After long last I have a dedicated shop in my basement - my rod wrapping bench is a 2'x8' sheet of AC plywood on a 2x4 frame. The back side is bolted to the wall studs and the front legs are 4x4 posts. It's a nice, solid bench. I'm looking for ideas on a full length, articulated bottom rail that is rigged to be able to depress and activate the wrapper foot pedal from anywhere along that 8' length. I seem to recall an old issue of RM that had Tom's mobile rodbuilding base in it - not sure if that is scaleable to my situation or not, I don't have that issue of RM. Does anyone have any example or advice?

Thanks!

The two foot control systems detailed in RodMaker will work for your size bench (any size, really). The trick is in the no-stretch mechanism. The article was recently updated and published in newer issue of the magazine.

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Thanks Tom - which issue, and is it available for order?

Hello Rick & Tom.

Here are a few articles you can look up.

Volume/Issue..............Article.....................Author..................Page.
1/3 Foot Control, Lathe, Long . By Buddy Owens. 20
18/2 Lathe: Variable Speed Foot Boards For Your Power Wrapper Bench. By Tom Kirkman. 16
25-1 Feature: Power Wrapper Variable Speed Foot Boards By Tom Kirkman . 14


Tight Wraps & Tighter Lines.

Bob,

New Bern, NC.

Thanks, Bob.

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No problem, Tom.



Tight Wraps & Tighter Lines.

Bob,

New Bern, NC.

Tom - might you have 25-1 available for a back issue order? I don't see it on the RM site :-)

Rick,
Great thought.

But, you might consider the following:

Rather than moving along the rod as you build - have the rod move in front of you as you remain stationary.

Granted, to do this, one needs the length in the room to be able to move the power wrapper back and forth over the bench.

But, if you have 5-6 feet of room on each end of a rod, the rod can be moved 5 feet in either direction to effectively wrap up to a 10 foot rod without moving.

I first implemented this idea by using board rollers on each side of a short table on which I had the wrapper resting.
This evolved to a long bench with a one piece power wrapper bed, with rollers made of skate board ball bearings to allow the bed to move. Then, I added brakes to lock the wrapper in place at any location.


By using this technique, I essentially keep my work station in one place with tools, wrapper controls, foot pedal and high intensity lights and magnification remaining stationary. Each part of the rod can be moved past the work station as the build moves up and down the rod. The only unique thing needed with the power wrapper is a longer cord from the wrapper motor to a stationary control box for the motor power.

Rick,
I would like to give you one small note of caution with respect to a full length pedal control.
Please do a mock up of your plan before you do the final build and test it.

The issue is sensitivity:
Some pedals for power wrappers are very sensitive. Some pedals for wrappers are not very sensitive at all.
But, if you currently have a wrapper with a pedal and are content with its rod speed control; be sure to do a mock up of your full length rod pedal control setup - before you do the final installation.
You may find - depending on the pedal and the pedal control extension design and implementation, that you end up not being able to build rods as well as before because you lose overall controll of your wrapper.

Just test, before final implementation.

p.s.
A picture of the wrapper bed made of aluminum channel with rollers and brakes for stationary builder location as the rod is moved by the builder.
[www.rodbuilding.org]

p.p.s.
A picture of my first power wrapper with wrapper movement using board rollers stands that are normally used in work shops when sawing boards on work shop saws.
[www.rodbuilding.org]

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Enjoy your new rod bench, and may it work well for you in your future shop activities.

Barry Thomas did a lot of creative work a few years ago:

Here is one end of his full length foot pedal extension:
[www.rodbuilding.org]

[www.rodbuilding.org]

[www.rodbuilding.org] -- if you look on the right hand end of the picture, you can see the link that Barry has used to connect the foot pedal to his pedal board. The pedal is located on the underside of his rod building bench.

Here is a good picture of the entire foot pedal extension from Barry Thomas.
[www.rodbuilding.org]

This is a close up view of how Barry Set up his foot pedal and the bolt that causes the pedal to move when the pedal extension, and linkage cause the bolt to move:

[www.rodbuilding.org]

==============================
Although Barry is not an active rod builder any more, he certainly was a very creative man with lots of wonderful ideas.

Best wishes Barry.

my pedal board is hinged at the back and sits on top on the foot pedal. It is pulled upwards by bungee cords at each end when i take my foot off. Works great. I will try to post a picture. i do agree that a sliding work station would be even better but i have not worked that out yet

/Users/eric/Desktop/IMG_4682 2.HEIC

Eric,
Please convert your .heic picture to Jpeg and then sign on to the photos section of this forum and upload the picture to the equipment section of the photo tab.

Thanks much

i can't seem to figure out how

Eric,
If you are on a Mac, do the following:

Convert HEIC to JPG on a Mac using Preview.
Use the Preview app to open the HEIC image.
From the top menu, select File and then Export.
You will see a Format drop-down menu. Use it to select JPG as the format.
Give your new JPG photo a name and choose where you want to save it.
Click Save, and you're done.

If one a windows based machine, do the following:
Here is a free file converter:
[www.nchsoftware.com]

Hi Roger - so i finally got the photo converted to jpeg (i'm a bit computer challenged) ...... now i can't seem to upload it. Do i need a separate login ID for the photo section ?

The photo page is not part of this website. It's just another photo hosting platform, so yes, you'll have to register there. I always recommend using the same log-in you do here so that it's one less thing you have to remember.

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sorry, but i really can't figure this out..... how do i upload the photo. I tried drag and drop but it doesn't seem to work

One you log in there is a button that says "upload photo." Just click on that and follow the prompts.

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