Hi all Im going down the rabbit hole and starting to build rods. I'd like to ask the seasoned builders here your opinion between power wrappers vs hand wrapping? I'm looking at getting an Alps setup and also like to know your opinions of the Alps vs the Flexcoat power wrapper?
Thanks very much, Im excited to get started and buy the appropriate equipment and get to building!
Cheers all,
Craig Snapp
Novice for now, but not for long! LOL

I have the older flexcoat power wrapper but will be selling it soon ad it's hard to get the blank completely straight without a little bit of wobble. I've also had a pacbay for a while which was a nice machine other then the plastic chuck. Years ago I got the mudhole hand wrapper and built a rod on it then put it away and didn't start building rods again for years. And went to the wrappers I just mentioned. And recently I got the Custom Power Wrapper and AL Engling's motor set up with his 3d printed roller stands. And I really like it alot more then the previous ones. Also you can always hand wrap on a power wrapper. But I would consider myself a beginner compared to alot of the guys on here. So this is only my opinion and what I've noticed so far. But if you see yourself getting into rodbuilding for the longterm then definitely invest the money in a power wrapper. It will also make your finishing much easier as it's easy to get nice straight lines with a power wrapper.

So I'm a hobby builder with a dozen or so done and a few in progress.

The biggest quality of life improvement for me was the track and stands when I went to the Alps vs the hand wrapper and free-standing "V" stands.

The power wrapper is great for under wraps or longer sections, but I still mostly wrap by hand. I do occasionally shape some grips on mine which is nice as well, but messy. But the track holding everything straight and level was a game changer.

Enjoy!

Craig,
Welcome to the addiction.
One man's ceiling is another man's floor; you need to be able to justify the expense of a power wrapper. When first starting-out, there are plenty of other costly supplies (a good inventory of thread as an example) which may be compromised if too much is spent elsewhere. No doubt about it, a power wrapper is a very nice luxury to have, especially if it is capable of turning grips as well = versatile / multi-purpose. Many are also employed for applying / curing finish. If one is considering a power wrapper, it seems silly to me to decide on one that is not the most versatile = variable speed, reversible, foot and hand operable, a minimum of 3 roller uprights, 4 being better and free, unobstructed access along the bed under the uprights.
Although I have not actually used any commercially available power wrappers, I researched the qualities of all of them before fabricating my own. In my opinion, the Flex Coat 777 offered the best features / design of all of them, even those costing much more. On top of that, John and Roger are knowledgeable, informative, helpful, involved in our community and just plain great humble people. They offer many other exceptional products as well. While their slogan may be “that’s how we do it”, I think that’s how all should do it.

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 Tyler, Kevin and Mark for your responses, very helpful and much appreciated! Im going to talk it all out with my business partner and then jump in feet first LOL I havent built one yet, but I already feel the pangs of addiction coarsing through me, time to make my decision and dig in. Thank you again very much, Im sure you'll see more of me out here working my way to making great rods!
Cheers all
Craig "RADO" Snapp ( my river name RADO as in coloRADO)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/2022 10:13PM by Craig Snapp.

If you know you will be building many rods and not just a few than I think a power wrapper is a great idea it just comes down to what a persons goals are . I wouldn't purchase one if I knew I wasn't going to be in it for the long term or if I just wanted to get my feet wet to see if I liked it.

Much of it depends upon the types of rods you will be building. Some take longer wraps than others. For instance, I only build fly rods which have wrap that are very close to the size of the guide foot. A power wrapper would take as much time to set up as it does for me to hand wrap a guide. This is especially true if one is doing guides with locking wraps. I have built many hundreds of them and never felt the need for a power wrapper! That said, if you intend to use a power wrapper for other purposes, it's another matter.

I wrapped for 10 years before buying my CPW, I could do it again without breaking my heart. My CPW is nice, but not necessary.

You can hand wrap with a power wrapper. You cannot power wrap with a hand wrapper. Go for the set up that gives you both options. Get the power wrapper.

Except for speed of operation I don't believe one system gives better results than the other.

Power wrappers evolve as a result of need. Most beginners start out hand wrapping and as interest or volume of rods increase the need for a power wrapper is usually the next step.

I wrapped my very first rod by hand.
After that experience, I vowed that I would never ever wrap a rod by hand ever again.
Hundreds of rods later, I have kept that vow.

I took a rod building class at a nearby rod shop.

At the rod shop that had a setup that they used for shaping grips. It was essentially a 10 foot long kitchen counter top with slots milled down the top to hold the rod rests and a couple of slots by the head stock to let a belt come through the counter top from under the top.
Under the counter top that had a 1750 rpm 1/2 hp electric motor that powered the head stock which was a 1/2 inch keyed chuck mounted in ball bearing pillow blocks.
Over the years they have shaped grips on thousands and thousands of handles.

So, when I came back to my location, I essentially used their idea to make a power wrapper.
I took a pine 1x10 10 feet long and used a router to route a series of non connected slots down the center of the board. I used a 1/4 inch bit on the router for the initial cut that went all of the way through the board. Then, I flipped the board over and did a more shallow cut on the slots with a 1/2 inch cutter on the router. This enabled me to insert 1/4 inch carriage bolts from the underside of the board and secure rod rests that were mounted on a piece of plastic kitchen cutting board. The 1/4 inch bolt, washer and nut secured the rod stands and have worked very well for all of the last many years.

With the bed of the wrapper constructed, then began my search for the perfect design and best way to mount and power a power wrapper. I started with sewing machines. I used sewing machine parts, motors and pedals as a starting point.
Then, I added multiple pulleys and belts to get better and slower speeds with better control. Then, I came across a reversible AC gear driven motor - and except for gear noise was the perfect solution. My main goals was the ability to have a very slow - i.e. 1 rpm speeds, with absolute control, ability to reverse with the flip of a switch and quiet operation.

As time went by, I moved on to DC motors for their ability to have easy speed control and easy reverse. Since then, better quality, quieter dc gear motors have become available and can make excellent power sources become commonplace.

With respect to a head stock, it is really tough to beat the Taig aluminum 3 jaw chucks with their ball bearing mounted shaft design. Many of todays new - improved power wrapper head stocks are simple knock offs of the essential Taig chuck and head stock design.

Then, of course there are the unique chuck designs that have been produced and sold by Flex coat for many many years and do an excellent job at a very reasonable price. If one likes to hand wrap as well as power wrap, then the use of the flex coat chuck with their integrated slip clutch is a very nice and effective way to go.

---------------------
For myself as time went by, my original wrapper bed took a significant warp that required me to use clamps to minimize the warps in the base and eventually caused me to search for another base. I found the replacement base in the form of a 2x4 aluminum channel 10 feet long. I stopped by a friends house on the way home from the steel yard and he used his full sized mill in his machine shop to mill disconnected slots down the middle of the bar to expedite attaching rod holders. Eventually, I added ball bearings and brakes on the underside of the channel to allow me to stay at one location at my rod bench and have the rod roll by my work station for a more efficient way to get the work done. For brakes I drilled a series of hole in the middle of the channel and tapped the holes 1/4x20 for threading carriage bolts through the channel. Then, I placed a rubber chair leg tip on the head of the carriage bolt and a knob on the top side of the wrapper bed to raise and lower the brakes as I work at different locations on the bed.

i.e. I am seated in the middle of my rod bench. I roll the rod to the first wrapping location, set the brakes, complete the wrap, raise the brakes, roll to the next location, set the brakes and continue until the rod is finished.
Then, when applying finish, I just use one finger to roll the rod up and down the rod bench to bring different sections of the rod into play for finish application and final inspection as I go through the thread wrapping and inspection process.

So, depending on what you want to do, the sky is the limit as to your own creativity. Create your own inventions and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Take care

This is all outstanding information and I thank you all very much!! I've now set my sites on a power wrapper and need to determine either a flex coat or Alps. The slip clutch on the Flex Coat wrapper seems like a great addition, but as an engineer for decades the Alps seems far more engineered and refined to the Flex Coat which has a DIY look to it. I want to make sure I invest in a quality product that will last. Any thoughts between the two?
Thank you all so very much!!
I posted a new thread Flex Coat power wrapper vs Alps to not muddy up this thread!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/18/2022 09:10PM by Craig Snapp.

I have always thought the Flex Coat images of the 777 do not come close to doing it justice , it does look like a slapped together DIY by those images.

My fingers were giving problems hand wrapping, this made it much easier. Finishing is a breeze.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/19/2022 10:21AM by Fred Zimmermann.

Chris

First of all, ouch. Second, it is true, the DC777 doesn't have sports car looks, but the focus is on getting the job done. OEM machine. It is more of a truck. Powerful, durable, and ergonomic. We do use things like electrical boxes, covers, and switches off the shelf because why re-invent the wheel and drive up cost.

We have just added new features of 4 thread spool holders standard to the control board, foam ring insert to the self adjusting chuck for better centering and durability and teflon washers to both tension devices for coarse metallic thread.

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

Biggest benefit to me is having the butt secured. Having it steady allows the thread to track better. I have a Flexcoat even though I do like 3 jaw chucks. Maybe I can repurpose the old southbend or have the nephew print me a mini chuck. The newer DC motors are very nice. The 3 jaw are much faster to me as it is all sizes.

That said, for flyrods, I would only use power on longer ferule wraps. Guides I do by hand. Inshore rods, mostly by hand. I also don’t like finishing under power, as I like to reverse and twirl the blank back and forth in my fingers . Probably just old and set in my ways. I tried finishing one under power this am, nope, still don’t like it. ;)

John , I decided to post my comment after the OP posted the below comment :

" As an engineer for decades the Alps seems far more engineered and refined to the Flex Coat which has a DIY look to it"

My comment was not to criticize the outstanding 777 wrapper , my comment was trying to make clear that the images of the 777 are mediocre at best and that wrapper is far far more professional and advanced than what the images project .

When I first went to the FlexCoat website a few years back to see what the 777 was about I was absolutely convinced it was made out of wood , it turns out I was wrong it's high quality machined aluminum .

First impressions are important and my first impressions of that wrapper were not good but that's only because the images imo were less than stellar & I mistakenly believed it to be far less than it actually was.

Who knows how many others were mistaken also but it appears Craig Snapp the OP by his last post also got a DIY first impression . That's unfortunate .

Again , not criticizing the greatness of the 777 , just the images attempting to showcase it.

I have built over 100 rods since starting this "hobbie", all wrapped by hand. There have been a few times I wished I had a power wrapper, mostly for long wraps for various reasons, but not the norm for me.

Steve

I wrap guides by hand and use my DIY power wrapper to turn grips and rejuvenate grips.

John DeMartini Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I wrap guides by hand and use my DIY power wrapper
> to turn grips and rejuvenate grips.
I wouldn't have it any other way.

My "lathe" is a B&D plug in drill, an old FRP reamer with the paper removed, a vice, and a metal CRB rod building stand with a hole drilled at the correct height. LOL!!!!!!