When I first started wrapping, I bought Dale Clements “Bible”, Advanced Custom Rod Building. While obviously dated, it contained a wealth of information, especially for a newbie like me. One of the aspects covered in the book was “dressing guide feet” i.e. grinding a gradual ramp on the end of the guide foot. It made perfect sense and doing so greatly improved the ease of wrapping as well as the
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Roger, Thanks! You really do have a knack for finding deals. For only $20.00, if it proves to be junk, one is not out much. However, after reading comments from John D. = paying $5.00 for shipping although it says free shipping, Ron W = only receiving the belts, I will wait for John’s update after receiving the unit (or possibly just the belts) before I consider ordering one.
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Dean, First of all, congratulations on building your own power wrapper. Just as with the gratification of fishing a rod you personally built, the same applies making tools and fixtures to fabricate any number of things, rods included. At the risk of sounding boastful, I thoroughly enjoy using the power wrapper/ lathe I built because it is built to my specs and better than anything else available
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I agree 100% with Phil except prior to CTS, I was using ProKote. Is it (at least the high-build) available now?
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Sean, If you wait long enough, you will undoubtedly receive replies suggesting every reel out there = there is a lot of brand-loyalty and personal preference. As with John, Michael and Steven, I have quite a few Shimano and Diawa reels and although not very expensive, all perform very well for many years. Recently, I tried a Lew’s Laser Speed Spin 100 ($40.00) and was so impressed, I bought thre
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Bingham Ent. and Thomas, Both of you certainly have my curiosity up! It would be difficult to award “the overall best thread finish” with so many varied-on-the-same-theme available products presently on the market compounded by the different desires/requirements of different rod builders. I have yet to discover the ultimate thread finish which affords a 30 minute pot life / 20hr (preliminary) cu
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John, I totally understand. Also, nothing ventured = nothing gained. Good for you trying something outside the box. It may not be what I would attempt but, in the grand scheme of things, that really does not matter. Seriously consider spiral-wrapping the guides to eliminate the twisting torque on the seat and fore-grip; it may be just the ticket to actually make your concept work. One way or th
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Roger is a maestro with fabricating in general, electronics in particular. That is why I employed him to figure out the required potentiometers, resistors and such when I fabricated my wrapper upgrade to include lathe capability as well. Every aspect turned out perfectly and I would not have expected anything less from Roger. Thanks yet again, Roger. Considering the electronic aspect, there is o
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John, First of all “medium weight ocean casting rod” is only subjective; 15lb may be medium to one person while 50lb is medium for another. Anyway, I do not understand what you are attempting to accomplish with your new idea. When thinking of the pros and cons of mounting the seat on top of the cork tape, I do not see any pros, only cons, with the lack of a solid connection between the blank an
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Michael, Thank you for your input. The Rainshadow SB 720-4 may be the closest I will be able to find. While it is 4-piece which is rare yet certainly appreciated, its shorter length and higher line weight really would not be conducive to a fair, equal test with the longer, lighter FG rod. Close but no cigars but I sincerely appreciate your efforts!!! I had not given any consideration to the thou
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John, or anyone else for that matter, Excuse my ignorance, but what exactly is a skew lathe tool? From pictures, it appears to be a simple, flat piece of steel ground on a slight taper, obviously to a prescribed (?) cutting angle. Rockler wants $75.00 or more which sounds excessive and it is only HHS, not some wazoo, exotic, “semi-precious metal like CPM S30V. At the risk of appearing to downpla
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So far, I may have received more replies than their might be blanks with my desired description. None the less, thank you Ron and Norman for your respected replies. Ron, all of your comments are point-on, acknowledged and agreed. The wild, self-sustained fish in the Sierra backcountry hike-to lakes and streams are rarely over 12in and while they can afford a better battle than a 20in hatchery ra
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Thanks, Fred and Rick.
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I am having difficulty finding a 4-piece ultra light spinning blank (pack rod), 6’6” bare minimum with 7’0” to 7’6” preferred to handle 2-6lb mono / flouro and 1/32-1/4oz lures. In contrast to the vintage FG blanks I love so much, a CF blank with a fast-to-extra fast action is what I am seeking. While there are a number of 2-3 weight fly blanks available, their action is typically slower than des
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Jeffery, First of all, congratulations on acknowledging the status quo but not necessarily following it. Broadly/generally speaking, attempting to measure any aspect of a fishing rod’s characteristics really boils down to consistency of the measurements. Dr. Hannerman graciously and intellectually afforded the entire fishing industry with a relatively simple formula to calculate such with ERN, A
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Adam, I am as surprised and bewildered as anyone that you are experiencing difficulties/failures with any Fuji component, in this case and especially TKWT guides = they should be the crème de crème. Even if the guides were exposed to unusually rough treatment, they should hold up better than the more brittle SiC guides as Herb C. stated. I would rest assured that Fuji / Anglers Resource is equal
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Billy, You have confirmed that I was ignorant to what you are attempting to accomplish. I am not qualified to assist you but hopefully fly-guys such as Phil Erickson, Herb Ladenheim and others will notice your post and reply. Good luck.
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Oops, sorry! My reply was meant for one topic down.
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Thanks for the additional input, Roger.
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Billy, You have confirmed that I was ignorant to what you are attempting to accomplish. I am not qualified to assist you but hopefully fly-guys such as Phil Erickson, Herb Ladenheim and others will notice your post and reply. Good luck.
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Brandon, Properly applied, rod-specific tip top hot-melt adhesive will provide the best, worry-free mounting of your tip top. Give me your address and I will send you a stick and then you can repay me 10 cents per month for 10 years and your wife will never know the difference! Lol
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Billy, Excuse me if seeming ignorant but with your description of “converting to a float rod” coupled with using “Fuji black Titanium SiC guides…20, 16, 12 and then running the rest of the way with size 8 and ending with Fuji KG Arowana Spin/Cast Tip Top size #7” suggests to me you are attempting to build a 14ft spinning rod from a fly rod for use from a float tube. I will wait to hear confirmat
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Steve, Thanks for the picture; it is what I envisioned from your description and very nice. Thread wrapping the reel feet must be a bit of a PITA considering the rotor and butt of the reel extend past the ends of the feet = in the way of the thread each revolution. What do you do, use a hand-held thread bobbin?
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Norman, Phil, Ed, John, Roger T., Tom and Roger W., Thank you all very much for taking the time and effort to help me out with my wood (cork) lathe turning concerns. A special thanks to Tom for affording a site where such information is easily accessible from qualified, concerned and generous rod builders. As mentioned earlier, the last time I did any wood turning was in Jr. High School Woods C
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Planning on what I perceived would be required, I purchased a 10in tool rest from Rockler and machined an adjustable support fixture to adapt it to my existing extruded wrapper base. Apparently, I may not need it if the grips can be sanded concentrically down to size rather than starting with typical lathe tools. Even though I admittedly have my doubts concerning concentricity, I will give the sa
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Norman and Phil, Thanks for the reply; I can always rely on both of you to help me out. My concern is cork which is glued together but not concentric. How can hand-held sandpaper looped over and pinched between non-stationary fingers compensate to produce a concentric grip? Will the 3000 RPM of my new lathe automatically spit-out a concentric grip? I am not really certain I want to run it that f
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David, Thank you for sharing, explaining and demonstrating VisualWRAP. It is no wonder what an aid it can be to those, such as Billy and the Nerbs, to produce such exquisite cross wraps. Personally, I have produced very few cross wraps in favor of more subdued builds, but your video has me rethinking. I am quite impressed.
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Happy New Year to all! Roger Wilson recently helped me with the electrical aspect to upgrade my self-built power wrapper to a power wrapper PLUS LATHE as well. It turned out exceptionally well and I am happier than a pig in slop!!! Thanks again, Roger! For those of you who use a lathe to turn grips in general, cork in particular, what is the most invaluable turning/shaping tool you use? Tom K.’
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As usual, you are right-on-point, Norman!
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Steve C., The profound benefits (anti rod twist) of a spiral-wrap on an 8lb rod will be minuscule and possibly unwarranted compared to an 18lb rod let alone an 80lb rod but there is certainly nothing wrong with doing so. Steve G.’s guide size suggestion will certain work but consider the following. Many on this site are proponents of the Simple-Spiral which allows the line to rub the blank as it
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