Want help with Spine finding/ guide spacing on NFC 805-4 Iconoglass Fly Rod

Haven't built one of these before. Is finding the spine important? And what about guide spacing/ size for this 8' 5 wt. fly rod?

Any suggestions for guide sizing, spacing? And wrap thread sizes. And difference from usual graphite rods, or go silk and lighter?


Any help is appreciated. Thanks... Sam Slack

A fly rod is just another rod. Build it the same way and use the same static spacing and lay-out (if you do that on your other rods). Most fly rods will benefit from the use of nothing larger than size A thread. Keep the wraps short.

Spine orientation isn't important and in fact if you want to have the maximum deadlift capability of the blank at hand, you want to orient the rod on its straightest axis ( [www.rodbuilding.org] ) Actual research and data trump myth. But do what you want - the spine is so unimportant that you can put it anywhere and the rod will still perform just fine.

NFC may have guide sizing and spacing recommendations listed on their website. You can tweak from there as you wish.

..........

Thanks Tom... I will check it out.

Sam
I always ues size "00" thread on all running guides - as well as strippers on lighter blanks.
What color is the blank?
Herb

I just finished building one of these.

Spine: Roll each section on a flat surface to find the position it is "tip up" and mark them as the top. This is how I do what Tom mentions about straightest axis.

Guide spacing: Two line static test. [www.rodbuilding.org]

Guide size: I went 16, 3, 2 with 1 runners. They were REC Recoil and I sized based off the REC recommendations for their guides.

Threads: I used the same size A thread I use on my bass rods. Nylon.

The benefits of spine finding are cosmetic, not practical. As long as all rod components are securely attached a rod will cast to the same spot given the same physical input.