Double foot all the way. XNs if you go strictly by the line recommendation but I wouldn’t be afraid of using MXN’s to be a little lighter - not a huge difference in the MXN & XN but adds up I guess
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As to which guide - what type of rod will it be and what is the target species? - from a “ratings” perspective the XN would be fine and likely overkill - the MXN double foot likely would be fine and depending on the target of the rod I wouldn’t be against putting there MXNs and then F series runners
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Won’t find anyone more dedicated to customer service than Larry
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Batson Enterprises provides quality components with a very broad selection of guide styles in 304 stainless (Forecast), 316 stainless and titanium (Alps) with multiple ring material options. They have great reel seat options in both graphite / nylon and in aluminum. I feel their aluminum seats are top in the industry in terms of finish quality On the blank front, tons of options across perfor
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Scott Grady Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The pair Mudhole sells are 2 different sizes. Though soft enough aluminum that they can get bent out of true… - and I’ve found the smaller one does not fit well in several size 16/17 reel seats I’ve tried :(
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Norm’s spot on. These were designed for bottom fishing in the NE for fluke, tog etc by a guy that knows a thing or two about those fisheries They can make a good catfish rod for tossing baits due to their composite nature and more moderate action - just need to get the right model. And as they are considered “saltwater” blanks the ratings reflect that Vs freshwater ratings - ie a “MH” in
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If it sounds too good to be true, then you already know the answer….
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Nice work - look forward to seeing the pic of the 200 Lb Tuna you land with these!
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David Riesenbeck Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I thought rod geeks use to have a huge color > selection. I know my rod builder can make a rod > with any color I want using a NFC blank. They used to before moving the factory back to the St Croix Us factory when they cut it to like 3 colors (I’m not going to count black and unfinished as colors).
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I highly recommend Don Shaffar of Backbone Customs who can paint any color you’d like
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Stan Vogel Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Well, as it turns out I'm considering the spray > paint techique. I just broke a rod today for a > grand dtr and I'm sick about it, she picked the > colors and at the time a particular mfr offered > almost anything you could ask for in color. > That's no longer the case. Kids and wives love &g
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Phil & Roger - Your opinions - but not helpful to address his question so why bother even replying. Keep fishing your boring rods that have no personality…. Seth - as has been mentioned, lots of options depending on what tit want to do - paint, vinyl is used often, printable vinyl with images of your choosing, snakeskin, tobacco leaves, kelp leafs and others are just a tiny set of option
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I’ll typically take 3/8 - 1/2” off the Alps TexTouch real seats for a more compact & streamline look - as mentioned just need to check to make sure you’re not going to be using a reel with an abnormally long foot
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Only you can decide what looks good to you. Thread is cheap - try it. At least wrap a bit on the blank and wet with alcohol - or better yet soak with some epoxy to see then wipe/pull it off. Do it in a section to be covered by the grips if concerned
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Sammy - my experiences... I will say that things are a lot better now than they were a year or more ago during the height of the pandemic and supply chain challenges.... GetBit: If an order is placed in the evening, and your are ordering things showing as in-stock (GetBit now has a live inventory feature), I've had them ship out the next day about 80% of the time, and the day after almost t
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Alps (at least as imported here in the US) does not have a KW “clone” like some others do. They have the LXN/MXN/XN/HXN line but quite different in look / shape.
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The color will be very impacted by the color underneath. Will look different on a black blank vs white - and then consider the guide foot color. One thing to try - wrap in silver metallic (and if using size A poly perhaps do a light coat of epoxy) and then wrap the color thread, give a consistent color, no guide foot to be seen, and you get the benefit of the translucent depth
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It’s doable. Just be sure to get a solid black thick sharpie and mark out the “BPS” decal on the rod after you bring it back from Bass Pro ;)
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How dare you add under 0.04 oz, or a tenth of one percent of your final build weight for unnecessary, performance killing, decorative nonsense ;)
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Great to hear - I never got back over to get one at the show so I’ll order one up
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Confucius say - “If something looks too good to be true, it probably is” Your money will soon be parted from you using that sight with much disappointment
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I’d suggest perhaps using something like Google Sheets - make a “template” for what you want to record and create a copy of the spreadsheet for each new rod or create a new tab in the one sheet. You can embed pics in the spreadsheet if you wanted to for purposes of remembering wrap layouts or colors or such.
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- I trust the advice of the guy that co-formulated ThreadMaster and now Gen4. He does not carte-Blanche recommend it for potentially weakening reasons as stated but he says if your going to cut it with something (that’s generally available to rod builders) to use acetone and suggests it only as a first coat like this. That said a fly rod builder that turns out a fair quantity of rods many with
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thank you...
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A pic of one of the guides once fully complete
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Josh - the use of acetone in this application was in discussion with the epoxy formulator (Andy Dear) - and used in a very specific way. Nathaniel - I (Back Creek Custom Rods - a sponsor here), custom color anodize titanium guides and offer them to the rod building community - you can check them out on www.customcoloredguides.com - will be adding powder coated guides to the site very soon to
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> Michael, > Very clean, efficient and well executed > workstation = good job. With your apparent > fabrication abilities, allow me to suggest that > you build a dust-proof / UV-proof cover for your > thread. Oh that was just a short term landing place…. Thread is all stored out of the light in Plano boxes inside of metal cabinet drawers that I’ve added to the setup sin
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Depends a lot on what you build. If you build 3-4 piece fly rods a shorter bench is fine. If you build 7’6”+ one piece and you plan to use a power wrapper then you want some room - at least 9’ to accommodate a power wrapper. I have a 12’ bench made from an 8 and 12’ section of butcher block and mounted on L shaped braces so there are no table legs in the way. Set for standing height but
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I did the acetone thinning based on recommendation from a well accomplished builder who uses the same finish (Gen4) and does this style wrap quite often with great results, and also in consultation the the epoxy’s formulator. The first guide I did it was challenging to get the air bubbles out of the tunnels. I found pre-wetting the wraps with acetone and immediately flooding with the thinned fi
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Jeffrey D Rennert Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Very impressive! Any difficulty working with such > fine thread? I work with Maderia & A pretty much exclusively, so it was not too much of an issue for me - it was a bit finer but did not have any major problems with wrapping or managing to walk up the feet, etc... Rick Handrick wrote: -----
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