I am trying to wrap a blank for a salmon fishing rod (family).
Today I started to wrap and got one guide wrapped (double foot) and was ground-filed for smooth transition from guide to blank. Phone rings and I get involved with the call.
Walk away and came back to find both sides of the guide wraps loose.
NOW I know i am not the sharpest rock in the box of river rocks, but sheesh!
So I redid it wrapped it loose on purpose (as expected it loosened up. Wrapped it again far tighter that i know i should-just don't feel comfortable wrapping that tight (the blank has a noticeable bend in it while wrapping, but I did. walked away and it creeped loose to a point when i went to the next guide it came loose while trying to wrapping the next one!
actually used guide glue to attach under the foot at one end- wrapped the guide and it came loose at the other end away from glued end

I am using a new to me brand thread- not naming them - until i can figure it out or someone has a good idea of what I am doing wrong because I sure don't understand. For 2 hours work I have only gotten 1/2 of a guide wrapped- These are double foot guides and i wiped the blank down with alcohol and let it air dry.

I have never had this problem previously with other threads in including metallic.

Just me or have I lost it?

Thanks for your info or suggestions.

Mark,
MY guess is that you do not havs a method to keep tension on your blank so that it doesn not reverse-rotate on you.

I installed strips of elastic waist-band material on each "V" of the wrapping uprights to prevent exactly what is happening to you.
Herb
CTS

i use a pacbay RW-XL new belt. I am bending the rod tip half while wrapping a good 1/4" but that's a guess it is noticeably bent while wrapping to a point i am concerned about breaking the thread while wrapping. I had finished one complete guide and walked away then came back and while wrapping one half of the guide the other wraps on the first guide loosened up.
Learned my lesson about keep the thread tension tight- I may be putting too much tension on it but I am an idiot it seems.
Thanks

Found out it a polyester thread

What brand and kind of thread are you using?

Mark Mulanax Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> i use a pacbay RW-XL new belt. I am bending the
> rod tip half while wrapping a good 1/4" but
> that's a guess it is noticeably bent while
> wrapping to a point i am concerned about breaking
> the thread while wrapping. I had finished one
> complete guide and walked away then came back and
> while wrapping one half of the guide the other
> wraps on the first guide loosened up.
> Learned my lesson about keep the thread tension
> tight- I may be putting too much tension on it but
> I am an idiot it seems.
> Thanks
>
> Found out it a polyester thread

Simply try another thread (that you have success with) and see if it is indeed the thread.

O.K. I misunderstood.
That happened to me when I wrapped a "Sexyloops" rod from Paul Arden.
The blank was more slippery than my CTS blanks and I needed to pull the tag end further under the wrap.
Herb

" I needed to pull the tag end further under the wrap."

I would try this. There is no reason why one should have to wrap so tightly that a significant bend is induced in a normal blank.

If it's loosening due to the wrapper reversing, the solution is obvious. If it's loosening at the starting end put more wraps over the thread before cutting the start thread, pulling it tightly before cutting.

If you suspect the blank is somehow too slippery, then wipe it down with Windex before wrapping.

I use polyester thread all the time with no problems.

the thread is a variegated thread polyester- stupid me didn't think of a l9nger tag end will give it a try and keeping my fingers crossed:

It had me frustrated to a point of throwing the spool away.

Going peel about 40 feet or so off and throw that away. I will try gluing it down under the the guide foot.

Thanks for the help and suggestions and thoughts.

If you are putting the pull out loop in line with the thread tunnel along the sides the guide foot, the thread tag can easily move to cause the wrap to loosen. Put your pull out loop on the back side of the wrap where the thread wraps will securely hold your tag end. This will prevent your wrap from becoming loose.

Norm

Mark,
Don't overthink the process.

When starting a new guide, I take the starting thread and run it about 10 inches down the rod so that it is out of the way. Then, I tape down that end, so that the loose end is not flapping in the breeze.

I will put about 10 wraps or so on the guide foot, and then come back up to the center of the guide and nip off the tag end. This means that I have about 10 wraps of thread on the tag end before moving on to the rest of the wraps or a different color.

With respect to tension. I set the tension on my tension device so that I can just barely rotate the wrapped guide on the rod blank when using two thumbs to move the guide. I wrap it tight enough, so that I can not move it up and down the blank at all.

Yes, I wrap with a lot of tension.

Also when wrapping I have a rod rest a couple of inches from where I am wrapping so that there is any time that the blank will ever indicate a bend. i.e. The rod rest is too close to the guide being wrapped to allow any blank bending at all.

Of course, the only instance when there would ever be much bending - no matter the rod rest placement is near the tip top of the rod blank on a lighter action rod blank.

Best wishes