Phil I feel your pain. I've an April Air filter in the forced air system plus a humidifier and they help. Have closed the forced air vents near the work bench and that helps. Keep the floor in the work area clean (no cleaning within 24 hours of finishing) and that helps. And I do what Tom and Roger suggest above and that helps too. What helps as much as anything is immediately after apply
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Jason They are similar designs and both are solid performers for wrapping and finish work. I have what is essentially the Forecast version and have no complaints. Some things to think about are: (1) While both can do a passable job turning cork, using them to turn cork is maybe not such a good idea as the cork dust gets everywhere and you will spend a lot of time cleaning before wrapping
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Vong Another question is why risk a preventable failure by not wrapping with thread and encapsulating with finish, even if the manufacturer suggests ferrule wraps are not required? Ferrule wraps are low cost in terms of material and time, and are high reward in terms of failure probability reduction. By the way, epoxy or spar alone do not add so much reinforcement. it is the thread that i
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The bamboo fly rods I've built have all been 2 piece with the exception of the restoration of an old as the hills 3 piece Granger. Glass tends towards 2 and 3 piece rods with, as mentioned above, the 4 piece 6 and 7 weight Tom Morgan glass rods being notable exceptions. Having a hard time remembering the last 2 piece graphite rod builds. Improved ferrule design, materials, and construc
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Steve If you've and old hand drill the Flex Coat cork lathe works. Or study the Flex Coat design and build your own. Here is a link to a prior discussion on this point. Be careful restoring / cleaning old cork grips by sanding. Many of the really old grips are a bit skinny and sanding to refresh the grip can quickly get out of hand. Try scrubbing an old grip with a tooth brush and Daw
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Yes. Some will apply a color preserver before the epoxy. I've done it both ways, with and without color preserver, and a coat of color preserver works better for me. Without epoxy or spar varnish the decal will quickly fade, wear, and become unattractive.
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Phil E is correct; for configuration and hardware options it's primarily about the line weight. For example, the vast majority of 9 weights will be built with a fighting butt which has no place on a 2 weight. Post up the line weights to be built and you'll get lots of opinions. The second and equally important criteria is casting style and preference. The quest for ever faster blanks is fin
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Tommy Reaming cork grips is best not rushed. Reaming generates heat and a bunch of cork dust, and that dust together with enough torque and force can certainly break a grip. Yes. the Dream Reamers and similar reamers will get the job done either by hand or chucked in a drill. But again, go s-l-o-w, not so much pressure, and stop frequently to clear the cork dust. If you can rig a mean
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Exactly, Steve. The technique is pleasing to the eye, or it is to these old eyes. As you observed, if the last one or two turns of thread are not well encapsulated bad things can happen. Does not mean frayed wraps would not have occurred had finish been run onto the blank, but running the finish onto the blank does put odds in your favor.
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Why would a builder stop finish epoxy at the ends of the thread wraps? The answer is aesthetics. Nothing more. Does stopping finish at the ends of the thread wraps increase sensitivity? It does in theory because it reduces weight. However the weight avoided is so small the sensitivity gain is essentially none. Did you do the rod owner a disservice? No. Stopping the wrap finish at the
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Conventional wisdom is 1 guide per foot and fraction thereof plus 1. So, the starting point for a 10' rod would be 10 + 1 = 11 guides excluding the tip top. Some hold fewer, larger guides are the way to go while others advocate for more and smaller guides. Unfortunately, there are so many variables (line weight and construction, casting competence, snakes vs. single foot rings, etc.) that t
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Chris The lighter the rod the better, so no weight addition. You can use light wire 1/0 snakes instead of 1s - every tiny bit helps. Keep the wraps as short as possible, and no tip top wrap. if you just gotta add butt weight, lead tape under the line backing is a better option than adding weight to the rod.
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Tom What is your thinking with regard to heavier rods for the salt? I've typically abandoned the light wire guides for 8 weight and above. Guide size takes care of knot passage, but I've restored to standard wire just because. Maybe that is not necessary?
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Darrell Thoughts in no special order. If you were using the 5 minute loctite sold in syringes that mixes the resin and hardener as they are dispensed, odds are good you did get a good epoxy mix else there might have been other failures in the grip. Most rod adhesives, such as U-40's or ProKote's, are relatively forgiving of modest measuring errors and do not require extensive mixing. I've
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Marc It's a form vs. function thing. Unless someone specifically requests otherwise, weights 0 and 1 get cork with nickel silver cap and ring, weights 2 through 5 get a wood insert with nickel silver hardware, and weight 7 and above get anodized aluminum to better deal with the salt. 6 weight is the in-between weight. If there is to be a fighting butt then it gets an aluminum seat. If a 6
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Mark CP's primary purpose is to preserve thread color. Yes, it is used for other purposes, such as an adhesive in addition to its primary if being a sealer. But ti will not well protect thread wraps or decals or inscriptions, etc. long-term. So, unless the restored rod will be a wall hanger, I'd put one or two thin coats of finish epoxy over the CP. One of the hateful quandaries of breat
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Marc Good advice from John P. Got to clean then scuff / rough up the hood interior and insert exterior to provide "tooth" for the adhesive. if the hood is to be hidden (the grip is inlet to accept the hood leaving only a trim band visible), you will need to clean then scuff both the interior and exterior of the hood being very careful NOT to scuff the trim band. Glue sand pape
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Fish the rod without the butt cap and determine if the balance is as bad as you think it might be. A little tip down on a light rod might not be as bad as you fear. If you just gotta add weight, there are specialty weighted butt caps that permit you to vary the weight to dial-in a desired balance point. Or maybe this is the rod for weight forward applications giving you an excuse to build
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Golly, Steve, sure wish I had time to wear out lines and grove guides! I'm a traditionalist to a fault so I'm not a single foot guy for fly rods. If I were, I'd take a serious look at REC's Recoil single foot guides. Don't think the REC's are offered with inserts. ATC has RingLock single foot guides for the fly with nanolite rings.
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Yes, feeling a fly rod load and, to a lesser extent unload, is an important casting feedback, but additional butt end weight does nothing to help in that regard. Some fly casters want a rod's "balance point" somewhere in-the-hand, which is sort of logical provided all casts are of similar length. Unfortunately, not all casts are of the same length, and the "tug" of the rod
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NO! As Tom wrote above, fly fishing is a different game. Sensitivity is not an issue for dry flies, poppers, and other on top flies. Sensitivity is also not and issue for nymphs and other sub-surface flies fished with a strike indicator. Streamers and wet flies fished without an indicator in moving water are more probably fished with a slack line or bend to make the drift more natural,
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Sam Minor scrapes (as in very, very shallow) that do not reach the graphite fibers and are only cosmetic are just part of the deal. Wax is not going to help. However, there is all manner of bad stuff in the water that your rod would be better off not having on it. A good cleaning with soap (Dawn), potable water and a micro fiber towel will do wonders for the rod. Thoroughly dry the rod
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Ron I'm having difficulty visualizing how rod skins would work with a skeleton fly seat. Would the skinz be applied on a spacer (not usually part of a skeleton) or would the area under the forward hood for an up lock seat or the butt end hood for a down lock seat be built up with some sort of bushing? Maybe it is just my day to be dense!
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Mark The U 40 cork sealer is as represented - it does seal the cork with a single application which is straight forward - no special tools or techniques required. The U 40 cork sealer's only downside is aesthetic. If you fill holes, flaws, etc. the filled areas will absorb the sealer at a slightly different rate / amount and thereby increase the contrast between the filed and non-filed cor
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Absolutely no truth. Guides perform similar functions regardless of blank type. It's just as important to evenly distribute the load forces on a fly rod as it is on a bait cast or spinning rod. Who told you such a thing?
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Mark I don't use the rod lathe to find spines, but I do use it to find the "outside of the curve" for fiberglass rods when the recommendation is to mount guides on the outside of curve, such as Tom Morgan glass rods. Works like a champ provide the work bench and lathe's supports are level - and they are.
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Golly, Roger, if all the snake guides I've fumbled could be found during a mega cleaning I would have at least a year's supply on hand. Unfortunately, such things in my work area de-materialize well before reaching the floor.
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It's getting to the point where a fellow needs an advanced degree in chemistry to play this game. Unfortunately, my chemistry classes where long, long ago, so I will express no opinion on the merits of various blank finishes. However, two items in your process description did light up my radar, the first of which is the use of DNA to clean the blank before finish application. That can work, bu
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What? No soda straws being used?
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What Bill wrote. It's all about the color "pop" where one thread brand's reds are better and another brand's blue's are more attractive. Ultimately you grab some thread, maybe some CP, and the finish of your choice and make test wraps in the grip or reel seat area of the blank until you see what you wanted to see.
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