Built on a St. Croix SCII w/Amtak Tichblue spin frames.
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Maple Burl with Buffalo horn inlays.
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Thuya Burl and Maple Burl w/Maple and Mohagany checkerboards.
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This side is longer than the first, how do you keep them even Ray?
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Maple and Black Walnut Double Helix with checkerboard. Still trying to get the sides even
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Although much better than the first, still not to Ray Jorgensen's quality. Ray thanks for the inpsiration to try this. What finish? I want a gloss finish. Padauk, Maple, and Dyed veneer.
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Andy Dear's mandrels are a must. That is the only way I've found how to keep the ID centered perfectly. Bite the bullet and get one or two sizes. I used the flexcoat arbor on one grip, it's a lot of work and I'm not sure just how much weight you really save by doing it that way. It was a while ago and I'll see if I can remember just how I did it. I think it went something like this. First
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I don't think that the metallic trim tags detract all that much from the wraps as long as they are neat, same length (3or4 turns), at a 90 degree angle, and the start and end points line up.
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The only time I upsize my tip top, is on my Steelhead/Salmon rods. The only reason I oversize the tip on those rods is to help keep the ice from building up and closing off the tip while using slip bobbers. Other than that, I don't see any benefit going bigger just to have the guides line up to the tip.
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Batson's customer service is second to none. Go with the Rainshadow!
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Who did you buy your 30% off blanks through?
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So did they say if they were coming out with a new blank to replace the XP? Or are they saying that another line is already in place and the XP is a duplication of efforts? Hmmmmmmmmm......
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Jim, I am guessing that when you say that your bit wanders, you're seeing the exit hole quite a bit off from the dead center spot where it started. I had the same problem and switched from a 1/4 inch bit to a 5/16 brad point bit. That helped quite a bit, but the biggest improvement I had on getting a straight hole was getting a new SHARP bit, drilling VERY slowly, and cleaning out the bit OFTE
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Remember one thing when buying a wood lathe. The lathe is the cheap part. The chisels, chucks, mandrels, etc., can add up to as much as the lathe you buy. That being said, it's still worth the money. I have the JET midi manual speed adjust, but I'd take a hard look at the turncrafter pro at www.pennstateindustries.com.
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Hey Mike, what school are you looking for? There's a lot of schools that have them out there. Try gamefaces.com. They have quite a few schools on their site.
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Drop Jim Kastorf a line. He's a regular on here. I purchased one of his looms a couple of years ago and it works perfectly and very easy to use and set up. You won't be able to do a 360 weave, but I imagine if you were to use two of his looms opposite of each other, it would be close enough for a amatuer like me. They aren't nearly as expensive as a WW either.
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I have heard about a fly blank breaking, the only thing that I really heard about it was that it was just above the ferrule. Don't know how many pieces it was, only that it was a real bear getting a warranty replacement. Had something to do with dealing with the factory in Italy. Good luck with that.
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I was wondering if anybody knows what the difference is between the PacBay TiBlue and the TiOX Blue rings is. I first thought that the TiOX Blue guides were going to be substantially cheaper than the TiBlue rings. It doesn't seem so, from what I can find anyway. I know that the base materials are different, but I just don't understand why PacBay would produce two guides that look almost identi
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As the other posters said, call decal connection. They are very reasonably priced and their products are top notch. The neat thing is that you can draw/copy/make almost any design you want and they put it on a waterslide for you. You also won't have the edges lifting as you sometimes do with the regular stick on type decals.
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I just got done ordering another decal from Deb. All I can say is WOW!! What fantastic customer service, and even a better product. Thanks Deb!
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I haven't tried Mudhole, but Decal Connection is fast and very reasonable. The decals I got were fantastic. I was worried about what format they needed but they can use anything. Give them a call. Jay
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Mike, I've looked into this issue also. What I've found is to use a "face tattoos" the kind that the cheerleaders wear on their cheeks. They are about the size of a nickle and I have also seen the finger nail stickers in the local University Bookstore. I can send you some Boise State stickers if you'd like. Go to the Miami website and look at the fan gear, I bet they have these st
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Thanks Tom, I guess I was trying to make it more difficult than it is. More doing and less thinking.
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I know this isn't going to help much for removing the test wrap, but I took two old blanks, one slate gray and the other silver, and cut them down and did a wrap of each color that I use the most. I do about a two inch wrap and put color preserver on half of each color and then epoxy the whole thing. It gives me a pretty good idea of the color for most any blank color that I've built on. It a
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I am building a Rainshadow IST1025F Steelhead rod and am going to make it a spiral wrap. I've built a couple one piece spirals before, but I am unsure about the guide placement on the butt half for a two piece. Does the transition have to be made prior to the ferrule? It looks like it's going to be a quick turn if I keep the turn on the bottom half. I am guessing that it would have to be at 0
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John, check out this website, www.Pennstateindustries.com . They have a lathe "starter" set that looks pretty decent. The starter set is for pen turners, and comes with some stuff you may or may not want to get into. I've started making pens and other gadgets and it fills the time between building rods. I know a few of the guys on the board here have the turncrafter pro series and
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I had read on here a long while back that someone had taken an old spinning reel and cut the "Top" part off leaving the reel foot and half of the stem. He then sharpened it to a point and used it like a gun sight. I tried it and it worked fine. I eventually just went back to the ole "MK I Eyeball" though. Too lazy to find the gun sight.
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Since we're in the Air Guard (activated more than not anymore) I'm doing it w/blue wraps and silver trim. The guides are going to be Tich frames and Blue rings and a Tich reel seat. Should look pretty good on a matte clear blank. Haven't decided which brand yet, either a GL2 or a Rainshadow. He'll recognize the Loomis blank, but I feel that Rainshadow makes as good or better product. It's su
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I did a quick transfer of a jpeg to MS Paint and it looks like the decal will have to be the way to go on this one. A line drawing just doesn't look like it'll fit on this blank w/decent definition. Jay
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I have a request from one of my old commanders wife. She wants a steelhead rod built for his retirement present and would like to have his rank woven into it. The problem is, I only have till the end of the month to get this done. This normally wouldn't be a problem, but I doubt I'd be able to get tboth the left list done and wrap the rod in that time. Sooo...I was hoping somebody out ther
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