What brand of power rod wrapper do most of you prefer? There are a few brand names. I know some are homemade as well but what would be your favorite

Phillip,
You are opening Pandora’s box with your question. It simply boils-down to personal preference but that cannot be determined until one understands and acknowledges precisely what their specific preferences actually are. Foremost is the wrapping direction. The majority of common wrappers operate with the top of the blank turning toward you. I do not like it and prefer the top of the blank turning away from me as with the majority of commercial / production wrappers. I also find “flexible thread tension rods” to be a nuisance and unneeded. The roller uprights should NEVER interfere with the movement of thread carriage along the entire length of the bed. That being said, I could not find an acceptable wrapper for sale so I fabricated my own = hence it suits my preferences perfectly.

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

Hello Phil, I don't know if its available but I prefer the one that has the wireless foot pedal and without rod stands.

Dennis J. Danku
(Sayreville,NJ)

I bought a pac bay 10 tears ago i use it on about 100 rods a year have had no problems with it. I did get the chuck upgrade when i got it which i would recommend . For the price i think it was a good buy. I have though about buying a Renzetti but i have not done it.

I purchased an Alps that works very nicely. The only issue I've had with it is that the chuck jaws won't tighten small enough to hold the the very thin rod tip. I had to build a little arbor of masking tape to get it to hold. However, you normally wouldn't be trying to place that end into a chuck. Other than that, It's been a solid unit.

Tight Lies and frisky fish

RJF

Note:
If one really wants to hold a small rod blank, one can purchase an extra pair of chuck jaws that have pointed tips which will allow the chuck to hold even tiny rods. But, that is a very rare event and the larger ends on the jaws with an inner facing concave jaws, does a wonderful job of holding the tinn rod blank.

But, another way that works very well is to take an undrilled cork ring. Then, drill a hole in the center of the cork ring that is a bit smaller than the blank section you are wishing to hold. Insert the cork ring into the chuck, then insert the blank into the cork ring and make the chuck tight.

Best wishes

There is all kinds of way's to skin a cat , build it up some how TAPE , CORK, RINGS , wooden stick you name it , they all will work to get the job dun
[ skin a cat ?? ] just an old saying , don't do it ,

William Sidney
AK

roger wilson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Note:
> If one really wants to hold a small rod blank, one
> can purchase an extra pair of chuck jaws that have
> pointed tips which will allow the chuck to hold
> even tiny rods. But, that is a very rare event
> and the larger ends on the jaws with an inner
> facing concave jaws, does a wonderful job of
> holding the tinn rod blank.
>
> But, another way that works very well is to take
> an undrilled cork ring. Then, drill a hole in the
> center of the cork ring that is a bit smaller than
> the blank section you are wishing to hold. Insert
> the cork ring into the chuck, then insert the
> blank into the cork ring and make the chuck tight.
>
>
> Best wishes

I was using the convex (pointy) rubber assembly, ant the jaws still wouldn't close sufficiently to grip the thin blank tip. As Bill said, just build up the blank in whatever way suits you to allow the chuck to grip it.

Tight Lies and frisky fish

RJF

Robert,
I use Taig 3 inch 3 and 4 jaw chucks:

[taigtools.com]

I use the reversible aluminum soft jaws when working on rods:

[taigtools.com]

Notice, if I put the jaws on the chuck with the points of the jaws facing inward, the points of the jaw come tight with each other enabling the total grasping of any small nail or rod blank.

If I am using the jaws for general rod building, I reverse the jaws to have the wide ends of the jaws facing inward.

However, before doing this on a new set of jaws, I use a rotary mill to mill a concave equal surface into the formerly square end of the jaws. I mill the surface using a 1 inch diameter mill. This work results in a jaw chuck end with an concave surface with about a 1 inch diameter.
The end result is that the jaws do a really great job for holding the typical rod grip of a diameter in the 1 inch area.

If building off shore and or Musky rods, that have a much larger diameter grip - I will use a 2nd set of jaws that I have modified using a 1 1/2 inch mill to shape the end of the aluminum jaws. Again, a nice large gripping area that gives an excellent grip with little to no marking on the grip of these larger rods and rod grips.

roger wilson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Robert,
> I use Taig 3 inch 3 and 4 jaw chucks:
>
> [taigtools.com]
> sories/general-parts/page/5/
>
> I use the reversible aluminum soft jaws when
> working on rods:
>
> [taigtools.com]
>
> Notice, if I put the jaws on the chuck with the
> points of the jaws facing inward, the points of
> the jaw come tight with each other enabling the
> total grasping of any small nail or rod blank.
>
> If I am using the jaws for general rod building, I
> reverse the jaws to have the wide ends of the jaws
> facing inward.
>
> However, before doing this on a new set of jaws, I
> use a rotary mill to mill a concave equal surface
> into the formerly square end of the jaws. I mill
> the surface using a 1 inch diameter mill. This
> work results in a jaw chuck end with an concave
> surface with about a 1 inch diameter.
> The end result is that the jaws do a really great
> job for holding the typical rod grip of a diameter
> in the 1 inch area.
>
> If building off shore and or Musky rods, that have
> a much larger diameter grip - I will use a 2nd set
> of jaws that I have modified using a 1 1/2 inch
> mill to shape the end of the aluminum jaws.
> Again, a nice large gripping area that gives an
> excellent grip with little to no marking on the
> grip of these larger rods and rod grips.

I don't hgave the milling machine, but am impressed. For the few rods I'm building, I'll kust avoid having to grip the tip, or build it up. I'm sure your example can help others. Thanks.

Tight Lies and frisky fish

RJF

Great topic.

Ours is awesome and re-designed. It starts with our DC powered variable speed motor that is reversible and has a slip clutch. Here is a link and video:

[flexcoat.com]

[www.youtube.com]

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

IMO, the new Flex Coat wrapper should always be included in any discussion of the "standard" list of power wrappers. Unless you wrap at 150rpm and never make a mistake, you'll be way better off with the Flex Coat.

I talked to John Cates in depth about what I wanted and his Flex Coat DC-777 fit the bill. The rod wraps away from you, the rod holders are mounted horizontally so the thread carriage and finishing carriage slides under everything and the motor with foot pedal is just about right, as in very close to hand wrapping. the slip clutch is there if you need it, which you will. On top of it all, it is made in the US and he is someone I can call anytime if I have a problem or if I need some support. What astounded me was there was not a learning curve. On my hand wrapping I was wrapping left to right on all of my wraps as I could just flip the rod the other way for double foot guides and continue from left to right. however, on the power wrapper, you need to wrap both ways (left to right and right to left) so I went ahead and started doing this while my wrapper was on back order. It was a seamless transition. I can't say how good the other wrappers are out there but most of them had vertical rod holders and I was already not happy with my vertical hand set up, having to move everything around each mount and moving the mounts themselves to get them as close as possible to the wraps was a not pleasant for me. The horizontal ones on the DC-777, you just flip up the top wheel and slide the mount where ever you want, not having to move your thread carriage and other stuff out of the way. And finishing, it's a breeze as you can dial in the exact speed that suites you. Call John, a lot of good folks on this forum encouraged me to do so and I am glad I did.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/14/2021 09:38AM by Fred Zimmermann.