Fly rod application - The snake guide right below the tip top is giving me fits, anyhow it brings me to this question - What brand of thread do most of you all use? I have the Pro Wrap size A it doesn't want to lay right - Any tips or tricks would be helpful both on the thread and wrapping the skinny end of the blank. Thank you

I have had no trouble with Pro Wrap size A; there may be something other than the quality of the thread going on.

However, my favorite thread is Fuji Ultra Poly, size A.

The smaller the diameter of the rod becomes the more critical the preparation of the guide becomes.

Give Pac Bay as well as Fuji thread. Both great products.

[www.jannsnetcraft.com]

It's probably not the thread brand. In no special order of importance, thread tension, rod support locations, guide feet preparation, and how the guide is temporarily affixed while the wraps are started are all more critical the closer the guide is to the tip top. Again in no special order of importance thread tension cannot be too tight else the rod will bend causing you to add tension causing more bend etc.; lighten up a little. Locate the rod supports as close to the guide as possible while still being able to wrap. What little or sloppy guide feet prep you can get away on a butt section is going to be an issue way out at the tip. The guide needs to be so temporarily secured on the correct axis so as to prevent the guide from moving or slipping while the first several turns of wrap are made up the guide foot. Narrow masking tape, narrow pieces of rubber tubing, rubber bands are good candidates for this task. Hope this helps.

Personally, I prefer Hitena silk thread, followed by Fuji Ultra Poly thread, both in size A.

I like the way the silk thread lays, and burnishes into a smooth finish. If I want, I can do invisible wraps. It does require CP for the colored threads.

The Fuji is also a premium thread that just works, is strong, and easy to work with.

Tight Lies and frisky fish

RJF

i like nylon thread..it seems to have just the right amount of stretch for wrapping, packing and burnishing..

Wrapping the tip top on fly rods, especially light weight ones, is best done with blank support close to the wrap.

Like others above, I do not have a brand name preference in so much as material and size preferences. I wrap exclusively with silk threads these days, and prefer size 3/0 over larger diameters. A few companies make good silk thread for rod building. Fish Hawk is one, and VooDoo is another. The VooDoo 3/0 silk looks a bit thinner to me than the 3/0 Fish Hawk thread, but I could be misperceiving.

Also like others said above, I think guide prep, support placement, and tension matter at least as much as the material and size of thread you are using.

Like the other Gents have stated, its not about the brand, all the brands are good, personal preference when it comes to that. I'd lean more to tension, guide foot prep and how/where you position the blank to get the wrap started.

On fly rods, to me, it is not necessary to wrap the tip top. If you do it, it will hold better with more wraps over the tag end when starting and ending. On very thin tips it is difficult and usually looks a little lumpy, it will smooth out or level out with epoxy, try not to get too much or it will football on you. Keep it flat and make sure it doesn't develop a drip or sag, you may have to remove a little if it does. I use a small brush to apply epoxy because I can control it better.

Phillip,
You may have discovered the ONLY thing all rod builders agree upon; wrapping flimsy tip sections is a PITA! One thing for sure is that the blank needs to be supported quite close to either side of the wrap to limit flexing. I struggled until finally fabricating a fixture; maybe seeing mine will spark your imagination to build your own. [www.rodbuilding.org]
I agree with most that while we may have a personal preference for a particular brand of thread, most are variations on the same theme and all work well. I started building rods with ProWrap, it works OK, there is a good selection of colors, I have built-up a fairly large inventory, so that is what I use.

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

Thank you all - I tried a couple of different techniques and found one that worked and yes more support. I really appreciate all the comments. This is a great community

Hello All.

I still use mostly Gudbrod (I bought a load of it when they went out of business).

I'm thinking I might have enough to make it till I croak.


Tight Wraps & Tighter Lines.

Bob,

New Bern, NC.

use a fly tying bobbin like wrapping a hook shank..

A support that I use with very fine tipped rod blanks:

[www.rodbuilding.org]

[www.rodbuilding.org]

[www.rodbuilding.org]

These supports were made from a piece of plastic cutting board for a base.

The supports are made from cut off sections of fiberglass ice rods. The notch at the top was made with a dremel tool using an abrasive cut off wheel in the chuck.

The holes in the base are made slightly undersize and then the bases of the support rods are sanded with just a touch of taper to allow a nice tight fit of the support rods to fit into the support.

The bottom of the notch in the rod support ends up being the exact same height as the center of the power wrapper chuck to insure that there will be no issues with tilting up, or sagging down as one wraps.

If using a power wrapper with this sort of open ended up notch on the tip support, one needs to have the thread feed well below the rod blank so that the thread under tension does not pull the rod blank up and out of the notch during a wrap process.

But, it only costs about 50 cents to make the support and it does a very good job to support the fine sections of rod blank when doing a wrap.

On the base support, I drill a lot of holes that are relatively closely spaced, so it is easy to adjust the distance between the two support posts to give excellent support on the fine thin rod blank when wrapping.

If one has a rod support no further than 1 inch from either side of the guide, there will be no bending at all with the rod blank bending when the guide is wrapped, no matter the amount of thread tension that you use when wrapping the guide.

Take care