Everyone is a critic. This is one of the frequent visitors to my shop. Consider yourself lucky if dust is your only finish issue...
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One of the challenges of an outdoor tropical shop. If he jumps on a rod as the finish is curing, I will have a new logo...
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Can you see the patch that was done the length of the inlay(left to right)? Neither can I...my lady worked with an Exacto for 2 hours and made an invisible seam, covering a small gap.
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30 mm guide...not burnished or trimmed.
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Ready for packing
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Unpacked, un-burnished diamond wrap
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Dark teal under wrap in front of burl cork foregrip
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Open spiral
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One of Mudhole's holographic reel seats on my daughter's rod
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Rod for my 6 year old daughter
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Two-tone painted blank, glitter in finish.
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My hands down, #1 go to choice for this fish in this range (and smaller and larger too) is the Castaway SWA P905. I have made and sold a ton of rods built on this blank, and use 3 of them myself. Flats guides love them. They make a versatile spinning rod. for reels in the 2500-4000 size. They are great with surface plugs, soft plastics, shrimp, spoons and live finger mullet. And even thoug
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When I don't use an Aftco unibut, I use either macjined aluminum or chrome plated brass. Both have stood the test of time.
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Old fishermen never die. They just can't raise their rods. But now, that's a thing of the past! Better living through chemistry...
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Read and reply sent. Thanks, Jon.
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I'm getting a Renzetti Wonder Weaver to go with my new Renzetti lathe. I'm also getting Jim Upton's book, and considering buying the Visual Weave software at the same time. Does anyone on the forum use the software? Does it run easily under Windows 7 Professional? Any bugs or quirks? Thanks!
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If you PM me with your email, I will give you a detailed assessment of my Pac Bay/AMTAK power wrapper.
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Right after I read this thread, I went to list my Pac Bay wrapper in the buy/sell section, and what did I see but a brand spanking new original Renzetti master lathe for sale. I called RRenzetti to ask about the price of the upgrade: $249 (and I can just drive over and pick it up). So yesterday I overnighted a check to Russ Hughes for the one advertised here. I should be up and running with it
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I usually use 3, 1" wide tape "arbors" with space between them. I have done them both ways: tape the full length of the reel seat and the 1" bands. The main difference I have founf is I use more epoxy with the bands than with the full length tape arbor. Both have proven to be very strong. As I said, I switched to the fiberglass drywall tape about 4 years ago. That holds
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I use drywall mesh now, but I used masking tape for many years and never had it fail. One trick I learned was that after building the tape up to the correct size, take a hack saw blade (cheap and disposable) and cut down into 2-3 layers of tape. Do this from one end ot the tape to the other, and around the circumference of the tape arbor. That gives the epoxy something to "hang on" t
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Bill Boettcher, you wouldn't be trying to jinx me, would you? I recently had some work done on a 22K gold fountain pen nib. It was cut, ground, made thinner, and re-shaped to a "cursive italic" type nib. One mistake, and a nib that costs more than any of the blanks we build on is destroyed. The people who do this work are true artists, and they typically have a waiting list of b
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What a surprise to find this thread here today. I just returned home from, of all places, Renzetti. I looked at the features of both of their power wrappers, and decided on the new Craftsman. I, too, thought they were overpriced when I first looked at them. No longer. What price can you put on something that works the way it is supposed to, incorporates intelligent engineering, is made
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I have always shaped cork ON the blank, mostly because that was the way I learned. I do NOT spin the blank to do the shaping; rather I use a 10" disc sander/belt sander combination. I protect the blank for about 10" above the front cork, and the reel seat, with masking tape. I slowly, and with a light touch, rotate the blank/cork combo against the sanding disc or belt (usually the di
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I have never used a finish on an underwrap, not for freshwater spinning rods where I did an underwrap prior to learning to do trim rings, and not for 130 lb class saltwater rods. Does the finish soak through the top wrap into the base wrap? No. Does it matter? Not in my experience. I recently rewrapped a rod I built 35 years ago. It was an old lamiglass honey-colored glass blank, 20lb class
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I have used them, and they can't be beat for the price. They are durable, attractive, and make great boat rods for bottom fishing. My wife caught a 200# shark on SPSWB7M-PINK blank...quite a surprise after all the sea bass and trigger fish she had been catching up until she hooked the shark. I use them doe customers who are looking for a good boat rod, but can't afford the price tag of a graph
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This is like deja'vu. I was at Mudhole on Saturday, checking out the differences between a GF700ML and a GFX700 ML. They both use a #7 tube tip, and the butt size is smaller (.785 vs. .895) on the GFX. Action in the tip section did not seem to me notably different (I checked this as did Bob Magruder and Bob McKamey, and we couldn't really detect a difference). The butt section on the GF is d
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I use circle hooks exclusively, and they set themselves. I hooked my huge tarpon on a 7'6" Castaway spinning blank rated at 5 power. I had previously caught tarpon of up to 120# on it, and if the fish ate, he was hooked. Every time. So I'm not worried about the hook set. Razor-sharp Owner circles are well worth the money. As for the soft tip, I agree that letting the fish load the enti
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I fish live crabs and live pinfish. Fishing takes place at Ponce Inlet, Canaveral Bight and in the Keys.
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I need a bit of help with rod blank selection. Last year, while fishing Islamorada, I was spooled by a very large tarpon (the guide's estimate was between 225 and 250 lbs). I like to fish light tackle, and I was set up to handle fish to 100# or so, having been told by a board member that the big fish had already migrated. I just purchased a Shimano Calcutta 700 reel, and want to build a bo
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