John, the line level epoxied on an old reel foot that Randolph mentioned works great. I discovered it by reading through old threads on this web site. It may have actually been in a post made by Randolph. If so ..... thank you for the great idea Randolph. And John, I'm new to rod building myself. I actually have my first build turning on the dryer with my final finish coat as I type. I'm sur
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Joe has hit it on the head as far needing less weight to balance a rod if the weight is added at the butt. And I know that a few grams or ounces of weight saved in a split grip may not seem like it would make a difference in a days fishing. But consider 1,000 + casts a day, and even a half an ounce of weight can make a big difference. Especially if an extended arm technique like flipping is being
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Being strictly a bass fisherman, the only experience I have with running fish is when I hook a muskie. And they don't run that long to where I'd be worried about any heat build up in the line. A long distance of reeling a fish in would be 100', so probably not a whole lot of heat being built up in the line either. What I see as being the main advantage for a Torzite ring on a bass rod would be we
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LOL Clean thoroughly
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Bill E. I'm with you on getting off the floor to do my rod wrapping and finish applications. Darn legs don't like being all bent up in awkward positions as they once didn't.. As far as the wife stepping in a puddle of epoxy goes ... lol I don't have to worry about that. I've been divorced for quite some time. Which I can say at this time of year is a good thing. I'm in the process of doing annua
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lol Joe on the "pics or it didn't happen" thing. Boy don't we both know that from our OGF membership. I caught a 7# bass .... Oh yeah? Where are the pics? lol I'll take some pics and upload them to the photos section so I can put a couple of links in the thread. Thanks for the vote of confidence about how the rod might look. It really does look pretty sweet. My only regret is not painti
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Roger, Lee, Michael, and Garry, thank you all for the tips. Garry, I expected that grin. lol In a prior thread I even said I expected a problem or two. To be honest, I know the majority of the problem came from being in too much of a hurry. And that came from being over confident. So I definitely deserve the I told you so grin. :wink: This was my first complete build, but not the first time I
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Well, after ironing out some rod blank issues with a supplier, I was able to start my first complete build this past week. I wish I was able to say I was able to complete the entire build, but I'm waiting on 2 running guides, one of which I'll need to complete the rod, that were back ordered from my initial components order. Happily, they were shipped late this past week, and I should have them i
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Joe, it was great finally meeting you, and I'd like to thank you and Bill and all of the other presenters for putting the gathering together. I had a great time and definitely learned some things that are going to be very helpful to me as I get more into building rods. I'd also like to thank whoever it was that made the food, because it was pretty darn tasty. Please let me know about any other ga
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I'm not surprised to read these additional responses concerning Mr Alderman. I expect there are many more people that have had the same type of experience with Jamie that I, Mike, and Ben have had. He is "the man" in my book. My order is currently pending billing, and I expect it to ship very soon. That means that about this time next week I'll hopefully have everything I need to sta
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I just wanted to take an opportunity to publicly thank Jamie Alderman of Mud Hole for all he did for me concerning a recent order I had placed with Mud Hole. Being new to rod building and purchasing components to build those rods, I wasn't sure what to expect from suppliers if something unexpected were to come up in relationship with an order. I now know what to expect from Mud Hole, and that is
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Holy smokes, that is one tough rod blank. And a blank with a .554" butt diameter and a 5/64 tip, that surely weighs less than an ounce and a half. Incredible.
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Bill, I'll be coming from the Akron area. I looked up the address on Map Quest, and am pretty familiar with the Canton area from my younger days of delivering furniture. Figuring it will take me about 25 minutes to get there.
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Bill, sounds great !! The where is Sippo Lake club house, 5300 Tyner St NW, Canton. And I'm sure he told me the start time, but I don't have access to that message we exchanged about it right now. I believe he told 9 or 10 am start time?
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I was hoping to have my first rod built before the gathering so I could have it critiqued, but a problem with the blank I was sent required me to send it back to the supplier for a replacement. So I'll just be coming with a mind full of questions and a thirst for knowledge. I can't wait though. I hit the opening of a new tackle store today, and an annual Spring fling that one of the more well kno
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I've been doing some research on the Point Blank, blanks since I saw them listed on one of the suppliers that Mr. Ising mentioned. I couldn't find a whole lot, but what I could find sounds pretty sweet. "The blanks feature a scrimless design, opting for a helical bias; but unlike similar blanks, POINT Blanks add a dynamic interpretation of the helical trend and employ a variable angle b
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As I suspected and as was confirmed by the above post, the center lines of the dryer motor chuck, and accompanying support stands are of the same height. Also as I said in my earlier post, you will never be able to level the blank over its entire length. In actuality, trying to level any plane other than the center line of an equally tapered object, will result in the effect of doubling the a
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My thinking is in line with that of Garry's. Based solely on the photos on Mudhole's website, the center of the chuck on the drying motor appears to be the same height as the bottom of the V in the support stand. Sliding the support closer to or further away from the butt is going to level the blank to some extent, But you'll never be able to level it along its entire length. The blank is tapered
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I used the sharpened pipe thing that others mentioned just today, I needed to cut a hole in some inner tube material I was using to make a chuck for my drying motor. I used 1/2" electrical conduit. It worked great.
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It was either the late 70's or early 80's that I remember first hearing about a spiral wrap. Doug had a small segment on the Bass Masters TV show titled "The Bass Professor" If I remember correctly, he and another guy were fishing live shiners in bull rushes and cattails somewhere down in Florida for big bass. He touted the pulling and lifting power of a spiral wrap. I don't remember hi
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Ahhh .... thank you Tom. I kind of figured it had probably been around longer than when Doug Hannon could have came up with it. I wonder if he was just credited with bringing it to the freshwater fishing world. No matter. Thanks again for the history lesson.
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Garry, I'm glad you saw the humor I intended with my last sentence. I truly do understand and appreciate your cautioning me about thinking that rod building is too easy. I know it's much more than just assembling a bunch of pieces and viola, you come up with a beautiful rod. I'm sure there's an art to building even the most basic rod. And there's definitely progression in the learning curve. I ca
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Garry, thank you for your response. Revolver, ok I get it. Before I joined this web site I had only heard it called a spiral wrap. I remember when it was a new concept in guide placement. I believe Doug Hannon was credited as being the one that came up with it. But I could be mistaken Thank you for the describing what a top shot is as well. Sounds like a neat little deal. And I understand
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I'm looking forward to going myself. It will be my first one and I'm looking forward to any of the demonstrations as well as picking the brains of those that attend. Maybe after the gathering I won't be such a pain in the butt on this forum. what with all the questions I have. lol
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Joe, thanks for responding sir. I've adjusted my order on the EVA foam for making the rear grip. The added length that the smaller I.D. pieces come in is going to provide with some extra material to experiment with, Which is always a good thing at this stage of my rod building experience. The process you described for making a tenon is exactly what I was thinking. 50# braid should do quite well.
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Hi everyone, it's me again As the thread title says, I messed up my jerkbait rod. I won't go into the gorey details. Instead I'll just say that an experiment in extending a rod blank wouldn't have produced the rod I was hoping for. Being a bit disheartened by the would be results, and curious as to what the affects of trimming 6" off the butt of a blank would be .. the remaining piece of
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Well .... my idea of just extending the blank with the characteristics I like, with a piece of the blank from another rod I own, isn't going to work out as I had hoped. I went ahead and stripped the guides off the rod that uses the preassembled handle assembly, cut the grip off of it, and the bare blank I was left with is 61 3/4" long. I cut the blank on the rod I was going to make the exten
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Thank you Tom. Thank you Bob, Thank you Michael, and thank you Randolph, for your replies, Everyone was very helpful. Since I'm having difficulty finding a blank that may suit my needs, I've decided to go in a different direction. I know what I want to do is possible. I actually already own a rod that has all the characteristics I'm looking for. Right down to the 6' finished length. It's an
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Lynn, great question !!! Thank you for asking it. I'll be using K series on my very first rod build, and from looking at the construction of the a TKATG guide, which is what I will be using as running guides, it doesn't appear as if a locking wrap would be easy to perform cleanly. Although I will say as new as I am to rod building, I have only been practicing a locking wrap for the last couple of
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Ok .....after re-reading the Common Cents Info, I am no longer confused. Honestly, I had read the Common Cents Info, linked near the top of this page, before asking this question. My confusion came from this line in that article. "The previous experiment with the playing card clearly indicated that if the butt section of a rod is progressively strengthened, the IP of that rod is increased
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