Brian, I know what you mean .... it is pretty cool when Tom gives you advice. lol As far as you wanting to trim your blank goes. Normally I wouildn't suggest trimming a tip on a blank. Not that I am an expert about it, but because I have broken the tips on a couple of rods, and like most probably do, I just put another tip top on and kept fishing the rod. The two rods I did that on lost quite
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I agree with everyone that said that taking 7" off the butt of the blank is going to make a noticeable difference in the power of the blank. Not only are you taking power from the blank by trimming it, but as John said, you're moving the point of effort (generally the reel seat) closer to the tip of the blank, and onto a part of the blank that flexes more. Oh yeah .... it's going to lose
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Mike, yes, circumference divided by Pi equals diameter. In reference to the last paragraph of Roger's post referencing rear grip length ...... I'd just say that instead of placing the reel seat with the thought of having a balanced rod and reel in mind, I'd place it with the thought of what the rod is going to be used for. An 11 - 13 inch rear grip on a 7' rod may be fine if that rod is going
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I realize the problem is solved, but a little different take on the suggestion that Roger supplied about wrapping a drill bit with sand paper ..... I took a piece of 1/4" steel dowel rod and cut a 1" deep slot in the end. Cut a piece of 1" wide plumbers emery cloth a few inches long, slip it in the slot and go to town. It's a little more forgiving if your shaft goes off center bec
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While I have never tried one, I can see the benefits as Spencer mentioned, of them when casting lighter baits a bit better. I'd also think it would be beneficial with lower energy casts, like pitching. And while reducing the angle of line between the reel face and the butt guide would be beneficial, I don't know that it would make that big of a difference, at least with a conventionally wrapped r
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Size A would my choice. It's a little tougher to see while wrapping, but I think it looks much better as a finished product. Depending on thread color size D shows each individual thread, while size A almost looks painted on.
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if you can put the rod on a power wrapper, take an old pair of jeans and cut a strip off .... wet it and hold it against the grip as you turn the rod at a fairly fast speed. 100 RPM or so. It will give the grip a little sheen.
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Spencer, I thought the same thing as far as the the United Composites, DHX blanks go. I don't know anything about their durability, but the numbers on the DHX Dual Helix - UC60H look perfect for the type of rod he's looking to build. Joshua, I'd be looking more at lure weight ratings for blanks, than I would at what a manufacture labels them as. IE ....... medium light, medium, medium heavy,
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Tom .... whew ..... I'm glad we got that cleared up. And no, you weren't being ignorant. Just a misunderstanding in a setting where it is sometimes easy to misinterpret the presentation of words. I'm guilty of such misinterpretations as well. Ya know .... now that I think of it. Sheldon works in theoretical physics. Leonard is the applied physics guy. As the recent conversation is applied phy
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Thomas? (perplexed look) ....... I'm not calling you stupid. Heaven forbid !!! I'm not calling anyone stupid. Please .... if what I posted lead you to believe that I was calling you stupid, then I need to offer you an extremely heart felt apology, because that is and was not the case. I was just trying to share a laugh with you. It looks like I need to parse my words a little more careful
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You may want to take a look at North Fork Composites new Delta line of blanks. I was doing some reading about them, and they may have the strength you're looking for. The problem is the 6' blank length. They list a 6'6" medium power, fast action blank (no lure weight rating listed) rated for 8 - 14 lb line. You could trim it to length, but you'd not only be slowing the action, you'd probably
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lol Tom, if you remember that episode then perhaps you remember Sheldon asking Penny why she was crying. Penny's reply: "Because I'm stupid" to which Sheldon replied: "That's no reason to cry. One cries because one is sad. For example, I cry because others are stupid, and it makes me sad." Anyhow, I love the older episodes of that show. Phil, as far as your "th
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Thomas, thanks for pointing that out. That's the first I'd heard of a bass sized casting reel having a drag rating that high. It seems Phil isn't the only one guilty of not looking too hard. Interestingly, looking at several reels in Abu's lineup, their drag rating numbers are substantially higher (percentage wise) than the same sized reels offered by Shimano and Daiwa. But I'm pretty sure you
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lol You guys are pulling my leg with this drag number stuff, right? Phil, you're right, discounting the reels that one would use for throwing big swimbaits, you won't find any casting reels that are normally used for freshwater bass fishing, with a drag rating of 20#. As far as spinning reels go, you must not have looked very hard. Shimano alone has 8 different models of bass sized spinning r
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I don't know anyone that uses 20# braid for flipping and pitching heavy cover. Even medium heavy cover for that matter. If they are, they're either using medium or lighter powered rods, or they set the hook like a ....... let me rephrase ...... they're not trying to move the fish on the hook set. Sure 20# braid is hard to break on a dead pull, but shock it, and it's a completely different sto
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Never handled one of the blanks, and yes the lens of the camera clearly shows a curve to the blank even when the rod isn't under a load, but those are two serious toads right there!!! lol Dang nice job fighting those fish Nick. With the specs on that blank most factory rods would call that a medium heavy power rod. Even at that, fish like that are going to put a serious bend in even the stou
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Ah ok Nicholas, I was thinking with that 1 oz weight you'd be using casting gear. I live in Northeast Ohio, and while I've never been up to the river for the walleye runs, I have buddies that go every year. They bring home some real pigs. 13 lb 4 oz is their biggest to date, but the one guy swore he had one on that would have pushed 15 lbs. Hope you get into one those big girls!
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I would say it depends on how tight your grips fit when you dry fit them. One thing you want to be aware of is even though your grips may have a nice tight fit when dry, once you apply your adhesive epoxy, they're going to slide a little easier, and may actually go a little further on the blank than they did when you dry fitted them. I'm still pretty new to building and I have done it a few d
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I'm imagining you're building a casting rod? And that you're building it for primarily the early run fish? Personally I'd look at Fuji LN (double foot) and L (single foot) guides, with Alcoite rings, Or American Tackle Ring Lock RLC (double foot) and RLF (single foot) guides, with Nanolite, or Nano Plasma rings. Both are very nice guides. The American Tackle guides come with some great combin
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Interesting description of the rod's characteristics, and the characteristics I tried to build into the jerkbait rod I built. The way I went about it was to buy a fast action blank that had the lure weight ratings I was looking for, and that was longer than what I wanted the finished rod to be. I then trimmed length off the butt. Doing so slowed the action, and reduced the power of the blank.
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A braid discussion? (heavy sigh) I'm out !!! lol
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Roger, thanks again for taking the time to reply. I'm definitely going to see an optometrist about those different focal length glasses. I also book marked the page you linked with the head band magnifier. That one looks nice and light, and the versatility of the different lens options is nice. Getting my vision needs squared away is going to be a big plus!!! Thanks again. I sincerely
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As others have said, go smaller, and if you need to, ream to fit. You may not need to ream at all depending on the actual dimension of the seat you order. Just a suggestion .... when you order which ever seat you go end up going with, either call them and talk to someone, or put a notation with your order, that you'd like them to measure the seat they're going to send you. The last two seats of t
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Roger, I very much appreciate you taking the time to post those tips. Thank you. Lighting is a definite problem for me. When I finally set up a rod room, I got an LED desk lamp to use on my table. It's really helped me see my finish and my thread much better, but it casts horrible shadows. Couple the shadows with the shine off a polished SS guide frame and it definitely gives me problems. I'
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I just started messing with marbling, and it's actually fun. I watched the Mud Hole video that Lynn mentioned, I think they actually have two that I know of. Anyhow, they were good basic videos. There are also videos on Youtube that show doing it. It's really simple. I've done it twice thus far and have liked the results. The pigments I used are the CRB Pearl Metallic pigments. They're a powde
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Micheal, yes it is the slope of the legs that gave me difficulties. That and 4.5 guides and not so good eyes, even with glasses on. If I felt the need to put locking wraps on a spinning rod, I certainly put more effort into it. As I mentioned way back up there ^^^ .... I only feel the need for locking wraps on my heavy power get the fish out of cover and into the boat as fast as I can, type rods.
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David.yes, like all of us you're certainly entitled to your own opinion, and entitled to express it. Please understand I wasn't disparaging anyone's comments.If you felt I was, please accept my sincere apology, as it wasn't the case Anyhow ....... if you're interested ......... you can do a KR concept guide train using Pac Bay Minima guides similar to the ones in an Airwave set, for under $10.
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I've never used a rod with Microwave guides, so I can't comment on how they perform versus a KR Concept guide train. The only reason I am commenting in this thread is because I'm seeing a lot of, best thing going, nothing better, best bang for the buck, and now the use of the word "hater" I haven't seen anyone hating on the Microwave system. Every person that has touted the KR conc
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I don't want to speak for Ben, but I interpreted his opening post. was in reference to the KT and KB guides. Those are he ones that I was talking about.
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The suggestion that Roger posted about letting the hand held grip slip from time to time to help keep the hole centered is a good one. It works quite well. Also, and I don't know if it really makes a difference or not, but I keep the reamer vertical when reaming. Especially when doing shorter pieces. And while I have only reamed a few small cork fore grips, the comment shared by more than one
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