For the Batson stuff talk to Carol at Utmost Enterprises.
Forum: rodboard

Our little local newspaper includes a supplement called American Profile. Today it included and article about St Croix rods and their history. Thought some of you might enjoy.
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I called Soller yesterday and got the same story about shrink tubing. He said the rod building factor was larger than he expected. I didn't asked but should have, why aren't they a sponsor here?
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Roger, your first rod will always be a reminder and bench mark of how your skills have progressed. I built my first rod about four years ago and still use it to this day. As a matter of fact, while jigging for walleye today I hooked a five foot sturgeon in the butt. The rod is an 8 - 12 lbs 8.5ft spiral wrap built for steelhead. The fish had his way with us for a while so I handed the rod to
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I've acquired five vintage wooden spools of Gudebrod thread and one of Rice, four nylon size E two silk size A. The size E spools have foil stickers on one end saying "Gude -Wind 50yds and Col 326" (Red). The other end is foil again saying "Gudebrod Bros. Rod Winding Nylon 50yds." The size A silk is embossed (no paper or foil label) on each end. One end says Sutter Sil
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Ethics and legalities aside, it sounds like a scam to me. You send him a real product and he sends you a bogus money transfer and a laundry list of excuses why you must expedite the order. He receives the product and then sells it on @#$%& or wherever for a quarter on the dollar. We might all be wrong but he stumbled badly by initially wanting to circumvent the law.
Forum: rodboard

Hi Scott, been looking at your urethane foam mixer and wondering how you clean it after use? Spray with mold release prior to use or some other trick? I've been using large spatulas purchased from the Dollar Store. After the foam dries it flakes off rather easily and they seem to mix the liquid OK but I'm alway looking for something better.
Forum: rodboard

Try the simple stuff first. Type in mudhole.com in the address bar rather than click the link to left. Clean out your cache shut down browser and restart. Reboot computer. Who knows, probably something minor. The site uses Adobe Flash to rotate title images. Do you have the latest Flash player installed or at all?
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Lance .ai is vector format. It's from the Adobe Illustrator family although there probably many free and commercial programs that will create or convert.ai compatible files.
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Thank you for the replies. I'll work on all of your suggestions.
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My question is about using FlexCoat Hi Build thread epoxy and how it pulls away from the end of the wraps. It's something that only a rod builder would notice or care about. In this case I covered the inscription area and knew this was the habit of HB so I loaded up epoxy on the ends. It wasn't long before it started to flow toward the center, so I leveled again and waited for my remaining epox
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Thanks for the feed back Terry. I hadn't thought fitting it so two pieces don't bottom out, makes sense though.
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I'm rebuilding a 9 ft. fiberglass steelhead/salmon rod. I've removed the metal ferrules and will replace with a lighter modulus fiberglass oversleeve. Ralph O's library article suggests a 2.5 inch over lap on each end, 5 inch sleeve. Couldn't find a suggested distance in the archives. Does a 5 inch sleeve sound about right for this application. The rod doesn't have any sentimental value b
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At one time I'd wondered about bringing up the newest post to the top too. Many other boards do it, but after watching a while I like the way things are here. For the mega volume boards you probably need to advance each post because things will float to the second or third page within a couple of hours. Some count the number of posts and give a rating such as smolt for less than one hundred
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How much do you have to "sell" the benefits of advertising with this site or do these folks come to you? While this isn't the only rodbuilding site it seems to be THE rodbuilding site and the advantages would be rather obvious.
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Sounds like maybe your computer date and time are off. That usually results in an expired certificate. Start button - Control Panel - Date Time....
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I can't really identify that AH-HA moment where the skies opened up and Noah spoke "Go forth and multiply your rod collection to unreasonable proportions" but that is what has happened. I'd guess it's an extension of adding to the thrill of catching a fish with fly/spinner/jig that you built. It's the pleasure of meeting folks both face to face and virtually through the internet tha
Forum: rodboard

I'd been eying those abalone photos also and wondering how that was done. With information provided by Mr. Knox I was able to do some googleing and and found in addition to the 2 links that Kevin provided. There is a small how to page about rods and cue sticks but Kevin's instructions appear to be more complete. It was stressed that applying the abalone veneer is an art not just a mechanical
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I would have thought that the fly rod market would have been the toughest sell because those folks, in my mind, seem to be the most tradition bound. Not to mention the real or imagined perception that fly fisherpersons are uppity snobs. You know the type "My $500 Sage is better that your $450 Sage". Most of those people don't know any more about the rod than the price tag. We've
Forum: rodboard

Those of you that build as a business how are composite or flocked grips received by the customer? Seems like sometimes it's difficult to be ahead of the curve.
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Is the CP publicly available now or are you part the of the testing team? I checked several of the retailers web sites and no sign of it yet. It's early so they might not be updated yet.
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William, your question is one that has no answer - I don't think. I dread the thought of coming home from work to go to work but as a hobby I look forward to coming home to work on a rod a my pleasure. I tried this trick with a small home based computer business in the PC486 Windows 3.1 computer era. On the flip side, everyone is different, my son in law loves to farm after work and on weekend
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Alex, are you saying that Bill, Lance and Swampland gave you "VALUE" for your money? Shame on you boyz, oh I mean good for you guys. Jeez, just when I thought that issue was put to bed. Another good reason why it's important to support "our' sponsors and that value means more more than low cost, low quality. Mike
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Thanks Fran, will do. I just found the previous link that I was thinking about . Lots of ideas and possibilities. Mike
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I recently met a young man (a new son in law of a neighbor/co-worker) who is a high school PE/Health teacher that I've spent several evenings showing him the fundamentals of rod building, as I know them. After practicing wrap guides feels ready to order the material and build his first fly rod. I just talked to him on the phone about getting together this weekend to decide what to buy when he
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Roy, broad question and all of the definitive answers that you need will use up more bandwidth than TK wants to burn. You probably need to reveal your email address to get replies off site. I volunteer as webmaster for a nonprofit organization. There are two type of websites, dynamic and static. Dynamic means adaptable to change. Rodbuilding.org is dynamic, you type in a question and se
Forum: rodboard

Reamers are a tool that can fit any budget. As mentioned above, the rod blank reamer, the chucked rat tail file reamer - drill in reverse and don't force, I cut a golf club shaft and applied sand paper like the rod blank reamer. Even with all of the free/low cost options I still bought a set of Batson's Dream Reamers $55 and love them. Mike
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Lots of advise here. .
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I don't know but maybe it's because I heated the inch and a half Schedule 40 (thick wall PVC) that I got a consistent twenty eight inch core. Temperature seems to be a critical issue. We won't see eighty degrees around here for more than a month so that's why I thought I'd use the space heater to preheat the tube. The only time I had trouble pulling the core is when I forgot to put Stoner o
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