If I'm going to fish a spinning rod upside down and reel backwards, I'd really rather just reel my age backwards:-).
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I don't have any experience with carbon fiber grips. I need to generate a grip of a size not offered, so I'd like to know if they behave the same as cork, EVA, ect. in that you can cut them down without adverse effects. I'm thinking of making two grips out of one piece and creating tenons on the ends. Will this cause the fiber material to fray? I'm pretty confident that the foam core itself won't
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Bob, I tried heating the epoxy components (primarily the resin) a few times and it shortened the pot life considerably. That's when I went back to room temperature epoxy at ~70 degrees. I've put it on as low as 66 degrees too. It's going to generate it's own heat by chemical reaction to cure anyway, so I'm just allowing it to remain in a liquid state longer to give it more time to level. Da
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Bob, I forgot to compliment you on your thread work. It truly is magnificent; way beyond what I can do. Dave Sytsma
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It's a little off topic, but can you take a carbon fiber grip and cut it down without ruining it? Does the fabric stay in place and not unravel so that tenons can be created if desired? For example, cutting 3" off an 8" grip to create a 5" fore grip? I haven't had any experience with carbon fiber over foam core grips. Dave Sytsma
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I've had very good success with epoxy, but it took a little trial and error. My method isn't much different from the YouTube video that John Cates provided. Some of my process will not be what others more gifted than me do. 1. Make sure your thread is clean before you start. I use masking or blue painter's tape and pat the wrap to remove any dust or debris. 2. All epoxy finishes have their
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I'm probably going to do something like David suggested, and spiral wrap it with the caveat that if he doesn't like it I'll offer to change it to conventional. If he wants his money back or doesn't like the rod, I'll buy it back from him for myself since I intend to build one before I fish in October. All I'll lose is the labor because the components cost the same either way. As far as losing a c
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Thanks, John. He's a young guy and likes my work, and said there would be more orders in the future. I did tell him that if I had the time, I've got an old Calstar 610 blank that's gathering dust and I might do a no-frills spiral wrap on that and let him take it along on his April trip and try it out to see if the difference is meaningful to him. I've been threatening to do this for a while, but
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I'm going to be starting on a Phenix TJX-63MH slow pitch rod for a customer. Nice blank. I've never made one before, but it's pretty straight forward. I have all the components. Here's the dilemma: Phenix spiral wraps their slow pitch rods. I'm in complete agreement with the concept. I have a spiral wrapped Phenix 700X3H which is absolutely amazing to fish. I told the customer that I highly recom
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I've got a friend who was using a slow pitch rod he had built on the last long range trip we were on. He had locking wraps on the guides. He's going to build another in the near future and asked my opinion on using locking wraps. In complete honesty I told him I had only built one casting rod with locking wraps, and they looked very good IMHO. But if he was going to use KB or KT guides I failed t
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I think so, Bob. I've got all my back issues in binders, so I'll check. As I mentioned, it really does work very well. Anytime you are shaping cork or rubberized cork you should exercise due care. Using a few wraps of masking tape is a good safety measure to protect the natural cork while working on R/C rings inlaid on a grip. As I said, I'll do the fine finish work with sandpaper, but I take the
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Thanks, guys. I was able to find a Forecast tiptop that will fill the bill for the tip. I'm going to see what I can get for the runners: Norm makes a good point on the latest generation of aluminum oxide rings. This is a high dollar rod and I obviously want it to meet the customer's expectations.
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There was an article in a past issue of Rod Maker about using a Dremel tool with one of their sanding drum bits. I've been doing that for a couple of years now, and it works great. I've got an older PacBay power wrapper with the better chuck. My "speed finish applier" is very low tech. I turn the rheostat all the way off, put a brick on the pedal, and gradually increase the rheostat unt
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I just post my problem, go back to the Rodboard, and there's all this really good information. Question: Would Rick Hall be the one to answer my questions? I was on SeaGuide's website last night and the information I was looking for wasn't readily available.
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I'm beginning to gather components for a steelhead rod for a customer and I need an opinion on potential abrasion. The customer uses baitcasting reels on 10'-11' rods with the floating line customarily used with center pin reels. Not using that kind of line myself, I'm concerned on it's effect on the guide rings. What is compounding the problem is he wants black guide frames and rings. Luckily I
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I think I'll look into Herb's idea. I've got some of that elastic thread that you use to tie spawn bags that doesn't require knotting; that might work as well.
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Thanks a lot, Arthur! That's a great site.
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On very small diameter blanks like ice rod pan fish noodle blanks I've had very good success with the micro guide bands that Mudhole sells. They're not brutally expensive. When the taper gets really small, like 2mm or less, sometimes I'll use two to keep the guide from shifting around. Anything greater than 2mm I'm using dental ligatures and may have to double or triple wind them to decrease the
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Thanks for the help, guys. Rick, I routinely use a high frame #12 for the stripper; even when the customer requests REC guides. It always seems to be just right with the small spinning reels that are used for ice fishing. Light wire single foot guides are fairly easy to get, but one of the rods is getting black guides per request. Both rods are to be 56" overall length, the handle being 11&q
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For you hardwater anglers and rod builders, I have a question. I've been building several rods lately and everyone has requested the REC ice guides, even though they are more costly. I have two I'm building right now and the customer wants one with REC guides and is contemplating using CRB guides on the second one. I've been using REC Ice guides on my builds for myself the last couple of years ju
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I use Flex Coat almost exclusively. I've used others in the past but find that once you become familiar with a given finish's characteristics it helps to "stay with what works". If the mixed finish is getting too viscous it can be easier and better to just stop and re-mix a new batch. I don't "flame" my epoxy because of the chance of overheating it. I know that Tom isn't a big
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Yes, Randy is the guy from Seeker and I heard he really streamlined and modernized the plant. I don't fully know the relationship between Graphite USA and United Composites, but from what I heard they are either integrated or like sister companies. I wouldn't hesitate to use their blanks.
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Thanks for your thoughts, guys. I always buy blanks made here if at all possible. For saltwater I've been considering trying United Composites over the last year and I'm going to continue to use Calstar (old habits die hard) . Seeing a lot more of of the United Composites along with Phenix on the boats for the last couple of years. Apparently when Randy Penny took control of UC there was a lot of
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I've built a lot of rods on Calstar blanks, both West Coast series and the Grafighters. They were my go to blanks for salt water. A few years ago either the owner died or sold the business, can't remember which. I still have a few blanks from before they had the turnover. One of the big tackle shops on the west coast used to promote them heavily, and after the change of ownership they stopped a
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Thanks everybody. Problem solved, and it turned out great. The customer will be pleased. Dave Sytsma
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Ron, Correction on the paint I used. It is Krylon Fusion All-in-One paint and primer. It said to wait 1 minute between coats. I put on 3 very light coats 5 minutes apart and let it dry for 36 hours before I did anything with it. There were a couple of small areas where the finish felt slightly rougher than the rest, so I buffed the whole blank down with a gray ScotchBrite pad, figuring I could
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I'll try to respond in the order that they came in. Michael, it's a smooth blank. It was in the white (unfinished) fiberglass and I painted it satin black with Krylon 2 in 1 spray paint (which works REALLY well, by the way). Ben and Norman, I found I was able to get the thread in B and D sizes in addition to A. If my test wraps don't pan out, I'm going to try a spool of both B and D because
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Thanks guys. I'll do a little more checking, and I'm surely going to do some additional test wraps this afternoon. The thread is being used on an ice rod for a customer. I gave him some test wrap examples to look at and he really likes the pink. I've used the pink thread in question before on one of my personal ice rods last winter, black blank, and it turned out really well. I've been using CP m
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I've rarely had this issue before. It may be related to my advancing age and retreating memory, but I'm beginning to have a lot of problems with the shadow of the blank coming through the thread on wraps when I want the thread to be completely opaque. I did a wrap with ProWrap Hot Pink NCP thread on a black blank and try as I might, the blank shadow is still showing through. After doing the wrap,
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As Mark said, I'd underwap. I always do on saltwater rods of that class. I've never had a guide foot bite into a blank, and you can make some very attractive color combinations with your underwrap and overwrap. I recently did a 60# - !30# using Prowrap Fusion Variegated gray/black as an underwrap and the overwrap was gunmetal gray. Looked very nice. Dave
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