Here you can see the tenon turned on the foam core and skinned with 1.0" light carbon fiber. This was inspired / created by Capt. Mike Pedersen at Riley Rods. Use of the hose clamps he sells allows very square, very precise edges and tenons.
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Capt. Mike Pedersen-style Aero integrated carbon skinned spinning handle in process...see other photos for more.
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Another Integrated Carbon Fiber spinning handle inspired by Capt. Mike Pedersen's work. This one is an Amtak Aero 16 over 6# pour foam grey core. RR321 used for seal coat and wet lay up. Sanded and finished with Helmsman Spar Varnish.
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A super close up view of a Capt. Mike Pedersen inspired integrated carbon fiber handle. You can see the tiny bit of holo glitter in this one. Also, this shows you how the carbon fiber looks if you never sand into it using the RR321 type epoxy finish. Tremendous depth and luster plus you can use glitter. Heavier than a Permagloss finish but looks really nice.
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Another photo of an integrated one piece handle butt section - this one uses an EVA butt cap. Thanks to Capt. Mike Pedersen for the inspiration and instruction. If you measure / set up carefully and use the hose clamps from Riley Rods, it is very easy to get square edges and clean fit / finish on butt caps and trim rings. Much more to follow...
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Another Integrated Carbon Fiber spinning handle inspired by Capt. Mike Pedersen. I am following Mike's lead but I trim the threaded barrel off the seat and do not make an arbor out of the foam core. Rather, I glue a separate arbor in the threaded section. Once the handle is finished and mounted I then ream to fit and glue the threaded barrel up against the seat. Foregrip optional. You ca
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Integrated once piece carbon fiber spinning grip. Fuji VSS 17 with EVA butt and foregrip under 1.0" light carbon fiber sleeve ala Capt. Mike Pedersen. This one is finished with a Fuji SK2 graphite nut and an EVA foregrip. Eva can be bored with a 7/8" spade / paddle bit for a perfect fit. Also working on some carbon skinned graphite locking nuts / foregrips as inspired by
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The same VSS17 handle configuration after skinning with 1.0" light carbon fiber from Capt. Mike Pedersen at Riley Rods. Seal coat of RR321 applied, followed by wet lay up with RR321. Grip then scotch brited to level and given two very light coats of RR321 to finish. The depth and luster of this method is really something and allows you to use pigments and glitter if you like.
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Fuji VSS17 and EVA butt and foregrip mounted on blank and sanded down prior to skinning with carbon fiber ala Capt. Mike Pedersen. You have to pay particular attention to the place where the EVA meets the seat or you will get a visible 'seam' that I find unappealing. Thanks to Capt. Mike and others for so generously sharing their ideas and techniques.
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Fantastic photo sent to me by a satisfied customer down in South Georgia, Dusty Dollar. I know he sounds like a stripper but that's not a stage name. He's a real good person and a great angler and hunter. Rod is an SCIII 3S70MLXF with a split grip, size 18 NPS with Quik Lock cork foregrip, and Fuji chrome Alconites configured in the New Concept - I think 20-12-8-6s out to a size 6 tip.
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Shamelessly ripped this handle design off the cover of RM several years ago. When I look around my shop, I have no idea what I would be building if I didn't subscribe to The Magazine. Stabilized Buckeye Burl from Andy Dear on a GUSA DHX 9' #5 4-piece from Custom Tackle Supply. Now that we have the CC system this rod probably rates out around 6.5 or 7. But it's a great chuck and duck heavy
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Another photo of an unidentified 7' shark caught on a spiral wrapped SU1266F near St. George's Island, FL. Anybody know for sure what kind of shark this is? All I know is it was toothy, big, fast, strong, and the knots, crimps, and rod held together. Always a good thing. This fish burned about 200 yards of line off the reel in no kidding 15 - 20 seconds. It was sizzling hot, the reel
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The Rainshadow SU1266F 2-piece spiral wrapped surf rod strikes again. Dr. Trey Falconer of Thomasville, GA near St. George's Island, Florida with a 7' tip-to-tip shark. I'm honestly not sure if this was a Blacktip or a Spinner...or maybe the biggest Atlantic Sharpnose I've ever seen. But it was a big fish and the rod whooped it. Not bad for a 2-piece surf blank rated for 12 - 25 lb. line.
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I'm uploading a few photos of Dr. Trey Falconer of Thomasville, GA using a Rainshadow SU1266F 2-piece spiral wrapped surf rod to whoop some sharks near St. George's Island, GA (or is it FL?). Anyway, pretty nice fish caught from the beach with the surf spiral. These blanks are great all-arond surf rods in both casting or spinning configurations and a top value. The rod is rated 12 - 25 lb.
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Composite skinned casting grip on ECS split seat Lamiglas Big Bait Swimbait rod. Used 1.25" light carbon fiber sleeve from Soller Composites and 8lb. Urethane Pour Foam from U.S. Composites. Thanks Tom and Andy for the great article.
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Photo of my first composite skinned cork grip. Followed the RM instructions exactly. Thanks so much to Andy and Tom - awesome technique and an awesome article.
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Attached is a pic of my first attempt at composite skinned grips - one casting butt grip and full wells fly grip. Both were made using an 8 lb. urethane grip core from U.S. Composites and 1.25" Light Carbon sleeve from Soller Composites. I used regular Flex Coat Rod Builders epoxy to glue the sleeve down to the core and layed up the sleeve with West Systems 105A resin and 207SA hardene
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Attached is a pic of a few different options for composite and flocked grip cores. On the bottom left is a grip I poured and turned for a new Fuji ACS Skeleton with 8lb. Urethane Pour Foam from U.S. Composites. For comparison, above are two Flex Coat arbors (the light colored ones) in sizes 16 and 18 and four arbor 'blanks' I have been getting from Bob McKamey at Custom Tackle. These arbor
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You never realize how cluttered your shop is until you try to take photos. While this is a poor quality photo (sorry), it does show some of the infinite variations you do with these type of holo / tiger wraps. Seems like nothing leaves my shop without one these days and I have not had this much fun building rods since I got my first Renzetti lathe. Thanks again to Bill and Scott for sh
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This is one of my favorites and the thing I am experimenting most with these days. Jorge Pozzobon first taught me this technique of using three or more colors for the underwrap. As long as you use the same number of threads for your overwrap and underwrap - and pull out all but one thread on the overwrap - you get the effect. The spaces in between are larger so you get some really cool color f
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Here is another Holo style I like. This wrap is Gudebrod NCP Bright Red and Light Grey underneath with Light Blue NCP over the top. A lot has been said about the top color being the only one that affects the final color of the wrap, I have not found that to be true unless you use black and white (or black and grey) underneath. The reality is that this wrap is light purple. It looks red an
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I am having so much fun with the Throop/Colby wraps that I wanted to post some photos. Little did I know that they would be much harder to photograph than they are to wrap! Size A Gudebrod Regular Nylon 046 and NCP light Grey with NCP 046 overwrap. Thanks so much to Bill and Scott for sharing this wonderful technique. The photo does not do it justice but it looks like water.
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I'm posting a few photos of a spiral-wrapped Lamiglas Tri-Flex CSB 138 2M in action near Seaside, Florida in early June 2006. This rod has caught several fish, but this is the first time it was truly tested. The set up is a modified O'Quinn spiral wrap using Fuji Hardloy guides. In test casting, I found that you really do need running guides and a tip no smaller than size 16 to pass a heavy
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Another pic of a spiral-wrapped Lamiglas Tri-Flex CSB138 2M at work on the beach near Seaside, Florida in early June 2006. It is essentially a modified O'Quinn spiral wrap. In this photo, you can see the guide set up pretty clearly. By offsetting the first guide so that it intentionally stacks line toward your rod hand (in this case to the left), it makes it much easier to guide the line o
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We had a great week with our spiral wrapped surf rods in Seaside, including putting three sharks over 6' on the beach. But this was the largest - a 7'7" nurse shark. While this nurse did make make the runs our Blacktips and Bulls did, it was still a tough fish. Twenty minutes into the fight, she really hunkered down and did not want to come over the second sandbar. After 5 minutes
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Sorry for the low quality photo, but I wanted to share pics on another shark caught near Seaside, Florida in early June 2006. The angler is Trey Falconer of Thomasville, GA. This shark taped 6'2" tip-to-tip and had him down to a dozen turns of line no less than three times. The rod is a Rainshadow SU1266F built using the New Concept guide set up described several times in RodMaker
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I got to handle and inspect these guides at ICRBE. They are very well done. Already put my order in!
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I'll be there! Looking forward to it!
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