I did a bunch of test wraps last night with the silk I got from Hitena, some white silk I think I bought from Anglers's Workshop a while ago, and some #30 natural colored Tire brand silk. I'm not up on the diameter terminology of silk as compared to nylon rod wrapping thread, but the #30 Tire silk looked about like a D or E nylon thread. I used Flex Coat Lite thinned with acetone and Threadmaster
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Scott, It's not a chemical process type of bluing, but you might take a look at Ceracote. It comes in a lot of different colors, including some that are perfect matches for blued metal, and works well on aluminum. Many gunsmiths do it. I have one locally who does a lot of it and his work looks good. If interested: High Caliber Firearms 269-312-8500 High.Ca&#
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Donald, It's not a fly rod. It's a 60-130#, 7' saltwater bait rod to be used for big tuna and other fish of that class. Hitena, Thanks for clarifying your process for me, I look forward to receiving the thread. The photos on your website are amazing. Should you read this post, and knowing what I intend to do, let me know if the thread will be sufficient to the task. Otherwise, I'll conta
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I've got a spool of 3/0 white silk that I test wrapped with, and I was seeing more visible thread after applying Flex Coat Lite than I wanted to see. So I called Hitena. Very informative and they gave me some great tips. They said that the natural was best for transparency, so I ordered some of that. They also told me that to get a totally transparent wrap, thin your finish with acetone (which wa
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I'm looking for a thread that will be translucent after the epoxy finish is applied (no CP obviously). I've seen it on St. Croix fly rods and like the look of being able to see the guide feet through the finish. I called St. Croix but they weren't telling what thread they are using. I tried some Fuji on a test wrap, but it ended up more opaque than I hoped. I test wrapped some white silk and Gude
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Jerme, I buy from Get Bit occasionally. If they have what I need I go with them first because they are great people to work with. I've used Fishhawk thread and it's good stuff, but I also use ProWrap, Fuji, Madiera, PacBay, and I've got a fair amount of Gudebrod. Of the new threads (since you can't get Gudebrod anymore), I probably use more ProWrap than anything with a second place tie between
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Tim, That's not unusual. They are really great people to work with. They are my go-to if they have what I need.
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I've been gently blowing on my epoxy with a straw after coating for a few years now. I don't use heat. My breath causes any bubbles to break and you can actually move the coating a little with your breath to eliminate lumpiness if necessary. I also blow on the finish with a straw after pouring it out on to foil before applying it; any bubbles in the poured out finish just disappear so you're left
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Roger, Thanks for your effort to help; your advice and creativity is truly a pleasure to read, but as you say, you haven't done it. Most of the tuna we're dealing with run 75# - 200#. The rear grip isn't really even a factor, because unless you are "on the troll" where the rod is suspended below the stern rail by the reel lugs, most of the fish we catch are done while "fly linin
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I appreciate what John is saying about keeping the amount you can use within a year and no doubt has truth to it. However, I've had some Lite and High Build for almost 3 years and it's never had any issues. My shop stays a consistent 72-76 degrees and the finishes, glues, and color preservers are in a cupboard that stays closed, so that might be helping. You have to develop a "personal relat
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I've got an earlier generation Winn Grip in my stock that was probably created for saltwater use as it has the older octopus pattern. I'm inclined to use it as a fore grip on a rod I'm building for myself for a change. But this grip, as I suspect is the case with all Winn Grips, appears to use EVA for a base grip material. This stick will be used for big tuna, and as I anticipate may need to be p
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Roger, On the long range boats I've fished on, actually very few of the rods have rollers. I can safely say that 95% of the rods are using conventional guides. I made one with rollers a few years ago and it worked fine, but I sold it to a guy. Also, roller guides much more expensive than ringed guides; it's not hard to spend well over $200 on the roller guides alone. I can't recall a time when
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Gentlemen, I've never built a spiral wrapped rod, am aware of them, and have briefly seen one. I've been promising myself that I would build at least one after reading all the accolades over the years on the Rodboard, and I'm tired of spending as much time during protracted battles with 100# plus tuna fighting the rod as well as the fish. So here we go. I've got a 7' Phenix Black Diamond Hybri
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Well Guys, I got the reel seat off by making cuts 180 degrees apart and prying it off with a screwdriver. Heat gun didn't work at all. I was amazed by what I saw when the seat came off; the front arbor had spiraled down the blank, the middle one to a lesser extent, the rear one was intact, so basically there was no support for the reel seat for 2/3 of it's length. Not good. Fortunately I've g
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Guys, Thanks for the tips.I usually mount them sort of like Norm does, but in this case I forced the epoxy into the arbor with a popsicle stick. I think it made the arbor too soft and allowed it to shift. I'm going to start to attempt to remove the seat and see how it goes; if it gives me any trouble I'll Dremel it. I'll let you know how I make out.
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Tom, I've got a couple of extra reel seats, so removing the seat is likely what I will do. It's on with Rod Bond, so it won't be an easy task. What would you recommend? I'm thinking many small shallow cuts with a Dremel tool and trying to remove it a little at a time. I was using drywall tape for arbors, three in this situation as I usually do, but I think the epoxy caused them to soften up an
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This is on a Calstar 700H blank, the reel seat is a Fuji DPSH26.
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Tom, It looks to be 3.5mm at the 10o'clock position and 1.5mm at roughly the 4 or 5 o'clock position.
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I just checked on a reel seat that I glued up last night and found that somehow one or more of the arbors supporting the seat apparently collapsed and now the blank isn't centered in the seat. The reel seat is off a millimeter and a half from being parallel to the blank on the front side. How much of a problem is this potentially going to be?
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Tony and Scott, Thanks for your input! There are a lot of aspects that I will need to consider, such as changing the orientation of the guides to the spine, before I put the epoxy on. I've never given any thought to doing that. To be honest, it's not like I've never, ever fly fished before. I used to fish for bluegills frequently here in Michigan in the spring when they were moving up on the b
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Thanks to all for the excellent advice. Oddly enough, when I bought the NFC 9', 5wt. I mistakenly ordered a 4 piece blank and returned it because I was concerned about how three ferrules would affect the action. Hindsight being 20/20, I should have at least assembled it and tried it before returning it, but didn't. I travel with two piece steelhead rods all the time and it hasn't proven to be a b
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I've decided to attempt to become a fly fisherman, and I'm going to build my own rod. I'm going to focus initially on bluegills and trout. I've built a lot of rods, but never a fly rod. I have a NFC 9' two piece, 5wt. blank that I'm going to use for the build. I see manufactured rods that have either snake or single foot running guides and I'm curious which is the best way to go. I'm under the im
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Steve, Are there any other identifying numbers or letters on the blanks? Model numbers? Recommended line weights? How long are the blanks? I can see every Ugly Stik they make, but I need more information if you can provide it. Dave Sytsma
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Steve, Try contacting customer service at Pure Fishing in Columbia, SC. They are the parent company for Shakespeare, Ugly Stik, Mitchell, Penn, Abu Garcia, and many other brands. I have purchasing permissions with them; if I get a minute I'll log in and see if I can find out anything for you. Dave Sytsma
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I only ship Fedex. I posted a rant a couple of years ago where I had shipped a rod to California that was to be raffled off in an elementary school fundraiser. It arrived snapped 18" down from the tip with damage to two guides; needless to say it never was used in the raffle. I shipped it in a PVC tube that time instead of a heavy cardboard tube like I usually use. I vowed never to use PVC a
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Tommy, I can relate to a lot of your frustrations. As related above, everyone makes mistakes and has problems. Use this forum; there's a lot of good advice here. 99% of the folks on this board just want to help with your problems. Practice on scrap broken rods to get comfortable with the process you want to use before committing to the good components. Even last night, I spent almost three ho
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Thanks for the help, everyone. As it ended up, I made out better than I ever thought I would. I am using ALPS XN titanium guides on this rod. Thanks to Geoff Staples, I was able to get a matching Forecast SU tip top in titanium finish. These were rolled out at the ICAST, but none of the companies I use had received them as of this time. Geoff suggested I call Utmost Enterprises, who are just down
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I've never been faced with this issue before. I have a customer who would like the guides replaced on his saltwater rod. Simple enough task, but his tip size is an 11, which is unusual for a rod of this class (20-50#). The running guides leading up to the tip have a 10 ring. I can't find a tip top that is a 10 (11) in a titanium finish that will match the guide set he wants. There are several to
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Brandon, I'm starting to move away from hook keepers and have lately been using cable mounting ties. They look like a standard 8" nylon cable tie, but have a hole at the end to run wire through. Not as sexy as a gold plated dedicated hook keeper, but but every bit as functional and more versatile. You can find these at most of your big box hardware stores and electrical supply houses in a
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Norm and Jim, I'm re-thinking the necessity of always grinding guide feet. I'll be spending some quality time in the shop tomorrow morning with a variety of guide sizes and thread choices to come up with a means of wrapping without grinding. Sometimes it can be hard to teach an old dog new tricks. Concerning grinding, I've run the gamut of filing with bastard files, needle files, and Dremel bi
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