Walter, here's what I'd suggest: 1) To determine the smallest size guide you'll be using, take a look at your fly line. Pick the largest connection (for me, it was the connection between the fly line and the leader, if I remember right), and experiment with different-sized guides. Find the smallest-sized guide that will comfortably pass your largest connection. For a 12-weight, it will probab
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You wrap them on and finigh them just like guide feet. I used Size E thread on the last one I did, with good results, although you can use D as well (and maybe even A; I'm not sure). When you're finished, the reel will be very securely held in place by the thread wraps. And this method of attaching the reel seat is the beauty of plate-style seats: removing one is as simple as removing a guide.
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I have no idea whether that's common or not, Chris -- my guess is not, as I've never seen a rod without some kind of grip -- but one of the beauties of building a custom rod is you can do whatever you want. If you want a rod with no grip, then go right ahead. I can't imagine why you'd want that, as when blanks get wet they tend to get very, very slippery (that's why there's a grip there), but if
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Chris, I just used a Fuji plate-type reel seat on a spiral (conventional) surf rod, and have become an enthusiastic convert. I love them, and will never again build a surf rod with anything else. I am actually going to be looking to see, on just about every rod I build, if a plate seat would work -- I like them so much that I'm going to look at them first before I look at anything else. The p
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Robert, I actually think that surf rods are EASIER to build than other rod types, because they're so much bigger. It's a lot easier doing a wrap on a half-inch section of blank than it is on an ultralight blank that's a sixteenth of an inch. You just have to do a few more of them. I'll leave the discussion of blank types to others, but I will say that for my purposes, I look for decent blanks
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Russ, I agree with you -- there seems to be a race to see who can build the lightest rod. While I think that mostly it's a good thing -- we should all strive, whenever and wherever we can, to produce rods that weigh less -- I think a lot of the time people overdo it, and we get into a "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin" scenario, where you're having a philosophical discussi
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My knowledge of all the different kinds of blanks out there is very limited (my head swims whenever I look at a catalog), but fortunately my knowledge of (saltwater) stripers is not. At the recommendation of people on the board, I built a striper jigging rod from the Lamiglas tri-flex "medium" (CGBT78-1M). I used a 6'6" blank, but I believe they make them in 7-feet versions as
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I am such a newbie (and am a hobbyist, not a professional, as well) that I feel totally unqualified to comment, but A) I've never let that stop me before, and B) perhaps a set of newer eyes might bring a different perspective than those that have been at this for a long time. One of the problems I've seen with custom rods is that there is nothing to stop someone from setting up shop as a prof
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My wife is a children's librarian, Tom, and I'll check with her. Unfortunately, I don't think her school is a good candidate -- I'll avoid being pejorative, and just say I wouldn't look for too many hands-on kids there -- but she may know someone. I'll ask and let you know if there's any interest.
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Hey, no fair talking about this before I get my issue in the mail!
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I've barely scratched the surface in terms of trying different types of spinning guides -- I almost always stick to trusty Fuji aluminum oxide guides (BSVOG) -- but I have built a few surf spinning rods, and I've done some fairly extensive test casting (probably over 10 hours for about 6 or 8 surf rods), and what I've found to work best is to do the following: 1) Find the choke point -- the p
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Wish I could go this year, but my wife's pregnant, and the due date is January 27. Maybe 2008.
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If it's not too late -- i.e. if you haven't already scraped off the finish -- I'd recommend going one up in size and using that, even if that means you'll have to build up the blank with a wrap. I tried (successfully) to force a very snug tip-top onto a blank not too long ago, and while I got it on, I couldn't get it off -- when I tried to flame the epoxy and remove it, the blank broke. As a resu
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The top should fit, Chris, but it may not., I started a recent thread about how the tip size of blanks can vary by as much as a full size (i.e. a rod labeled 7.0 may need a 7.5 or even an 8.0 tube). Do a search under "mis-labeled" and you'll find it.
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Thanks, guys. I monkeyed around with it a bit last night, and while the feet are not seated completely in the reel seat, it seems stable enough to fish with. I don't think that the reel would slip or anything would break under the load of a big fish, partly because the nature of spinning reels is such that your hand is going to be helping in holding the reel tight to the rod. After experiment
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You can use either; it really doesn't matter, and I've done both, depending on the configuration of the rod. If you know how far you want the reel to be from the butt end, setting it up one way or another is really a piece of cake. To be honest, I generally prefer uplocking, but this is one of those things like whether you crank a fly reel with your left or right hand -- there's really no right a
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Thanks for the suggestions, guys. It seems the best thing to do is the easiest: just tell the vendor, when you make your order, to make sure the top fits the blank. I'll be doing that the next time.
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Well, you learn something every day. And I learned yesterday that I am not beyond making stupid rookie mistakes. I'm building a medium inshore spinning boat rod, and when I put together the components I wanted, I picked a Fuji Deluxe Spinning reel seat. I picked Size 18 because it seemed like it would go well with my rod. Well, the components came, and I eagerly reamed the cork and assemb
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You don't have to use a syringe for Rod Bond, Dennis. You can just eyeball it and try to get the measurements as close as you can. Syringes are used for thread epoxy (i.e the stuff you put on top of your thread wraps), which is much more liquid than Rod Bond. There was an article I read recently -- I want to say that it's in the current edition of Rodmaker Magazine ("Common Myths Dispell
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Yes, go to Mudhole and check their specials. They have many St. Croix blanks on sale, at good prices.
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After getting burned once too many times, and getting tops that were too small, I've learned that the top sizes listed in blank catalogs are not very accurate. When ordering a blank, I now wait until I have the blank in hand, and can measure it with my gauge, before ordering the top. I've found that more times than not, the top size listed in the catalog is wrong, sometimes by as much as a fu
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Yeah, I just did my first two rods with metallic threads (metallic underwraps with black overwraps), and I didn't use CP at all. The end result was pretty good, at least for a dweeb like me.
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Scott, I recently built my first rod using a cord grip, and maybe my experience (and the mistakes I made) will help you. At the recommendation of others on this board, I went to a home center (one of the big-box ones) and got Nylon cord. They had a few different colors, but I went with basic white. Whatever color you use, I recommend making sure you use nylon cord, as I tried a few other type
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Phil, I used the very same heavy duty cork tape on a surf rod I built last winter, and the tips above are good ones (I used masking tape on the butt -- underneath the butt cap -- and Size D thread on the other end). But -- and I only suggest this in case you haven't heard it before -- the very first time I used this rod, I was fishing an estuary after dark, and I slipped climbing a jetty and
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Larry, I recommend Fuji's graphite plate reel seat, available from many of the sponsors on the left. For large OD rods, when you can't find a tube-style reel seat large enough to fit around the blank, the plate-style works great. I built a conventional surf rod with one a while back, and the resutls were superb. I don't think I'll ever build another surf rod with anything else. It's definitely a
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I too finish in my basement, and in the cooler months (like now), I wait at least a couple of days, and ideally a week, before using the rod. Just make sure that you've turned the blank long enough for the epoxy to set (say three hours or so, or a bit longer if your finishing room is cool like my basement), and let the rod sit for a day or so. After 24 hours it should feel firm to the touch, but
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If you're not using underwraps, you can pull the thread tight, angling toward the end of the wrap (where the loop just came from), and hold a razor blade vertically (i.e. with the blade facing the blank), and the blade will cut the thread underneath the wraps. When you snug up the wraps the tag end will have magically disappeared under the wrap. I do a lot of heavy surf rods with underwraps,
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This is the most informative thread I've read here in months. Thanks, guys. I finished a fly rod the other night, and going back and forth from one guide to the other like the Keystone Kops drove me nuts. I eventually managed to get the guides more or less straight, but the string method is one I like very much, and (like most things) is so elegantly simple that it is sure to work. The next time
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I've built a variety of rods, all saltwater -- boat, surf, fly, conventional, spinning -- and have used a hook keeper on every single one of them. I very much like having a dedicated place to put the point of a hook, and though I build rods only for myself, I also very much like that when someone else is using one of my rods, the hook keeper seems to distract them from putting a hook through the
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I personally would never use five-minute epoxy for anything other than installing tip tops (or tying epoxy flies). When I'm installing hardware on the butt end of the rod (reel seat, grips, butt cap, gimbals, etc.), I use the heaviest, strongest epoxy I can find (within reason), and Rod Bond is a good one. I never want that bond to fail. The downside to this is that if something breaks -- say
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