The days are longer and I've picked up a project to finish.

I like to have my wrap widths for each guide foot somewhat uniform, about 9mm on the rod I'm working on right now (4 piece 5 weight)

I have calipers of course, and a piece of thick paper cut to that size that I use as a quick reference.

I'm just curious who's got tips or tricks get that that uniformity. I'm assuming there's a group that says "don't do them uniform width", I guess I'd like to hear that opinion as well.

Many thanks -

As the rod tapers the thinner wraps kept the same length as the butt wraps look funny to me. I like them done in proportional length when they can be.

I agree with Spencer. I use a metric steel rule to keep the same measurement off the guide foot but as the guides get smaller the over all length of the wrap gets smaller.

Guy Taylor
Lucerne Valley, CA

I use REC single foot recoils. Many times the feet are different lengths after prepping.
I place the shorter feet towards the tip.
Wraps are correspondingly smaller towards the tip.
Of course, smaller guides get shorter wraps.
Herb

Over time I have morphed into just starting the wrap about 2 threads beyond the guide foot. Larger guides have longer feet so the proportion is still there to some extent.


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Great information- thanks so much.

Tom, your method is interesting, must make for a clean look-

Thanks to everyone

I do like TK, but start 4 wraps before the foot, and disregard the thought of equal widths.

Ditto on Tom's method. I always start at the foot of the guide and I generally start about 4-6 wraps before the end of the guide foot. But, depending on the rod, I may use less or more, but once I have started n a particular rod, I will keep the wrap count equal for each and every guide. Thus, because small guides have shorter feet and larger guides have longer feet --- the short guides will have a shorter wrap and vice versa for longer guides.

Tom,
Your’s is a very good question; how you want to derive a conclusion is debatable.
If you make all your wraps precisely the same measured length, say .5in, those toward the tip will appear to be longer simply due to optical illusion (skinny appears longer while fatter appears shorter). To offset the inevitable illusion, one must employ some creative measuring magic. While the feet on larger reduction guides tend to be longer and will automatically produce a progressively smaller wrap length per size, runners of the same size do not benefit accordingly. A bit of experienced, creative, progressive length adjustment of the wrap will counter the illusion. While it is not an exact science (at least as far as rod building goes), it can be done if accepting the parameters; a few rotations less per wrap while getting closer to the tip (basically) will assist.

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

If you spend some time in the photos section the vast majority of wraps are exceedingly long including running guide wraps. Not all by any means but a lot more than I expected to see but each individual will have their own reasons for this and it's their build so to each their own as they say . Take breaks while you're wrapping and look back at what you have done so far to make sure everything is in order because I have made the mistake of completing a build only to realize I screwed something up and now I have to redo something again.


If you want the best possible performance from your completed build keep the wraps as short as possible ESPECIALLY in the upper half of the rod . Longer than necessary wraps also require more epoxy to cover them and this can be really detrimental to a rods performance because that extra weight really ad's up especially with running guides. As far as measuring my wraps I rarely do it because I have a good eye and can tell quickly if something is off even by just a little amount .

Ditto on Tom and Phil's method. The shorter the feet the shorter the wrap, and if one starts all the wraps with a uniform, small, distance from the foot, it's easy to keep them uniform. The most I prep guide feet is just a few "wipes" with 150 grit sandpaper to give the foot a little bite for the thread.

I too use a consistent length of the wraps leading up to the guide foot, except when a double-foot guide has feet are of different lengths. Then I may adjust the lead wrap to even out the overall wrap length.

When the guide feet are equal lengths, I will sometimes place a band of 1/8" masking tape at the tips of the feet, then another band adjacent to the first band and remove the first band, By using the tape as a "bumper", I then have a consistent 1/8" wrap leading up to the guide foot, regardless of the size of the thread. I also use a variation of this method to make underwraps extend a consistent amount beyond the guide feet.