LOL Lynn ..... yes .... yes I did. lol
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The 20H- 10-H- and 5.5M are what I use on my rods because I use fluorocarbon line. Maybe it is the next size up because they are meant for heavier, stiffer lines? I don't have any experience with the particular blanks you mentioned, but I did just build a jerkbait rod on a trimmed down REVS68ML. If the 62ML has the same type of power, I think you will be happy with it. It's got good sensitivi
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LOL Lynn ......... my problem is, when I see a carp, I can't help but drop a bait straight on their head. lol
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Tom, I completely agree with you. I was just having a little fun . I try not to let initial costs creep into the things I do for enjoyment. If I did, I would have stopped fishing bass tournaments 25 years ago. lol
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The unavailability of the fighting butts I wanted for one of the builds I currently have in progress, coupled with this and other recent threads on the subject, have resulted in me dipping my toes into the waters of cork grip building. The majority of the factory rods I used to own, had cork grips on them, And while I liked the way they felt and looked, until recently I had only put a cork gr
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Sorry Phil, you're not getting off that easy. Earlier you mentioned that "many builders worry more about appearance than they worry about performance". Your tying temperature and its' affect on the properties, and ultimately the performance of various types and sizes of fishing line, relates directly to the on the water performance of a rod and reel combination. And since I am big into
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Phil? Do you have any published verifiable data that can substantiate your claims concerning line type, line diameter, and ambient temperature having an influence on proper guide sizing? Or are these just your personal observations and opinions?
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Another thing I was surprised about with the blank I mentioned above. It weighs .28 oz less than its' published specs. I wouldn't be surprised by that normally, but the tip and butt dimensions were larger than those published for the blank. With the dimensions being larger, I would have expected the weight to be slightly higher than the published weight. And I did the same as Roger above. I o
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I'm glad to read that no problems with Sulky thread. I have been trying to find a red metallic thread that matches the red trim rings made by Alps I ordered 4 different metallic reds from Sulky in hopes of finding a match. In case anyone is interested. Sulky Silver Metallic Thread - Red #145-8054, is extremely close to being a perfect match for the Alps red. It's also very close to the red in S
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Wow ..... a lot of great responses. Thanks guys !!! I truly appreciate the tips. Filling the small pits that I have to fill should be no problem, and I do have one old factory rod with a full cork handle that is in dire need of some attention, so Roger I will definitely give your process a try on that grip. I'm going to be checking out Youtube for some videos of laying up the cork rings n suc
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I've been thinking of building some custom cork grips, and I hadn't thought about using a surform tool to do the job. Thank you for the tip and opinion on which coarseness to use. On a semi related topic ..... I had to turn down a couple of cork fighting butts today. The ones I wanted weren't in stock, so I ordered a couple others that had the same appearance, but had bulges at one end, vers
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Definitely a personal preference thing. I am the opposite of Norman. I turn the rod away from me, with the thread coming up from the bottom, and between the blank and myself. It's the way I've always done it.
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We're talking about blanks being culled because of how straight they aren't, but what of blanks that are culled, if any, because they don't match the manufacturers published dimensions? I wonder if part of the the process described above, is checking the dimensions of a certain number of blanks as well. I recently received a blank that has a tip that is a full 1/64 larger than its' published
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From an aesthetics standpoint, yes, having the same size ring on the tip top as the last guide closest to it, is the way to go. It's the way i always go anyhow. But ...... there could be times when having a larger ringed tip top could be of some benefit. I live in northeast Ohio, and in the spring of the year we have about a 2 - 3 week period where we have a lot of that white fluffy stuff fro
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I thought the whole idea of building a fishing rod, was to use it? Or for someone else to use it? As I have said before ..... there is a difference in how a rod performs in a bench test and how it might perform in use, on the water. Personally, I could care less how it performs in a bench test. I care how it performs in use, on the water. And if adding weight to a rod helps it perform more effici
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Personally, with two footed casting guides, I think I think it depends on the length of the foot on either side of the guide ring. I predominantly use Fuji guides, and for the sizes I use, both feet are very close to being the same length, so I just make sure the amount of the wrap that isn't on the guide foot is the same. Or very close to being the same. If you have one foot that is longer th
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Not to answer for Norman, but commercial rods are built with the general public in mind. They're built to work with various size reels and different sizes and types of line. Because of that, they generally use larger guides because larger guides are more accepting of different reel sizes and line types. As far as the number of guides on a factory rod goes. Factory rods are built more with cost
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First off, I agree with Lynn. Sounds like a great chance to try marbling. Secondly, Normally any mention of adding weight to a rod is met with posts of how bad of an idea it is (see Roger's post above) to add any weight to a rod. I don't happen to feel that way. Weight, if it has a purpose, can improve the in use performance of a rod. i.e. ..... weight added to a rod to balance a rod and
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Yep, Norman is most definitely the spinning rod guide guru ..... I would just say that you mentioned fluorocarbon line. With a 1000 size reel. You're going to have to use one of, if not the most supple fluorocarbon line you can find. I have a lot of experience with fluorocarbon line on spinning gear, and this is just my personal opinion, but with a 1000 series reel, unless you are a talking about
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I have no idea as to the first part of your post. Based on condition of a couple of blanks that I have received, I would feel safe in saying that they don't check every blank for quality issues. And if they do, their quality standards certainly aren't what mine are. With that said, I have 3 builds that I will doing this winter off season, which for me will bring my total number of builds up t
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lol Joel, good one. Personally, I only started fishing a couple of years before I started building rods. So let's see .... that would put it at around 7 years. I don't fish much, and when I do it's only for an hour or two at a time. I don't fish when it's cold so I have never experienced how slippery and dangerous anchor ice can be while wading a steelhead stream. But I've read about it. I've ne
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ben ..... I used to do the same as you sometimes when hung up. I've broken two rod tips trying to free a bait. After breaking the second one, I decided that it's only a fishing lure, and I just break it off. About the only time I go extremes to get a bait free anymore, is if I am fishing docks. I don't like the idea of leaving a hook somewhere where someone may get injured on it. With yo
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I'm not going to debate the effectiveness of the Forhan locking wrap. I've used it on two of the rods I've built. It's easy to do, and if you are extremely rough in the way you handle your rods, or your clients handle their rods, then I can certainly see why a builder would want to use it. And even strongly advocate that other builders use it. The key to whether or not one needs to use it, co
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I'll offer a different train of thought that applies to me, but I am fairly certain that it applies to the majority of others as well. When you're holding and fishing a spinning rod, or a casting rod for that matter, are you holding the handle? Or are you holding the reel seat? If you're like me and many others I have fished with or seen fishing, you are holding the reel seat when using a spi
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The spring or magnet tension doesn't increase. The diminishing diameter of the spool makes the tension increase because as the diameter of the spool decreases, the thread coming off of it is pulling on a smaller and smaller circle. I don't know if using the wording that the thread loses leverage on the spool, is the correct way to phrase it. But that's what it boils down to. And I switched to
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The earlier suggestion of having good lighting is spot on. Being able to see what you're doing, will lead to less frustration. And as a new builder, there will definitely be things that frustrate you. Nobody was born knowing how to start a guide wrap, or get a perfectly wrapped guide, or perfectly applied finish. Not putting undo pressure on yourself will lead to fewer frustrations. For me, the n
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I work at a place that builds large air handling units. Mostly for universities, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies. The panels we use for the walls and roofs are made in house, and are filled with polyurethane foam. I am not sure what density the foam is, but I can assure you they are very strong panels. The panel's inner and outer skins are sheet aluminum. Either .040" or .063" i
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I have cut solid aluminum disks for a couple of the air handling units I have built at work. I would think the same process I used could be used in your case. I took a hole saw with an ID slightly larger than I wanted the OD of the disk to be, and using that bit, I drilled a hole through a piece of 1x6. This hole will be your guide hole. BTW, just in case you didn't know ..... if you don't w
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I agree with Tom's last suggestion. If it's just a guide wrap and nothing more. I think you'd be ahead to just cut it off and start from scratch. The big bummer is the amount of epoxy you'd have to mix just to do a single guide wrap. To me, it's a bite the bullet kind of thing.
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David, is it possible that your self centering chuck is their slip clutch version? If so, the clutch may be set too loosely. Below is a video on Flex Coat's website that talks about their self centering slip clutch. At the 4;30 point of the video Mr Cates goes over how to adjust the tension on the slip clutch. The whole video has some cool little tips.
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