Gents, I just got back from the Houston Fishing Show. What I’ve noticed this year is that I’m seeing more and more of the recoil-type guides on the commercial new builds. One sales guy from a local rod manufacturer said that they are better than conventional insert ring guides because you don’t have to worry about losing the inserts when fishing with braid. I didn’t ask him to elaborate but I
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Guys, I contacted Batson's customer service. They will be replacing the blank. Roger, Rick, Herb....thanks for the history and your feedback on Batson and the Eternity blank. And a big shout out to Batson Enterprises for standing behind their products in this situation.
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Broke two of my own builds this past weekend. One was a Rainshadow Eternity ETES86MXF that broke in two places while I was casting a 0.5 oz swim bait. Both breaks on this one were right above the single foot guides about 2-3' down from the tip. I'd guess the stresses on the rod are different in the vicinity of the epoxied guides. Looks strange. I'd appreciate any thoughts on this regarding
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Gents, thanks for the feedback and the hook keeper suggestions. But old habits die hard and this one will as well since there is a new wrinkle involved and a "what the heck-why not" risk involved. My thoughts are along the lines of what Jason is suggesting. Foregrip will be 2" EVA. Ream the foregrip as needed for passage over the dec wrap and arbor the area for snug fit for t
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Gents, been thinking about this for a while…..I’ve been building for about a year now. Most of my rods are for myself, my kids, relatives or for fund raising donations so I have a lot of leeway for errors and learnings. I enjoy trying new decorative butt wraps for each but the issue I have is the tiedown wraps for the butt wrap. I’ve been trying to incorporate a hook keeper in my tiedown wrap
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Thanks guys. Epoxy it is! Or was.
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Gents, a quick question....I have some minor scratches on a blank exactly where I'd like to put my rod decal. Is there some kind of polish or something that I can use to hide the scratches before sticking the decal over it. I have a feeling they'll show thru the decal if I don't. I also intend to epoxy over the decal once installed. Thoughts? Thanks for the help.
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Gents a quick question.....just finished applying color preserver to my cross wrap. With it pretty warm out it dried pretty quick leaving a few air bubble craters and some brush strokes on the blank. Do I need to get these smoothed out by applying another coat before I epoxy the wrap. Any thoughts? Thanks.
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Wow Earl! It looks great. I’m a newbie as well and built the same setup several months back. Without a doubt there are more experienced builders on the board that have better ideas than I on this rig up. But I’m constantly looking for a “better mousetrap” so I’ll offer an aftermarket suggestion you might consider before you drive your new ride away. Cut some narrow rings out of 2” PVC. Att
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Gents, I’m about 10 builds into this rod building vocation and my boys are continuing to benefit from this addiction. Lately, I’m spending a lot of practice cast time in the yard and on the water trying to determine the best blank for the application I want to use them for. I’m a Texas coast fisherman (specks and reds) and thus far I’ve focused on popping cork rods (live shrimp) and plug castin
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Gents, in my haste to get a coat of epoxy on before the end of the weekend, I epoxied over some small sharpie marks on the blank that were left over from my first attempt at a new butt wrap. I'm thinking I'll let it dry a couple of days than go at each of them lightly with some 600 grit and alcohol until I can remove them. The next coat of epoxy should hide the sanding, correct? Any other sug
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With regards to anchoring your threads during decorative butt wraps....before you start, take the time to secure that clear shrink wrap that comes on a cork fore grip. The most likely time for it to start sliding off is when you're not paying attention to it and your just about to finish up on your butt wrap.
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Good stuff guys, thanks. It turned out that it wasn't an issue after all yesterday. Had about 30+ minutes which was plenty but will keep all of these tips in mind as it gets warmer. I too like the frozen method as well. Thanks again!
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The summer is here in Houston despite what the calendar says. Morning lows are already above 70. I don't have my rod workshop in my garage air conditioned so its likely that all my epoxy applications will be above 80° or more until about October. I'm using FlexCoat Lite Bld and I suspect my pot time will be pretty short, or at least shorter than what I've seen the last couple of months. I
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Thanks for the checklist Tom. Diamonds were square. Packed as I went along. First few packed real well. It wasn't until the pattern started getting some width did they come "untidy-able". I'm probably guilty of too much tension however. They packed so well early on so I didn't think about thread tension. It was pretty tight and they were laying well at first. But the stretch in
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Thanks Roger. I have wrapped a couple of non-finished blanks but the idea didn't hit me then. I really appreciate the advice.
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Gents, I'd appreciate some thoughts...I was working on a diamond butt wrap this weekend. What I noticed was that as I added more threads to make the wrap/diamonds wider, it became more difficult to keep the threads packed and together. I started over several times until I finally settled on a wrap that was not quite as wide as what I would have liked. The blank was pretty slick with a smooth
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Good stuff Jay! And as I sit here looking and thinking about it, at work no doubt....this will be for a casting rod. I'll under wrap the two-footed/larger guides with the two-thread color combo I was stuck on originally and just go with primary/secondary colors/trim bands on the feet. And just go the same way without the under wrap on the single foots (err feet?). This should tie into my but
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Started yesterday evening. Very tedious as expected. At this point in my rod building addiction I'm weighing the effort VS the outcome. I like the other alternatives suggested and will go back to thinking about it tonight. Thanks to all for your suggestions.
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Gents, I'm considering using two threads at once to wrap my guides on the casting rod I'm working on now because the color combo looks great w/ the color of the butt wrap. Its already pretty tedious on the larger guides where the blank is larger. Will I be getting into a real pinch when I get down to the micro sizes and the smaller end of the blank with regards to handling two at once and pull
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Phil, I started up with some Goo Gone last night. I think it might do the trick w/o taking the epoxy with it. Thanks. I also have some Goof Off but I'm going to hold off on it. I think it has xylene which might play heck on the epoxy. Gents, I thank you for your direction and assistance.
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Put the first coat of epoxy on my son's rod this weekend which included a small portion of the blank for the label. After letting the epoxy cure for a day I applied the "peel and stick" label to a pretty decent looking first coat. Initially the label looked great. Now after a day it looks like crap with lots of patches of where it was no longer sticking. I can't press them out or p
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I was called to do my civic duty on Monday. While waiting for 3 hours, I made it through about 25 pages of this rod building forum before getting released. Man I love our judicial system and I'm a better rod builder because of it. Ended up with a small stipend to boot!!
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Thanks for the feedback guys. I'm might just scoughff it up a bit. Or maybe naught, err knot.
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Hey gents. I finished my first coat of epoxy on my latest casting rod before Christmas. Doesn't look too bad but there is some irregular spots that I just didn't spend enough time on. Due to travel and family commitments, I'm just now having time to due the next coat. Is the anything that I have to do to prep the first coat for a better bond or finish? I'm resisting the urge to just clean i
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Gary, some would say great minds think alike. So while I was waiting on info from this forum on my original question, I gave it a shot with an electric razor. Worked, meh just OK. It did trim down some of the nubs but I think the thread is too soft to get in the grooves of the razor.
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All good stuff. Thanks guys!!
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Gents, I just finished wrapping all the guides on my first rod. Before I apply finish, I'm thinking through what I need to do before I apply finish. A question.....is there a good way to trim off the nubs of the tag ends that didn't get buried or didn't get cut flush with the wrap? Secondly, I ended up with some 3-4 wrap trim bands at the end of each guide wrap using what I think is called the
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Thanks Mark. My thoughts exactly.
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I'm 58 and I hope that within a month from now I would have built my first. The first will be for my brother-in-law. The next few will be for my boys who love to fish. No better way for your kids to think about Dear old Dad when they're doing something that they love to do with a rod built by dad in their hands. PS. I love the website. Thanks guys.
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