applying it. Yes, I turned it by hand while applying the epoxy. I have a feeling a dryer will make things much easier, because I started to let it dry, turned it every 15 minutes, then my wife was like hey! Lets go out! Im like well, I cannot for another hour or so sweetie. She gave me the look... You know the look I'm talking about.... And I thought to myself, drippy epoxy, or never get to build another rod again. I chose drippy epoxy. Luckily it turned out ok. Just not as happy as I would have been if I could rotate it as much as I should have for the full 2 hours (that was what was recommended by the Hook and the Hackle. Man, I will tell you, that guy was super helpful on my first rod build. I kept thinking I was going to be bugging the crap out of him, but he never had a problem answering my questions! HAHA Nice guy. And really not a bad rod. In fact, its better than most (if not all) $200 built rods from the manufacturers, and it costs about $150 or so for the whole kit. Not too bad.

So I looked up "static displacement test" for fly rods and I found a forum posting (on here actually) talking about how its not as important for fly rods because you don't have to worry about the line hitting the rod since it hangs upside down (its not a casting rod). Im still not sure what a static displacement test is, but my guess is that it has to do with how the guides are alined and how smooth the taper is in reference to the placement of the guides? Anyway, my guide placement wasn't perfect, I know that. But when I put line on this, the bend is pretty good. I am quite happy with it.

I actually do youtube video's quite often. I have a fly tying channel that I make video's about different flies that I tie. So while this video wasn't perfect, I try hard to edit it properly. One thing I found out early on is that people don't like super long video's. They want jump cuts to different important parts of the process. Unfortunately the rod building video was impossible to keep under 20 minutes. Most of my fly tying video's are under 6 minutes. I wish I could have kept it at that with this video. However next time, I will just do individual steps. Like "rod building - step 1 - grip and reel seat installation" and "rod building - step 4 - guide wrapping". Stuff like that. I will have to do that to keep the video's at the 5-8 minute mark (what people's attention span will allow for). We live in an ADD world. HAHA

Don't be jealous of the beard. Just grow one! It doesn't take long. Ive had mine for 5 or so years. It took me only about 8 months to grow it this length. Since then I have trimmed it shorter, kept it much longer, did all types of things with it. Now, I just am going for the homeless look. HAHA J/K In fact, I have a 2 year old, and a wife that doesn't really care what I look like anymore (too focused on the kid). I work from home and am my own boss... So I pretty much don't have anyone to impress. I just don't like shaving in the morning, or anything. Occasionally when I go to the barber for a hair cut, I tell him to give me a quick trim to keep my wife somewhat interested I guess... But thats rare for me to go to the barber. I let the hair grow out long, and about once every 3-4 months I will show up for another trim when it starts hitting my eyes and blocking my view while casting. I tell him to give me another 4 month long hair cut, and he almost cuts it all off... HAHA

Shawn,

Nice job. I sat down and watched the full video, well done.


Static Test:
One thing I noticed when you were wrapping your double foot butt guide was that the feet didn't look like they were sitting flat on the blank (may have just been me, though). Don't be afraid to grab a pair or two of pliers and adjust the guide feet a little to get them to lay flat. It makes the guides easier to wrap, and helps distribute the pressure of the guide foot along the blank underneath.

As you found when you checked for the spine, a rod blank likes to flex in a certain pattern. Whether you use the spine of the blank or not is matter of personal preference (you can read for days about the pros and cons of building on the spine or straightest axis). Here is why:

Think of the guides as a set of handles. The line effectively grabs the handle and pulls on the rod. What you will find is that the rod will flex trying to minimize the distance between the handles, just like the old Ugly Stick commercials where you grab the ends of the rod and pull them together.

What the static test is all about is setting up your handles so that the rod will flex into its natural curve. The way this is done is to attach your tip top, and then hand weight directly from the tip. The rod will bend into its natural curve. The guides are then placed to get the line runs along the natural curve of the blank. This way, when you load the rod while fishing, it will tend to flex in the blanks natural curve rather than being forced into a shape (like the Ugly Stick Commercials). Keeping the line close to this natural curve also helps to ensure that you are not creating any areas in the blank that are going to experience unduly high amounts of stress that could reduce the lifespan of the blank.

Note: Tom has a great article about static testing in the Library above.

Joe

I honestly like watching the longer videos, but that's a personal preference I guess. But you'll quickly learn almost any custom built rod feels better than a factory built rod. But the good thing with having that long of a beard is when you run out of buck tail for tying flies you can just trim off your own beard... Lol. But check out some of the sponsors to the left, many of them have great rod kits all at reasonable prices for what you get. Get bit has probably the best service you could ever ask for. I've never had any bad experiences with customer service from rod building sites. And my bad, when I said epoxy I meant thread finish.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/21/2016 06:01PM by Michael Maclean.

Michael

Overall a fishable rod and solid first build. Just watch out - building fly rods is addictive!

You asked what you missed. I'll not tell you because it is more important for you to learn to identify errors and then correct them, not by trying harder, but by building smarter.

Try this. Put your rod where you can see it while doing something, anything, other than rod building and simply look at it. Do this for several days. Then make a list of the 3 most obvious errors - things that could be done better, made more attractive, etc. If you find more than 3 it is OK, but only write down the top 3. Then do the research as to how to correct those 3 items, and (this is equally important) why a different technique, tool, material, etc. that would most probably yield a better result. Lots of folks and sources to advise you what to do, and that is helpful. But pay special attention to those who can tell you why in terms of other than it works for them. If you follow this Rule of 3s you'll quickly improve and better yet learn how to self identify, correct and solve building problems.

Did I mention fly rods are addictive?

Donald, I think you meant to address that to Shawn