There is a lot of interest in finished rod weight on the forum, and recently I built a spin rod and weighed the components through the whole build process, which I found interesting. A little background, I place ergonomics and structural integrity above weight in my priorities, having fished with grips too small and repaired rods with loose seats and grips. I use size 17 seats, usually the Fuji DPSSD with the locking nut, not cut down in length, and up-locking.
Blank: MHX NEPS78MXF, IP 400, ERN 20.6, AA 76.5, 6 ½ feet length
Weight 1.439 oz. with Tiptop
Grips: Split grip, small ramps off front and back of seat, butt knob,
7 ½ inch exotic burl cork rings + 4 ¼ inch contrasting rings Weight .614 oz.
Seat: DPSSD size 17 with lock nut and full-length rigid
Polyurethane arbor Weight .952 oz
Total component weight = 3.005 oz unglued
Total assembled weight = 3.118 assembled with Rod Bond (I do not skimp on epoxy and use it liberally to assure good structural integrity, and yet total epoxy used = .1130 oz.
With keeper, minimal decorative butt wraps, and 8 inches of wrap epoxy, total weight = 3.157 (Thread, titanium keeper, and wrap epoxy = .039 oz).
Total weight of guide set (titanium KLH 16, 8, 5.5M, one KB4 and 4 KT 4’s) = .085 oz.
Weight of assembled rod with guides wrapped and 2 coats of CP = 3.266 (wraps and CP = .109 oz)
Weight of assembled rod after one coat of Gen 4 lite + a few touchups on the wraps = 3.277 (Wrap epoxy = .011 oz)
Final rod weight = 3.277 (I have always considered that my method produces rods that weight about 2 oz. more than the bare blank. In this case, about 1.9. I think this experiment shows that efforts to go light by skimping on epoxy and using small sections of arbors are short sighted.
I will link to a different rod using the same method.

[www.rodbuilding.org]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/2023 09:09AM by Michael Danek.

Everyone has an opinion , bottom line is build what ever way you think makes sense and others will do the same .

There is no wrong and right way it's all personal preference .

I try to build my rods as light as possible using quality components.

DS-69 Bushido, cork split grip, trimmed TVS seat with insert and locknut uplocking terminated with a WCS check no foregrip, Norm Miller hook keeper, Kr20 red. train 4.5 runners, 2 KBs, 9 guides + tip. BCgrey alconite. Blank weighed 1.8 oz. Rod weighs 3.5 oz.

Here are my lightest builds

SCV 76mlxf
blank weight: 1.7 oz.
Finished weight: 2.895
2.895-1.7=1.195 added weight


Elliott E-SJ73L-F
1/32-1/4 oz, 4-10 lb line
Blank: 1.355 oz.
Finished weight: 2.635
2.635-1.355=1.28 added weight.

These are both with Microwave nanolite guides, Split carbon fiber foam reel seat, TN style rings.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/2023 07:02AM by Dean Veltman.

How dare you add under 0.04 oz, or a tenth of one percent of your final build weight for unnecessary, performance killing, decorative nonsense ;)

I work towards a neat, strong epoxy job that wets out the drywall tape and has a little end overlap. That seems to me to be the best balance between strength and controlling weight. I tried the CFX carbon/foam insert bored to fit with a failure. The blank had a full layer of foam stuck tightly to it after removing the seat and grip. It fully appeared to be a part failure and not an epoxy failure. I went back to drywall tape. I wouldn’t expect an experienced builder to have a lot of margin for saving weight with epoxy as they probably haven’t globbed it on in many builds. I can’t think of a time I used epoxy in front of the fore grip. Saving a gram in the reel seat is going to be hard to notice.

For guides, I just match quality, performance, and price to the level of the blank. On an SCV or RX10 blank I usually go with Torzite. On an RX7 Immortal blank, I go Alconite or even LZR’s. On a United Composites saltwater blank I most often choose Alps Titanium for conventionals and Torzite for lighter spinning blanks. I’d happily go Alps on the spinning blanks if their design was more snag resistant. I don’t see putting heavier guides on pricey, lightweight blanks or expensive, lightweight guides on value blanks.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/2023 11:49PM by Kendall Cikanek.

The intent of my post was not to imply that this rod was particularly light, or as light as I could make it. The intent was to show what the contributions to the weight of a finished rod were, in detail. I had never taken the weights like that before and have never seen any details like this published before.

Thanks Michael for taking the time to weigh after each step then sharing the results.
Steve

Kind of puts a nail in the coffin of the 'I build for performance, not aesthetics' people who I've always thought just use that as an argument for generic rods because they don't like to (or can't) bling up a rod a bit lol! I don't go crazy with bling on my builds, but strongly believe that crafting a unique, visually appealing rod is a big part of what brings people to a custom builder. Thank you for taking the time to document - good stuff.

Thanks Michael. I get obsessed with weight up to a certain point. I started weighing each guide just to see what is actually lighter. In the end it is a full package with all the components working or not in harmony. I know I have made fly rods that were, what I would call heavy, but actually casted light in hand, whereas I have done lighter and they were a bit more fatiguing to cast. I believe this is where the balance comes in. I also think that a light rod should have light reel and there are are not that many choices with spinning reels. A few more with casting.

It’s worth considering that a feature’s effect on rod performance may extend to other factors besides its weight. I took a completely unbuilt 7’9” saltwater blank and put rings of 1/2 inch masking tape on the edges of planned guide under-wraps just to get a visual of the layout. I was stunned how different that fairly hefty blank felt and flexed with nothing but masking tape bands on it.

If you want to quantify one aspect of how weight on the blank affects dynamic performance then use True Natural Frequency. You will see the difference even between titanium and SS tiptops on some blanks. The difference between titanium and SS running guiides is apparent.

Here is a link to a thread I posted almost 2 years ago covering how much weight different aspects of a build added on a rod I built

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Nice work, David. I missed it.