Is the Hunter Valley near Adelaide? That's where my favorite Austraillian wines are made. What the heck is Schutzenfest, the Aussie equivalent of Octoberfest? I loved Australlia and the Australlians when I was there about 30 years ago. The only problem was the language they speak. I know that it is a language that is close to English but I found that half the time you can not understand what
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Tim, Your guide placement looks pretty good to me. From what I can see on your photograph it appears that you have done a pretty good job. What length and weight rod is it? I would tend to err on the side of too few rather than too many just because of the weight considerations especially on a lighter rod but one guide more or less of the type you are using is not going to make a huge differe
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Sean, What brand of epoxy are you using? Maybe someone can give to a hand but will have to know what type you are using.
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Tim, Part of your problem may be that the spine on many blanks will actually rotate slightly as it goes up the blank. It does not run directly up the blank or exactly parrallel with the center axis of the blank. This means that as you apply more and more force the spine will tend to move a little. In other words the spine will tend to be in a little different location when the blank is deflec
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Gerald, I used to use primarily the Pac Bay exposed blank reel seat but now only use the Forecast. I just checked and I only have 13 different sizes. they go from 90mm to 155mm in 5mm increments.
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Tom, Yes, that would make sense if you thought that the spine was a desirerable characteristic of a blank. I do not. I do agree that it is probably a good deal more difficult to eliminate a spine completely in a rod blank but I think that should be the goal. In my judgement the spine is an inherent flaw in a blank and less would be better. This may not be practical or achieveable with todays
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Gerald, I use a lot of these reel seats so that I stock a number of each size and I find that the easiest approach is too slide different sizes on until you find the one that fits or is slightly too small. To size the ones that are slightly too small it usually only requires that I make a few passes with a large round rasp on the end opposite the threads and it will fit. I only have to use the
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Ken, Rod making, video tape and DVD making, writing articles, shop remodeling, stained glass making, tool making, speaking several languages, and now fiberglas blank making! You are a pretty amazing fella. When do you find time to go fishing? You are going to get fiber glass in your fingers with this project though and wish that you had not started it if you do not wear surgical gloves. That
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William, I thought that I was the only heretic when it came to the conventional beliefs about the spine. I think that I have found a fellow heretic. Actually Tom may be as well. I wish that the blank manufacturers would look closely at what a couple of the golf club manufacturers are doing. They are building graphite golf club shafts with no detectable spines.
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Gary, No the area that is intended to fit tightly on the blank is the area around the exposed portion which is about half of the length of the reel seat. There is about 3/8" behind this area and about 1 1/2" area under the threads that is larger. I do not think that the area at the rear requires any fill. This is a space that is designed to hold the extra epoxy that will be forced b
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Ken, If you are really serious about building your own experimental blank I think that I can get an old mandrel and some prepreg for you to play with. I think that Mick is right, you are certainly more ambitious than I am.
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Harvey, I thought a little more about your problem and I think that I would try the following: I would remove the guides and rewrap with regular thread. The metalized thread works a lot better as just trim wraps. While I had the guides off I would go over the whole blank with fine steel wool, 00 or 000. If you go over the matte finish with fine steel wool it will buff it up, make it shine, an
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William and Mike, you answered while I was typing. You must type faster than I do.
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Harvey, Acetone is too aggressive a solvent to use on rod surfaces. Denatured alcohol will work much better and is a lot safer to accomplish what you were trying to accomplish. I do not know what the problem is with your wraps. Are you using metalized thread? If your wraps are a little tight then the metalized thread can tend to seperate. I think that it is actually a thin mylar tape over n
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Ken, I wrapped a piece of graph paper around a tapered piece of graphite as you suggested and immediately realized that I had said something in my previous post that was really stupid. The line that spirals around the blank and can be seen on some non-coated or clear coated blanks is not because the fibers are misalligned. It is due to the fact that the piece of material, the prepreg, that is
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Lanny, That is really curious. I can not imagine what you could be doing to cause 3 blanks to break on the ffirst cast. I have built an awful lot of rods on Lamiglas blanks and over the years have found them to be very durable in fact one of the most durable on the market but I suppose that it is possible that they built a bad batch of these blanks. If I were you I would send Todd Vivien at L
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Ken, I started a new thread because the previous one was getting pretty far down. If I under stand the American Tackle Matrix Series, and I will admit that it is a big IF, then I am not sure that I buy it for the following reason. The full modulus of elasticity is only realized if the fibers run straight up the blank. If the fibers are at an angle or across the blank then the effective modulu
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Jim, Treat the cork just like a soft wood, which is what it is. Actually it is the bark off of a type of oak tree. But I would ask the same question that Mick has asked. What is it that you are not satisfied with? It sounds as if maybe it is the quality of the cork. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to find really high quality cork and if you can find very high quality cork it will be
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John, Most blanks do have a finish on them. If you can not get by their plant you can try some auto paint polish. I have had mixed results with this. If possible I would try to put the guides back on in the same places they were so that you can wrap over some of the mars.
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Ken, Who do you think you are kidding? We know that you use your dog's tail to apply epoxy.
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