peter i also go with the dental ligature bands for holding my small guides. my dentist was happy to order a bag of 1000 for me. i think they were around $20. rog
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tristan i hand file my larger guides. i don't bother too much with the small fly guides. if i use a grinder or dremel i take too much off! rog
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Michele I have built many 6 1/2' & 7' spinning rods using Fuji BYAG's, BLAG's, and BFAT's (alconite) and I am completely satisfied with their performance and light weight. Rog
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Tony I'm just now finishing a rod with Threadmaster that is about 2-3 years old. I also thought that mine seemed a little thicker right off the mixer and it seemed to get stringy alot sooner that it used to! I don't heat the finish before I start. It might be a tad cooler being stored and applied in my basement, therefore a little thicker. I only heat gently with a light bulb about 6" aw
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Jim Try Bingham Ent. The last batch I got was from them, although it has been a while! Rog
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Tom Is it considered late to have not recieved the 14/3 issue yet?? Rog
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Bruce I use a heat gun set on low. I'm careful not to heat too much. I then use an old butter knife or a plastic picnic knife to scrape the old finish off. Works just fine for me. Rog
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Didier I made myself a set of reamers with the loose grit applied to rod blank sections. I used 2 part Devcon epoxy to coat the blank sections and then sprinkled the grit over the rod bond (you may also spread the grit on some newspaper and roll the grit on). I also have a set of dream reamers with the sandpaper strips in a spiral on them. I actually favor the grit style reamers over the drea
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Kurt I have used a little heat, and an old butter knife with good success! A plastic picnic knife might be useful too. Rog
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Julian Yes to the CP on top before the finish! At least a couple of good coats. When trimming the seam on the bottom of the skin wrap, I also trimmed each end of the skin by slowly turning the rod and rolling a sharp razor blade (very lightly-don't score the blank) around the ends of the skin. This left a nice straight edge to start a thread wrap. I have a pic of mine (my first) in the photo s
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Bill I have had the same problems with the finish not wanting to cover completely on the sides of the guide feet. When I'm prepping my guides I now taper the sides of the guide foot a little. I don't file it round or anything - just take the sharper edge down! That seems to work for me. I also started putting on thinner multiple coats of finish. More coats helped too. Rog
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Matt Do you have any archery hunter friends. Old or broken arrow shafts are my "practice sticks"! Rog
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Eric LOL Rog
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Bill Please follow up with a "post gathering" report. It would be great to hear how it went. I would love to attend, but the timing for me couldn't be worse. If it is a success and you plan to have another gathering I will try my best to make it! A safe trip and gathering to all. Rog Altoona PA
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Steven Most of my 6'6" or 7' spin rods end up with a #25, #12, #6 choker and runners as Joe (above) suggested. This setup works best for most of my spin rod builds. Rog
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Joe, I build 6' to 6'6" ML spinning rods for river smallies. My recipe for most of them has been - BYAG25, BYAG12, BLAG6's (usually 4) for the runners to the tip. I'm using #8 XL mono with several different reels. This setup seems to work for me very well. Rog
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Jay I have not fished Lake Erie for walleye, but have fished it for smallmouth several times. My group drifted and jigged with 1/8th & 1/4oz jigs using 8# mono. I think any 6'6" medium light or medium power spin jig type rod blank would serve you very well if you will be drifting and bouncing jigs. All of the major manufacturers/suppliers have several good choices in this range. p
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ditto !
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lorenzo the answer to your question is "yes". rog
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Dennis I also have about 20 or 25 builds to my credit. When I started building my rods (all spinning) I used the "cone of flight" method and also built a few with the mfgr. guide spacing charts. Then I saw the "new guide concept" info on this website and in RodMaker magazine. I gave it a try, and now I'm completely sold on this method of sizing and placing guides! For me it
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Mike I have built many L - ML - M spinning rods using the Fuji Alconite guides (single foot spin BYAG and single foot fly BLAG) and the New Concept system. The alconite guides work just fine for me and they hold up well. The rods I have built have all been 6' - 6'6" - 7' all one piece blanks, so this is not a guide spacing suggestion. This is how my sizing has worked out for me dependi
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steve i have twice tried 8lb fluro on 2000 sized spinning reels. came home and pulled it back off and spooled up with the old standby trilene xl. for me it's a pain in the rear on smaller spinning reels! rog
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a soft cloth and a light rub. rog
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Hello fellow rodbuilders, I am about to take my first shot at a snake skin inlay for a butt decoration. I've read the article in RM magazine and all the other tutorials that i can find. The question is which cp would you more experienced rodbuilders reach for as a first choice for tacking down and coating the skin? I have the following brands; Flex Coat, Glass Coat, Gudebrod 811, Diamondite, C
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I bought one at the EXPO and it has become my "first to grab" tool for packing and manipulating thread wraps. A high quality tool! Rog
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Thanks for all the pointers! I try to keep a very clean finishing process - clean hands & tools, no solvents used, brushing off thread wraps, etc. I've only built about 20 rods but this is the first time that fisheyes of any sort have popped up. I think I'm going to have to chalk this one up to "stuff happens". My wife was "putting away" a bunch of stuff near my drying ben
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After putting on a 3rd coat of Threadmaster Lite finish on my wraps, I am left with small shallow circular divots in the finish surface. It seems that the first 2 coats went on and cured ok but just the last thin coat left voids. Should I be able to just apply a 4th thin coat over the last one without any cleaning or prep, or is there some step I should take to up my odds of getting a smooth fina
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Steven I also build 6 1/2 & 7 foot light to medium spinning rods using the NGC method. I also use Fuji Alconite guides. Most of my builds use a BYAG20J, a BYAG12J, and the rest are BLAG6J fly guides. This setup seems to be right on the money for my purposes. I get effortless long smooth casts, and every rod that I have built for friends brings "oohs" and "wows" after th
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Herman Take a look at volume 9 issue 3. Rog
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Jeremy It seems that I have successfully posted a few pics of my lathe in the photo area. If more pics would be of help to you please tell me what you would like to see. I'll be happy to take more and post them. Rog
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