Carlos, Bill and Tom are correct; DNA should not affect PG unless applied very soon to the fresh PG. I suspect the “whim” material you implied was a single-part, oil/solvent based product which “dries” by evaporation rather than “cures” by catalytic reaction. Why deviate from a tried-and-trued product like PG? Granted, PG is a moisture-curing material and thus not a true catalyzed product in the
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Clayton, Your announcement of using a spinning reel obviously changes things. The only real issue you will encounter is finding reduction guides tall enough without an excessively large diameter ring to accommodate a large 5000 size reel. I built a surf-spinning rod which also utilizes a 5000 reel and used a Fuji LC-20 stripper (the largest ring they offer) (positioned in reverse) which is relat
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Michael, While I also use Minimas when weight is paramount over toughness, I have to agree with Dennis and his suggestion of the Fuji HNs; a quite stout guide and very reasonably priced with Concept O and also available in SiN (for about twice the cost). The only possible draw-back is they are not offered in less than a size 8. Considering your customer, the Concept O would seem to be the bette
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Chuck, I do not use EVA, or comparable, for grips so cannot offer an answer to your question. However, I do often use different types of material within the same grip such as cork, birch bark and exotic woods. The gist of my reply is that different materials sand at different rates; basically a softer material (cork) will sand much quicker than a harder material (hardwood). This can leave the su
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John, As Kent stated, some do, some don’t. There are respected veterans such as Norman Miller and Jim Ising (of Fuji) who do not recommend grinding guide feet. While I agree that grinding a significant amount off the foot is probably not a good idea, I do usually “dress” the tip of the foot to produce a very nice ramp to facilitate the thread as it starts to climb up the ramp and onto the foot
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Clayton, Thanks to you as well for joining; we are all here to help if you simply ask. Without any further description of the NFC blanks other than “MH used for inner-coastal waters”, or the size of reel intended, I can only assume they will be casting rods in the <30lb range. If such is the case, consider the tried and true Fuji KW guides, especially in their Corrosion Control finish (CC or
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Ron, You are certainly correct that, in the grand scheme of things, a small amount of run-out on a cork or foam handle is acceptable if not expected from a wood lathe which is inherently much less accurate than a metal lathe. Accumulatively, a little bit of run-out in the spindle threads combined with a little bit of run-out in the jaws combined with a little bit of run-out in the drill chuck ca
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Most, if not all, thread tension rods I have seen are used on wrappers where the direction of thread comes from behind and over the top toward the front. I wrap the opposite direction; low and in front, up and over the top toward the back. This makes it immensely easier for intricate threadwork like adding and dropping threads and especially vine leafs where the thread and my hands are low and in
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Gary, Here is another option.
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Jess, While a drill chuck may be relatively inexpensive and easy to find, possibly even a good place to start, they are not as precise as a 3 or 4 jaw chuck in addition to not allowing the piece to pass through the center which can prove to be a huge asset. Roger afforded very good advice and his veteran knowledge and experience should be considered and followed. Allow me to offer two additional
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Thanks, Phil; I appreciate the consoling.
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I agree with Roger; a tension rod is unnecessary.
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Paul, good for you; I suppose nothing compares to appreciating vintage rods as much as using vintage equipment to perform such. An “old-school” wrapper just might produce the same quality rod as a new version. No one can argue a notched cardboard box to support the blank and the thread running through a phone book for tension cannot produce a very fine rod. While there are those who enjoy the asp
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Thanks Lynn, that is the post I was referring to. You’re the best.
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Herb, Apologies are due from a few of us who stepped on your post, admittedly me included = sorry. I have been so bewildered as to why more do not accept my development of CARL that I tend to jump on the opportunity to reintroduce the concept when the opportunity arises. None the less, I am excited to learn more of CTS’s inclusion and development of the spigot ferrule system.
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John, Be careful! Some tapes can “bleed” contamination onto/into your epoxy finish as was discovered during discussion in a post on this site. Some blue painter’s tape caused a reaction like silicone contamination. Save yourself any agony and test, test, test. The best is to not use tape. As many have remarked a brushed edge is the quickest method and leaves a nice contoured edge. If you do u
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With all due respect, it would be impossible to compare any performance difference, be it casting distance, dead lift, CCS, CCF or anything else between a TOB, Spigot, metal ferrule or CARL for that matter; we all know there is no such thing as identical blanks, even the same make and model from the same manufacturer. The only possible precise comparison would be measuring the difference of a sin
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Joe, Just to clarify, the CARL system employs both an internal spigot as well as an external sleeve ferrule. As you noted, a single-piece blank can be converted to a multi-piece but ‘easily’ is a relative term; a set of CARL ferrules takes me about 2 hours, but for someone making them for the first time, 3-4 hours might be expected. One way or the other, a CARL will blow-away any metal ferrule w
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I am certainly not disputing their claim as CTS is very respected and has been manufacturing blanks longer than I have been building rods. Actually, I am surprised and pleased to learn a blank manufacturer is “reverting” back to spigots in lieu of the universally accepted tip-over-butt ferrule system. There are those, myself included, who consider a spigot to adversely affect the natural flex cur
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Phil, Please enlighten all of us as to the numbers and resultant facts your research has discovered. We are all here to learn and consequently benefit.
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Bud, I consider and agree the most important part of Thomas’s reply to be, “I never take the piece out of the chuck until finished (or screwed up) as I can never re-chuck without having to round it out again”. One additional thing that I always do is mark the position of the piece relative to the #1 jaw of the lathe; at least you have a prayer of relocating center to the lathe if the piece needs
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Thanks, Herb. I am certainly interested as to what CTS has to offer.
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Donald, Do not despair or sell yourself short! The entire rod building world is blessed with the remaining veteran builders, such as yourself, who continue the old-school traditions for the benefit and enlightenment of all. While a modern CF rod (be it fly, cast or spin) may be the ultimate in precision, vintage-style bamboo or even FG rods can produce the ultimate Fish-Fighting-Fun-Factor!!! I
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Thank you to Norman, Donald, Robert, Ben and Joe for contributing to and continuing this topic of blank construction. All of you have supplied valuable information regarding relatively unknown fabrics which could possibly, and may be, employed in the construction of blanks; Boron, Graphene, Zentron, S-2 Glass, and still my favorite, Unobtainium. In CF’s defense, if Zentron/S-2 Glass exhibits a 1
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Robert, Thank you for the in depth reply; you have been a wealth of information. You are correct in that there are basically two different types of Aramid (commonly referred to as Kevlar); para-Aramid and meta-Aramid. While both are quite similar molecularly, para-aramid is intended for structural applications while meta-aramids are designed for ballistic and thermal (such as firefighter suite
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John, Thank you for your input as well. While seeing ads for boron rods, I know dittly-stink about it/them. Can you, or anyone else for that matter, afford a little more insight as I am quite curious.
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Robert, Thank you for taking the time to reply and not only offer your observations and opinions, but informing me of “graphene” which is news to me; you are obviously well informed of the composite industry and I appreciate the information. By the way, you explained it better than I did with your comment,”its tensile strength is greater per unit weight than FG, but its shear strength is not a
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Allow me to offer a little background of carbon fiber (CF) and fiberglass (FG) and then compare the two, hoping to explain and eliminate some of the misconceptions. Concerning our fishing world, FG became the new state-of-the-art material for blanks in the late1940s and quickly displaced the use of previously premier split-cane bamboo; FG was lighter, immensely less labor-intensive = lower cost,
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Keith, Norman has offered very sound advice and I certainly agree. With the guides on the bottom, one can usually benefit with using fewer guides. Static load testing will dictate exactly how many to achieve a similar arc to the blank but at least there is no concern with the line rubbing the blank as if the guides were on top. That being said, it is probably ultimately better to have one too ma
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At the risk of sounding nit-picky, I think Spencer made a bob boo, at least in his sentence structure. Ti guides are more corrosion resistant than SS316 and I am confident he knows that. I am simply clarifying.
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