Ice is already here for some and it's coming soon to the rest of us across the Midwest. I've been working on a few new rods for myself for the upcoming season. Last weekend, I wrapped my first "power noodle" and it was a challenge to say the least. After an hour's worth of frustration I absolutely couldn't manage to get the thread started and wrapped on the tip guide. I finally ended up abandoning my thread tensioner and i stuck my spool of thread in a bobbin and wrapped it that way. Question is, what do guys who wrap a lot of ice rods use?

Jay,
The simple secret to wrapping flexible blank sections or tips is to stabilize the section, very close to the area being wrapped.

A picture of the jig that I made for 5 cents to do the job.

Basically it is a couple of sections of fiberglass rod blank, slotted on the top and then inserted into a base made of plastic cutting board. The base is bolted to the base of the wrapper to stabilize the base. The flexible section is inserted into the slots and the wraps are easily completed.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Notice that in the base, I created a perpendicular slot, so that the base can be adjusted fore and aft to line up with any part of the blank. There are also multiple holes drilled into the base to adjust the spacing of the vertical rods to accommodate various spacing and guide wrapping needs.

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Also, I have made a bunch of these very thin, cantilevered rod supports, so that the area of the support is very thin and the extension allows one to use hands directly under the area of the blank being wrapped. The rollers are made from shower door ball bearing door rollers with an - ring in the groove of the roller. These rollers are only 1 inch in diameter and 1/4 inch wide, so small and easy to maneuver hands around the support for wrapping close to the support.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

[www.rodbuilding.org]

A typical picture of the roller that I used to make the rod supports:
[newreplacements.com]

Good luck

p.s.
For building ice rods, I use a different simple wood base for my wrapper. It is a simple wood 1x4 with a slot routed down the middle to hold the rod rest and holes on the end to bolt down the motor and chuck assembly.

A picture of the power unit that I use to turn rods - whether short ice rods or long surf rods. I use different bases, depending on the needs of the blank.

The small motor is inside the piece of slotted pvc pipe directly below the keyless chuck.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Check out the Face Book Page, " Ice Rods-Tips and Tricks" A little trick I use is to find a small (size 4) glow bead that is a touch larger than your tip top diameter, or ream it out a bit, and then slide it between the tip and the fly guide or guide you are using for the tip. secure it with a touch of super glue, and let it set up. Then go over the whole thing with Pro Paste mixed with glow powder, and turn it in the wrapper until the paste forms a nice bulb over the bead and secures the tip in place. The whole bulb will glow and light up under UV light/Low light conditions, and will show up really well against the ice or snow on the lake. I tight line when fishing and wrap most of my ice rods with Pro Wrap Glow thread. Good Luck

Check out on you tube Mud Dog Rods he has a set up that makes wrapping noodle tips way easier. I use this set up and no problems with a noodle tip