Hey all. Just getting ready to start my first build so forgive the new guy questions. Do y'all have a dedicated area to build or a portable setup? The only permanent area I would have is in the garage. Can I build in an area that isn't climate controlled? Only other option would be a temporary one in the house. Any thoughts? Thanks.

You will find that builders do both. The garage works for many, although best if you are not in area with extreme weather. Which option you choose, you want it to dirt and dust free!

Take a look at postings in the photos section under equipment & tools for some ideas.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/2020 05:05PM by Phil Erickson.

Will do. Thanks. I just saw the thread on humidity. I'm in south GA and don't think my garage will be clean enough either. I'll look for an inside setup.

Gary

Don't despair. I live in Fl and don't have the luxury of basement or a dedicated shop. I work in a small area of my garage. All the "dirty" work, drilling,sanding,cutting gluing grips, etc.is done in the garage. All the "clean" work is done inside. My wrapping stand

is 6ft long and totally portable; so I find a palce in the house to wrap the guides usually on the kitchen table and the finishing is done in the corner of the dining room on a small pair of folding snack tables.

It dosen't take that long to wrap and apply finish so tieing up a small area of the house for a short time is not an issue. I can always find a small area in the house I can set up to finish the rod, news paper or plastic sheet protects the floor so clean up is

easy and best of all it is done in a clean climate controled area.

Remember "Necessity is the mother of invention"..

Have fun

Eat in kitchen/dining room table. Dirty work in garage. I don't turn the whole rod to shape/prep grips.

John DeMartini Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Gary
>
> Don't despair. I live in Fl and don't have the
> luxury of basement or a dedicated shop. I work in
> a small area of my garage. All the "dirty" work,
> drilling,sanding,cutting gluing grips, etc.is done
> in the garage. All the "clean" work is done
> inside. My wrapping stand
>
> is 6ft long and totally portable; so I find a
> palce in the house to wrap the guides usually on
> the kitchen table and the finishing is done in the
> corner of the dining room on a small pair of
> folding snack tables.
>
> It dosen't take that long to wrap and apply finish
> so tieing up a small area of the house for a short
> time is not an issue. I can always find a small
> area in the house I can set up to finish the rod,
> news paper or plastic sheet protects the floor so
> clean up is
>
> easy and best of all it is done in a clean climate
> controled area.
>
> Remember "Necessity is the mother of invention"..
>
> Have fun

Thanks John. That's what I decided. Glad to hear that's what others do.

MO=st important IMHO - sturdy, level, work surface with a straight edge to facilitate tape measure, and shadow free, good lighting, if possible. Everything else can be improvised, or engineered. When I started, I looked at the hand wrapping set-ups available from Mudhole.com. and other places, grabbed a saw, and some number 2 1 X 4 pine, and fabricated my own hand-wrap setup. A little felt in the V let the blank spin smoothly, and protected the rod blank. It worked. The table was a 4 X 8 sheet of 3/4" plywood. You can even use a card table to set up your work station on. I agree with the - "Necessity is the mother of invention - comment.

Tight Lines, and frisky fish.

RJF

I came up with an easy way for extra space. I needed somewhere to do my finishing. Did not have a large area to accommodate yet another work surface for the limited use. My wrapping area was not long enough. I did have lots of storage shelves up to ten feet long.

I mounted four threaded metal pipe flanges to the front edge of the shelf. I then threaded in 18 inch sections of metal pipe. Then on top the pipe I got two four foot sections of laminate covered shelf about a foot wide. All items from the home center no cutting required. Took about ten minutes with the cordless drill and I had my eight foot area for finishing.

When done I just unscrew the pipes and store them and shelves. The metal flanges only stick out about an inch. No problem on a storage shelf in a work shop area. Even in a finished area of the home like a spare bedroom or office you could mount the flanges to the wall on the studs and paint them to match.

I use my garage for all, but I have a dust collection system and I installed a ductless heat pump as well so I keep it at 70 degrees. I also have a 10 ft work bench, alps wrapper/ rod dryer and mudhole tent with heater set at 76 degrees. I keep the garage clean and do all my cork turning, sanding and reaming first, clean up and then wrap and finish. So farr I have only built 4 rods but with the help of this forum they have all turned out great, with each one in succession being better, as one would suspect or hope for.

Keith Langford

I am fortunate to have had a spare room in the house that I finished off with white walls, white floors, and white ceilings. Very bright lighting throughout the entire room. I wanted a well lighted surgery when I went to work needing surgical lighting to build rods or to do one of my many other projects. This room works very well for all of my "clean work".

Prior to my finishing off this room in this way, it was a drab paneled room that I used for many years as a work shop and did a lot of wood related projects including cutting and sanding and even spray painting.

But, after the room was finished, I vowed to never do any job in this room that would include sanding, painting, or other dust and fume related tasks.

Rather, I use the garage for all of these tasks where I have saws, compressors, grinders, drills, hammers, and lathes. When done for the day, I sweep and vacuum up all obvious dirt and dust and then open both garage doors and use the 130 psi air compressor and an attached blow gun with a 4 foot wand to start from the back wall and ceiling and go through the entire space to blow out any dust, and dirt and shavings and clippings from the ceiling, walls, shelves and floor and out the open doors of the garage.

I always want a spot free floor, walls, and ceiling before starting another job in the garage whether it is rod building related, mechanical related, auto repair ,welding , construction related or electronic related so that if any object that is dropped on the floor, will stand out and be easy to find.

Everyone is different, but this system has worked out well for myself and my activities of my family and myself.

Best wishes.

A rod drying cabinet with integrated heating could help in a garage situation. I build this recently for my workstation in my basement which, while climate controlled, stays on the cool side

[www.rodbuilding.org]

You can really do it all in one area but you will need to be able to clean between different tasks. If you are limited to space and have to shape grips on your wrapping stand then you just do your grips first and anything that will make it dusty / dirty then vacuum it up the best you can before the next step of wrapping and epoxy. I do everything in the garage but do the grip shaping and sanding on one side and the wrapping on another. I do however will re-shape a grip, sometimes just because it doesn't look right. This will be after I have mounted it on the blank. I try to do most, if not all shaping on my lathe and not my rod wrapper but sometimes it can not be avoided. If you ever had a vacuum cleaner fail because the brush roller was no longer fixable, then keep it and just use the suction hose without the roller. You can set it up by your work station and always have it handy when you need it. They usually give you enough hose and extensions that it will reach anywhere around your work station if you can get close enough where it is out of the way when you don't need it. I actually have a couple that are plugged in and can easily clean up any debris when needed. Never had any problem with dust settling on my epoxy while it was hardening. The only problem has been insects if I leave my garage door open when it gets dark.

I do the dirty stuff outside on the porch. Wipe the rod down well with alcohol before bringing it inside.....hose the porch off. So basically get the grips and reel seat all fitted and glued outside.

Always felt trying to clean up inside and move quickly to wrapping and finishing will have some dust floating around in the air.

Oh, and make darn sure there isn't any furniture polish, endust, etc......which also makes it a little harder to be dust free.

Russ in Hollywood, FL.

Gary,
As many others, I perform all rod building operations in the garage; it would be nice to be able to separate the dirty from the clean work but I do not have the luxury. I just have to thoroughly clean up prior to wrapping and finishing. Michael Ward built a very nice, high-mounted curing cabinet but unfortunately, I do not have any wall space available. My solution was to fabricate the curing cabinet in three 4ft sections which nest inside one another to take less space when not in use. It features three 9 RPM motors, full-length LED lighting, heating is accomplished with a small computer fan blowing on an incandescent light bulb with full-length, dual-filtered air circulation and can accommodate rods up to 11’7”.
[www.rodbuilding.org]
[www.rodbuilding.org]

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.

Thanks for all the advice. Sounds like I may be working in the garage and then finishing at the kitchen table. This is my first build so I will take some of the suggestions and see what I come up with for the next one.