What's the safest/most reliable method for removing blank exposed type reel seats from rods for rebuild?
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> I'm thinking DS820-Blend > DS820-Blend 6'10" 4-8 1/32 - 3/16 MF > LIGHT > Thanks for the insight from the original! Given that the originals were built on a 1 power spin jig blank, can you give me some insight as to why you would suggest this dropshot blank in place of a spin jig? Just curious. I haven't ordered anything yet, so I'm not committed either
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Joe-- I apologize for my ignorance, but I'm pretty new to this (3rd rod). What do you mean by M frame vs. Y frame? I am planning to use pac bay minima guides mixed with fuji micros. Gary-- The SJ rod is quite a bit less expensive than the DS models, so I'll probably go with it. Plus I prefer a fast vs. xf taper for fighting fish on light line.
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Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I'll look at those blanks. In response to John, and in further request to all the rest, what I want to end up with is a rod that can throw very light jigworms/tubes/grubs (1/32 or 1/16 oz. head plus plastic), weightless plastics like 3"/4" senkos and floating worms, and small (1/8 and 3/16 oz.) crankbaits and topwaters. I want the final product t
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Well, I was going to buy one of those Ray Scott Sporttackle rods, when they went on sale for cheap, because I really love light tackle bassin'. Unfortunately, they are sold out. On the other hand, I have all the necessary tools to build myself one just like it. However, I have never handled one, so I have no idea where to start in terms of blank, guides, etc. I know they used very small guides,
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OK. I played with a 6'4" ML Quantum Tour PT casting rod today and really liked the length for small river fishing. Also liked the F action better than most EF rods I've handled. Could I just build a batson 6'6" MLF blank with 2" taken off the butt and get a close facsimile? Certainly would be light and cheap. Or would I be better off with an SC3 6'3" MLXF for more $$? Wo
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OK. Here's the deal. These blanks seem pretty similar in terms of speed (Batson .56 butt to a 5 tip, MHX .49 butt to a 4.5 tip), which scares me a bit, because I've heard folks say that the Batson XF blanks are similar to St. Croix's XF blanks (.4-4, .515-4.5), which I think are WAY too fast for my taste. I prefer Shimano XF and Loomis XF actions which are a bit slower than Croix. Does that ch
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Anybody worked with both these blanks and care to compare their relative actions for me? Thanks.
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Thanks for the replys! I wanted to clarify that I will be carrying more than 1 rod on these trips (probably 4) so this rod is primarily just for small spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, topwater. Let me know if that changes anyone's opinions. Also, will the 822.5 still be OK if I cut it down a couple inches? 7' is just a pretty long rod to handle on a small river...
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Hey all. I recently relocated to the Tulsa area and as I really like to fish from my kickboat, I'm planning to do a lot of floating of the Upper Illinois river for smallmouth this year. I love to throw pop-r's, 1/8 oz terminator buzzbaits, and 1/8 oz. terminator spinnerbaits in these situations as well as the standard tube, grub, fluke, senko baits. Though these are light baits, I still prefer
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Joe Vanfossen Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Nathan Parker Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > We get bass (not to > > mention the wipers) up to 5/6 lbs. around here > > often enough that I want all the hooksetting > power > > I can get with as light a tip as I can get away > > wit
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The IP popping rods from Batson say that they have a MF action. Is this accurate, or are they faster than advertised? I could cut one down 2" to get 6'10" or so, and that should work pretty good if the blanks are fast enough. We get bass (not to mention the wipers) up to 5/6 lbs. around here often enough that I want all the hooksetting power I can get with as light a tip as I can get
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My first casting rod build is going well and I'll post pics when it's done. However, I'm getting ready to order the goods for build #2, and I need some help with blank choice. Two finesse baits I throw a lot for bass are a 3.5" Strike King Finesse worm on a 1/32 or 1/16 oz. Gopher Tackle Mushroom jighead, and a 2" YUM Wooly Beavertail on the same 1/16 oz. jighead. These are, obviou
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Other here will have a LOT more experience than I, but I used old broken rod pieces and put them inside the butt of the rod I'm redoing, so they overlapped 4-5 inches (strength) and then used epoxy. It makes for some tricky measuring if you're doing a split grip but it seems to have worked. I'll let you know when I've logged a couple hundred hours fishing time on them how well they hold up :)
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I'm building "all on top" no spiral wrap here. I am thinking of using 6, 5, 4, then 3.5s on out to the tip. The rod is a medium-heavy fast. It was always fast action just a typo in my original post, and I just did the 2" extension to learn how to do them. I'm going to try a longer extension on a spinning rod next. This is a learning rod for me, so I'm just trying lots of things
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I'm re-building a 6'6" MH rod into a 6'8" MHF casting rod as my 1st rod build. The blank is all stripped down, extended 2", and ready to go, I"ve got a reel seat/foregrip all set up and I'm working on the rear split grips in my makeshift drill-lathe. I had a couple of questions about guides though: 1. With micros, do you use all micros or do you start with 2-3 traditional
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Well, I tore down 7 rods today, guides, cork, and reel seats gone. Two were broken ones I"m going to use for making reamers. Which parts of the rod do you guys like for reamers, and how long do you like them to be? The other 5 will be rebuilt in various forms, but first they need some additional thread work taken off, and then sanded down and re-finished with flat urethane. One will beco
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If it takes me 6 months to finish 1 rod, I'm okay with that. I don't want to let it cut into my fishing time, but it'll give me something productive to do in the hour or so after the kids go to bed besides watch TV, which I think is the biggest waste of time ever. If I just wrap 2-3 guides a week or something, that's ok with me. I like to do things right the first time.
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I guess my understanding was that if I was willing to sit there, I could hand turn my rods while they dried? Is this not the case? Also, I will likely order the flexcoat kit that comes with the syringes, brushes, mixing deals, etc. What's a burnishing tool? Also, my assumption was that the coarse round file was in lieu of the reamers. See, I'm a newb. I guess that's what message boards are
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To some extent my desire to re-build has to do with stewardship of resources. I have 15+ rods with nice blanks and high end guides but which either have poorly designed grips or are just not set up for the type of fishing I do (i.e. spinning instead of casting, etc) and I don't want them to just sit around for 25 years unused. I have a quiver of rods that I"m currently fishing happily with
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Well, I've been farting around, lurking, reading up, etc for about a year now on building custom rods. Mostly because I'm bored (life's full of those 2 hour gaps that are a bit too short to go fishing, and a bit too long to just do nothing. Laundry doesn't really take that long) but also because no one makes rods with split tennessee handles except quantum and the ONE they make costs $200. I'm
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I think you could use just cork rings and then sand/cut them to look like this, but the foregrip, is there a pre-formed grip that you could use to make this with less work and nicer looks than the cork rings? I like these grips and have a 6' ML spinning rod that I think I will rebuild like this. Would you just use a 7' straight rear grip then cut it down and sand it, and then use the cut off po
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Great news. I'm not going to be making oodles and oodles of these, so turning it every, what, 5 minutes or so, would be a much more cost effective deal for me. So what you guys are saying is that I can get started doing this for the cost of a new dremel (mine's broken), some plywood, a phone book, and some thread/epoxy? Can I use thread from the sewing store as well?
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explain to me this tensioning device? V blocks I can make in about 10 minutes from felt and plywood, but the tensioner and the rotating motor I see little way around unless someone has an idea.
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I may try it with the ultralight. Otherwise, I'll definitely be stealing guides off rods that aren't used. It's tough to do all that work when you can get a rainshadow blank for 20-30 and a tennessee grip for 8-20, and steal guides from old rods. Pretty much you can do a whole rod (once you have all you equipment/thread) for 50 or less. I do like that ultralight I have though, besides the han
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So....best method for getting reel seats/handles off? I'm going to start with a 5' ultralight that has an uncomfortable handle and too few guides, and a 6' ML that has the same problem. The ul will become a tenn. handle and the ML may become a casting rod for small SBs. I think getting the guides off will be easy but getting the handles off could be a trick. Any help would be appreciated.
Forum: rodboard

I just have all these rods that have seen little use (no salt) for one reason or another that I'd like to play with. The time is not the issue, I just don't want to throw away all those good guides and blanks. I don't like the grips on most of them, or they have too few guides, etc. I'm in this for the utility and the fun, not to produce art quality rods, at least not to begin with, so if the
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What's the best way to remove a grip/reel seat?
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I have some old rods that are factory rods, that I like the actions on but don't like the handles, or the guides, etc. How hard is it to rebuild a rod (strip it down and redo it) compared to building one up from scratch? Would seem a good way for a newbie to experiment cheaply and with minimal risk, unless there is some really difficult step. In some cases you'd already have a blank and guides
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2 more ?s for you Steve. 1 is about guides, most guys on here recommend never using a kit of guides, but since I'm a first time builder, I either need to us a kit or get some help on guide sizing. I would like to use a fly tip and possibly some fly guides toward the tip as well (I like the look and they are very light) any advice about this? Second, is it possible/advisable to make a tennessee
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