None that I have built. I broke a couple of store bought rods before I started building. I am very careful with rods that I have built.
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Kerry, Check the How To Videos on the Flex Coat Co. web site. Roger shows an easy way to make those butt pieces as Randolph suggests.
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Take the cylinder that toilet paper comes reeled on; cut a couple of round segments; slit the segments; wrap around the eva; now take some tape and tape the cylinders to the eva. That should work.
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Dark blue.
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Quiza. Escrivame a: oldbasque@gmail.com (Perhaps. Write to me at...) This person wants to know if he bought the right stuff to build a rod.
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You might want to look at the Batson Rainshadow RX7 SW967F blank rated 3/4--4 oz. I have built two rods using this blank to be used for lite saltwater fishing and really like them.
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I fish saltwater and my favorite guides are alconites or hialoys. I have not seen any need for more expensive guides. On any new popping spinning rod I use the Microwave guides. I recently built a 60 lb. class rod and am working on two surf rods and one 30 lb. class rod that will have hialoy guides on them.
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I saw them here in Houston at a tackle shop. There was a Angler's Rsrc - Fuji rep there showing them. I joked with the rep that I did not like them because the reel seats were full of holes. Seriously, they are very nice and very light.
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Give Lance Dupre a call at Swampland. He will set you up with what you need. Great guy to do business with.
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I have three rods now with microwaves and several on rods that I have built for my fishing friends. We like them. A friend of mine that is a metal worker saw mine and went home and made a guide using a stainless steel rod to make a small but tall guide to go in front of his butt guide. That was two years ago and he is still fishing that rod.
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I have had that lathe for about 15 years. I have a set of steel mandrels and do all of my cork and eva work. Very good product for the money. One thing to know is that not all drills will fit the lathe. It is best to order the drill with the lathe. The collar on the drill has to be long enough to clear the width of the clamp otherwise you will clamp down on the part that holds the mandrel (t
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Excellent advise from these two gentlemen. I have four 8 footer steelhead blank rods that I have made for throwing lures in the surf. Mine were made using GLoomis blanks from the 80's. Now yhou have some great choices in either MHX or Batson blanks.
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I build rods now as a hobby or for fishing friends and family. I might start a rod and have it on my Flex Coat wrapper for weeks at a time before finishing it. About a month or so ago I put a primer coat on a surf rod and went on to do other things. I believe that it was last week when I went and put on the final coat of Flex Coat High Build on that rod. I did not wipe or sand the wraps befor
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I use mod to mod-fast type blanks in 8 to 10 ft lengths. Going to the fish the surf at Galveston today. Wish me luck. I recently finished a surf rod that I want to try out.
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I watched a fellow at a local repair shop replace a guide while the customer was waiting. The repair man coated the thread with five minute epoxy, used a little heat to even it out, and the job was done. I have not tried that method myself but I wanted to show you that it can be done for a quick fix.
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Yep, give Utmost a call. Their shop is close to Batson's and someone can walk over and get what you need. Great service also.
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Yes. I use a size 30 Fuji SVLG thirty inches from the center of the reel seat on a ten foot blank. The spinning reel is a Penn 550 SS and for conventional any reel that I have spooled with 20 lb. line, mainly a Garcia 500, 600, or a Penn Squal 15. I normally don't fish for sharks. My main goal is to catch redfish and black drum. Sometimes I will catch a large speckled trout. If someone goes
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I think that the 843 will do just fine. The 844 is not one of my favorite blanks. I jump from an 843 to an 845.
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There are so many choices in blanks nowadays but for reds and specks I would go with an 843 blank in a popping or SJ type blank. You get more power to pull a red away from a shell reef but still have a rod that you can cast soft plastics, top waters, and popping corks. I still use an 842 when fishing open water, especially during the fall when I am "fishing the birds" with light plast
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The polyneon 40 is what most people use. I have never tried the 60. I use the 40 in all of my weaves and some under wraps.
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Some art supply stores or arts and craft stores carry templates with different sizes of holes and have marks every 90 degrees.
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I hope that I did this right. Anyway, Flexcoat has a short video on how to write on a blank. I use Testors and epoxy over it.
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I would just look at the picture of the weave and use a thread or threads that came close to the colors of the Holland thread. I have used some of Doc's patterns and that is what I did.
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Bill I have never seen an 8'6" blank two pieces. Checkout the Batson SW967 F. It is an 8 footer though. I have built two of those for one of my sons...great blanks. I got mine through Utmost Enterprises. You could put a 6 inch extension on one of those but then you would have uneven pieces.
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I agree with Roger. I buy blanks from dealers that advertise on this forum and never give a second thought of where the blanks are made. I am old enough to remember when people laughed at you if you drove a Japanese car. I now wish that I could afford a Lexus.
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I have been building rods since 1979 and one of the most useful tools that I now have and use is a set of reamers. The set that I have is made by Batson and I got mine from Utmost Enterprises. I used to use the hand reamers but it took too long to ream out a cork or eva handle. Now I simply chuck on of the reamers into a drill and ream away.
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It has been raining here in Houston the last few days but I went ahead and epoxied a rod using Flex Coat Lite and the finish turned out sticky. I blame the humidity. I applied the second coat using FC High Build. This is a surf rod and I like two coats on my guides. This time the finish turned out hard overnight.
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Sometime during the 80's Dale Clemens came to Austin, Texas for a seminar. There was a fellow there from Freeport, Texas displaying some of his casting rods on which he had reversed the butt guide. He claimed that he got a better cast that way. With reference to the RV guide, I guess that there is not much new. It just time for the new ideas to catch on.
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One blank that comes close to covering all those lure weight ranges is the MHX L842 blank. It is listed as a light saltwater blank but will also make a great bass or freshwater rod. I use mine in fresh and salt water. Swampland Tackle sells that blank for less than $47.
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I guess that I was fortunate in my years of selling rods. Most of my customers would come to me with an idea for a rod that they wanted built for a specific task. Rarely was the artistic side discussed and I am glad. I never was a very good crosswrap guy. I learned weaving just because I enjoyed it and would weave the customer's name on his rod or a weave of a particular fish that he would t
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