It’s that time of year again and we’re starting our ice rod builds. I have always used a fly guide wrapped on the tip but, as you all know, it’s really a pain - especially on noodle rods. I’ve decided to try some very small tube fly rod tips on some this year. My question is since these tubes are so tiny, how do you glue them? Hot melt would seem to be difficult and I’ve never used quick set epoxy but that may be the best. Anyway, please let me know what you use. Thanks again!

Chuck

><))))">….><))))">….><))))">….Just Fish

Prior Lake Rod Building Guild
Instagram @pl_rod_building_guild

I use two part epoxy easy to mix and apply, no heat equipment needed. Gives plenty of time to handle and align.

A little difficult to remove on a rare occasion a tip has to be replaced but the results are worth it.

Have fun

I use the quicker setting Rod Bond to glue on ice rod tip tops. As delicate as most noodle rods are, the potential need to be able to remove a damaged tip top guide is extremely unlikely - the rod tip will probably be toast if something significant enough to damage the tip guide occurs. One thing to look out for with epoxy is that if the tube is a snug fit it will trap air in the tube and push it back part way off, so hold it in place for a few minutes for it to set up enough to stay put.

Wrapping fly guides on ice rod tips is easy since I built a rod tip support for my wrapper, and easier yet since I've been Super Gluing the guides to the blank - plus the guides always fit and match the other guides.

Good luck.

Our Tip Top Adhesive will do the trick. Easy to use, very durable and easily replaceable. Here is a video:
[flexcoat.com]

Flex Coat Company
Professional Rod Building Supplies
www.flexcoat.com

Chuck,
Really easy to glue tips on tiny ice rod tips.

I use the identical method to glue on ice rod tips as I do for all of the other larger rods that are built.

I use the Flex coat hot melt tip adhesive.

I use a couple of different sized pieces of piano wire to do the task.

To hold the bulk glue I use a piece of piano wire that is about 1/16th in diameter.

For the actual gluing of the tip top I use a piece of piano wire that is smaller, - about 1/32 inch in diameter.

For heat, I use an alcohol burner burning 95% denatured alcohol. I do not use the 50-60% isopropyl alcohol because this lower % alcohol burns with a yellow sooty flame and turns everything black.

I first use a razor knife to cut off a chunk of hot melt glue, say about 1/2 inch long. Then, with the tip sized correctly for a nice match on the tip I am ready to go.

I take both of the pieces of piano wire and on my 1x30 inch belt sander, I sand a fine point on the tip of both of the wires. To make the point nice and even, I chuck the 6 inch long pieces of piano wire into my variable speed drill and while spinning the wire, I bring the point against the spinning belt on the sander to give both pieces of wire a nice long sharp tip.

The larger wire is used as a handle for the bulk glue. So, I first use the burner to heat the tip of the larger wire nice and hot so that I can plunge it deep into the piece of hot melt glue and now I have glue on a stick - so to speak. This just makes it convenient for me to hole and use the glue for gluing on multiple rod tips.

Then, I heat the tip of the smaller piece of piano wire that I use for glue application in the burner and also heat the side of the bulk glue to soften it and while spinning the small piece of wires in my fingers take and put a swipe of glue on the tip of the smaller piece of wire.

Then, with the rod mounted in my power wrapper, I slowly turn the rod. As the rod is slowly turning, I heat the glue that is on the tip of the small piece of piano wire and swipe a thin layer of glue on the tip of the ice rod.

Then, insuring that I have adequate glue on the tip of the small wire, I hold the small tip with a pair of locking forceps, with the forceps clamped on the wire loop of the tip. I heat the glue on the end of the small wire, and also heat the tube of the small tip to be applied and insert the coated sharpened tip of the small wire into the small tube of the rod tip to insert a layer of glue on the inside of the tip.

Then, I take a pass of heat under the coated rod tip and also the loaded tip top to melt the glue inside the tip top and on the tip of the ice rod and quickly place the tip top in place. I stop the rod from turning and then quickly align the tip with the rest of the guides and insure that the tip top if fully pushed onto the tip of the rod. I also keep a clean craft stick handy and if any glue has squeezed out of the tip, I will heat the tip just enough to soften any excess glue and use the craft stick to pull it off and wipe the tip top and the tip of the rod blank clean of any residual glue.

This entire operation, when one is set up takes about 30 seconds for a tip top that is well adhered to the tip of the rod with really no issues at all.

The typing of the procedure takes much more time that the actual glue and tip application.

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In addition, if I have a really small tip on the rod blank and do not have a snug fitting tip top on hand, I will just use my florescent colored thread that I use for all of my ice rod tip wraps to build up the diameter of the rod tip so that the slightly large tip tube is a nice fit. Depending on the amount of space required, I will make a single, double, or possibly a triple pass of rod wrapping thread to increase the diameter of the tip so that the tip top will be nicely centered on the tip of the rod when the tip top has been applied and glued in place on the ice rod.

The key thing about doing this wrapping and tip top application on very fine tipped ice rods is to have a rod tip support that is within a couple of inches of the tip and the location where you are applying glue and or wrapping thread.

I use a simple vertical piece of fiberglass ice rod blank with a notch in the top sized to the size of the rod blanks in the tip area that are inserted into a piece of plastic cutting board that is secured to the wrapper base.

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Up here in the upper midwest where the winters are long and dark and fishing is frequently done in shantys with low light, I always put about a 2 inch wrap of very visible florescent thread on the tips of the ice rods. When fishing, one is looking at the tips of the current crops of today's ice rods for that slight movement that signals the bite of a fish. In low light as is often the case when fishing, the florescent thread like pink, orange, or glow green - are a great aid in seeing the slight movements of the rod tip on a good bite.

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The tip top gluing method that I have outlined, is very simple to implement, easy to execute and so far over many many rod builds, fool proof.
The key part of this system is to have glue on the tip top of the rod blank. Glue on the inside of the tip top to be attached, and then heating both of them at the same time to give a secure fool proof bond of tip top to the tip of the rod.

This method works very well for rod tips and blanks of all sizes. For larger rod blanks, I use a piece of piano wire that is somewhat larger for quicker and easier application of the larger quantity of hot melt needed for securing the tip top to the rod blank.

Take care

You can get PIANO WIRE at any MODEL AIR PLANE hobby store in different sizes

William Sidney
AK

I've found that one of the most important things regardless of the tip top is to make sure the the adhesive goes inside the tip top. Whether you use a piece of hot melt inside the tube or a pick to fill a tube with epoxy, regardless of how it gets there, you know you did it right when a little epoxy squeezed out of the top of the tube toward the ring.

I like Flex Coat's 'How We Do It' videos. Roger is full of great tips.

A couple things that I do to help alignment with my hand wrapper. For spinning rods and guides on top casting builds, I'll take the handle, spool, and rotor off of a spinning reel and mount it in the seat as a counter weight to keep the reel seat oriented correctly. For spiral wraps, I'll lay a small level across the top of the reel seat. To get the tip top to hang straight down, I'll put a loop of thread on the tip top and use a 1/16-1/8oz weight to pull it vertical.

My astigmatism gives me just enough grief that I trust gravity and a level a bit more than my eyes on the alignment.

I started using the small tube tiptops and the guys I've been building noodle rods for hate them. They say the extra weight from the tube affects the rod to the point of aggravation. They ask me to go back to using the regular single foot wires for the tips.