My guess is that he is taping a straw to the blank to be used for trim bands? I use toothpicks taped to the blank where I wrap around the blank then slide the tag ends between the toothpick and blank then pull tight. I keep each tag end separated on either side of the toothpick to avoid overlapping. I push the tag end from left to right on the one side and right to left on the other side.
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Im talking about the foam grips. I havent used any spray paint on any rod components as of yet. If I use these again, I might have to give it a try.
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I started painting the pistol grip pac bay foam cores this past weekend. I noticed quickly that the surface doesnt let the epoxy/paint mixture adhere to it too well. I scuffed it a bit to get the epoxy to stick to it. That seemed to work a little better, but not as good as I had hoped. I have the final clear coat of epoxy drying now. It worked overall, just a bit more care with it than i exp
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I would suggest putting the size reel your friend plans on using on the reel seat and put the guides on the blank with tape (or similar) to get a feel for the guide spacing. Try with the 25 first then with the 30. If there is no real difference in the path of the line, then I would just go with the 25.
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Make sure to work on a stable surface. Dim lighting results in sloppy wraps. Working in small sections works for me. I normally will wrap a guide then take a break. This helps reduce eye strain for me. Make sure to keep the area clean, things tend to get lost quickly.
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Oh..thats quite a bit cheaper than I thought. They seem pretty simplistic.
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I was watching wicked tuna last night and noticed how specialized these rods have to be that they are using. They must be 8' to 9' with I would guess 'unlimited' blanks? Any ideas on how these are constructed? My guess would be $2000+ per rod.
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The finish ended up rough and had air bubbles still in it. It doesnt look horrible and should function just fine.
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I started off with a CRB turnkey kit and it came with everything I needed to get started. It has the basic stuff that you need to build a rod. I have since purchased numerous other things to improve my rod building. I dont know anything about the marbled seats. I know you can do it yourself but havent marbled a reel seat as of yet. I have marbled eva and the rod blank with some pretty neat r
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Ok, so I am using CP for the first time as well. I noticed that some wraps dried back to the original color without issue. Some other wraps did not. I had it drying overnight. Is it possible to put too much CP on? What would happen with a 2nd coat of CP? Do I need to re-wrap the guides that arent appearing as the original color?
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The end result was not a good one with the T1 unfortunately. It was a rebuild on an old rod, so Im not heart-broken about the shotty finish. As long it holds the guides on at this point, Ill be happy. I am currently drying my son's new trout rod after the 2nd coat of CP. Once it is dry, I will be applying the prokote that I have. I will try flexcoat in the future with my next supply purchase
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I did notice quite a few air bubbles which I didnt expect. I have popped the bulk of the bubbles in the finish at this point. I will check in another hour or so and see if its ready for another coat. It does seems substantially more heavy viscosity than the prokote I have been using.
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I never put any real thought into the breaking point of a rod. If the rod has a chance to break then I am doing something way wrong as an angler. The reel is meant to take the bulk of the strain of the fish with the drag that is set by the angler. If the angler chooses to set the drag too high then the rod has a higher possibility of breakage. If your line doesnt give, but the rod does then y
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I just applied it to my wraps. The temp is right around 70, low humidity. Ill give it a couple hours on the rod dryer and see what I have
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I just received my order yesterday which includes threadmaster one. I will be using this for the first time as previously I used prokote for my thread wraps. I would allow close to 24 hours before even thinking of adding another coat of prokote. Should I wait the same length of time for threadmaster as well?
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Once you have your guide placement where you want them, then you could use the guide foot adhesive to ensure the foot won't move during wrapping. Just be careful if you do use the adhesive as you wont be able to shift it under the wrap after you are completed.
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All of my production saltwater rods have fuji guides on them. I wash them down after each use, no corrosion whatsoever. When I finally do build my first saltwater rod, Im going to try the Atlas ring lock guides which are Titanium. They are a bit on the pricier side but look cool. I could go with the standard fuji guides, but want to try something different.
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Thats awesome! Im hoping I can get out there this weekend to do the same for my first rod. I am learning that the hobby is as expensive as you want to make it. For me, its been pretty expensive :) Should be receiving my next shipment of supplies in the next couple of days.
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I dont know much about Gudebrod but I did see the GudeBrod thread available on @#$%& when i was searching for rod building components. Maybe some of those sellers have the color preserver as well? How long ago did Gudebrod stop making products?
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Gib..I would agree. The CRB stuff works fine for me at the moment. Watching youtube videos of more experienced rod builders has shown me more advanced wrappers that are out there. I would like to upgrade my rod dryer sometime soon. The suction cup type attachment can be a bit of a pain at times. I like the 3-point chuck system that I see on others. I may create my own version based on some
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I purchased the winding checks from Netcraft and waiting for them to arrive. Not sure the different sizes but I thought it would be worth it for the price. Guess Ill see when my order gets here.
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I have the CRB wrapper and dryer as well. I just move the stands and the wrapper on my workbench as needed. My space is limited otherwise I would consider buying the rails as well. The system works well for what I am doing. If I start to build rods more regularly then I will need to upgrade it but I dont see that happening soon.
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I checked out scottsbt, I see one is on April 8th that isnt that far from me.
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Anyone know of any fisherman flea markets happening anytime soon in the PA/NJ area? I know there used to be some that took place in NJ, I just dont remember when and where.
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Sweet! Thanks. I was leading toward the MHX myself as well. I like the St Croix, but I cant really justify spending that much for a rod blank when I go striper fishing maybe twice a year.
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Thanks for all the input. I probably reach out to customer service prior to purchase to see if they could help. I will look for sizing charts, think that might help as well. Definitely not worried about extra parts. The more the better.
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So far when I purchase rod components I have been buying what I need for the rod itself so I dont have any extra pieces lying around. I would like to get some metal winding checks but unsure of what size to get because I dont have the blank on hand to measure the size. Is there a trick to determining which size winding check would be best for a rod?
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So I am lookng at different choices for a striper rod blank that would like to build when I have the $$. I have a couple options I have found so far. St Croix 2M76MHF St Croix 4M73MHF RainShadow SWS70MH MHX SW70M I have used St Croix in the past but havent used RainShadow and built a MHX trout rod. Anyone have any experience with these blanks to say one would be better than the other?
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Thanks Tom. Ill check it out.
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So I customized a production trout rod I have. I ended up removing the label and applied marbling over top of the area. I then added a trim band close to the grip and topped the area with a dragon scale section. I ended up using some mesh tape on the blank then applied my metallic thread over top of it. I found that mapping out the area with tape first then applying the mesh tape helped in th
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