I usually will put a light coat of epoxy over the underwraps, on heavier rods especially. Chances are that without CP, the white wraps will turnout translucent with the guide feet showing through. If you've ever done a repair on a custom rod which has had CP used, you would realize that it don't hurt the wrap's strength any. I've been using CP on all my wraps, regardless of thread type for year
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I have two old medicine bottles glued down to a block of wood to keep the syringes in. I always reach for the twin bottle of Flex coat, and the syringes. That way I always do the mix in sequence, and returned the syringe to it's original bottle. The residue that sits on the bottom of the syringe bottles keeps the resin and hardener in the syringes from drying out too. I've not yet had a problem
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Someone a few years back had given me a plaque with that quote on it, it used to hang on my office wall. I left it there for my successor after I left.
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I just repaired one, GB 9005 as stated above was the match. Not sure on the rod model but it's an HT metalic color that looks sort of like gunmetal or dark pewter. I've seen the same color on some Fenwick rods too with the stainless ring guides.
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You will probably need more information on how it will be used. I've built 130lb class rods with roller guides and a swivel tip for 9/0 reels for wire line trolling. Many wire line set ups use only a swivel tip and a single roller stripper. Most of the wire line rods I've built here though were longer rods, somewhat slow action with carbide/carbaloy type guides (Pac Bay Carmet guides are comm
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It depends on how severe the scratches are. Some rods take better to polishing than others do. I've had a few that looked like 10 miles of bad road that came back really well and others that nothing would help. I depends one what the original finish of the rod is. Darker colors seem to show the biggest improvement.
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I've been seeing misc. sellers listing unlabeled, unfinished, and/or uncut St. Croix blanks for years. In most cases its a matter of someone just not knowing the difference who may be liquidating some rod shop's old stock. I bought out a shop a few years back which had hundreds of rods in stock, they had listed the inventory as 300 St Croix rod blanks of various types. What I found was about 10 S
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I'd be a little concerned with adhesion over the entire rod using epoxy, I think the painting method would work best so long as a flexible enough paint was used. I've done a few odd color rods simply using automotive acrylic paint with good results. I first did a one for myself as a test subject to see if it would hold up, then I gave one to a rather abusive buddy and the color has stayed on just
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I'd look for something more along the lines of Devcon quick drying epoxy in the syringe type tubes. If not, maybe you have a custom golf shop or pro shop in your area, the epoxy that they use to bond golf club heads with would work great too.
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I've used very fine automotive polish to clean up older rods prior to applying wax. Motorcycle windshield polish works wonders on an old well used rod. I've been able to really bring back some nasty looking rods. I've done this for years with no ill effects. I don't use a cleaner wax, but any good automotive type pure wax will work just fine. The abrasive in the windshield polish is super fi
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Flexcoat's preserver is on par to some wood glues or adhesives. I forgot one of those small hobby brushes soaked in thread preserver once on the wooden bench top way back when, I found it two days later under a rag dried and glued to the bench, when I pulled it up, it took a chunk of wood with it. I've always thought the stuff was pretty similar to Elmer's Glue in make up only a bit thinner. Both
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If it's of any help, a buddy of mine tore up a surf rod handle on a trip one time, the only thing I could find to make due for the week end was the foam wrapping tape used on a 10 speed bicycle. It worked so well that when we got back, he had me do two other rods that way and wrap the ends to keep the tape secure. It was surprisingly comfortable for a make shift grip. It worked well in super cold
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I've seen three broken Ugly sticks come in the shop here, one was a super heavy Ugly Stick Tiger series, (the mustard color ones), it had broke clean off about 4 inches above the fore grip. The guy said he had a Penn 9500SS on it spooled with 100lb Power Pro, the fish took a dive at the boat bringing the rod against the aluminum gunwale and it snapped right off. Another was a medium weight spi
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I still have a few boxes of original Spiderwire here, it says 100% Spectra on it. I've been told that the newer lines are 'fused' with Teflon to make them rounder and smoother but can't recall the source. I do remember some guys using Kevlar tire cord for fishing line way back when but I don't think that was too common. They would use it both as leader and full spools of it when fishing in ro
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I realize that modern super lines aren't abrasive but am more interested in the older combos that started the fear of braided lines. I have customers who won't touch anything less than Alconite or SiC guides because some tackle shop told them braid cuts aluminum oxide and ceramic guides. Years ago I was getting tons of work replacing white ceramic guides with the then new Fuji aluminum oxide, (
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I do a lot of repair work and matching jobs to make rods look original again, I only will reuse or wrap over an old underwrap if I feel I can't match it with new work. I've never had an issue with epoxy layering, even with new over old so long as you prep the older epoxy first. I have pulled apart many wraps in which there were several layers of epoxy 'shells' formed and not really bonded, b
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Is there an even larger chuck than the standard upgrade? I do a lot of repair work and find that many older, heavier surf pole butt ends won't fit. I've been contemplating machining one of my chucks out to take only larger work.
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I've seen several posts about braided lines and cut guides. Other than old plain chromed steel guides, I've not seen any cut guides here. I've been using some form of braid or Fireline since it came out in the late 80's, I've never experienced any wear myself, but the earliest type of guide I've used with Fireline was most likely the old white ceramic guides with a black shock ring or those F
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I've had several power wrappers, I have two Pac Bay wrappers now, one from Amtak and two old home made wrappers. The best part about the newer style wrappers is the roller carriage and horizontal spool tensioner set up. My PacBay wrappers are the RW-3XL models, two are set up with an extra section for 12' overall length. I actually bought two extra sections to set up only one at 15' but ende
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If you fish in saltwater, you will find that the cushioned reel seats work better since they don't wear the paint off of your reel seats, which helps prevent corrosion. It's not an issue with graphite reels or reels with bare metal seats. Cushioned reel seats do also hold the reel better in general but if a reel moves around side to side, chances are its a matter of the seat being too large.
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It's pretty much a matter of preference not a rule. A longer handle is better if fighting really big fish, it provides better balance on a longer rod, and works better in a tube style rod holder. On the other hand, you can balance a shorter rod handle by adding weight, a shorter handle can make for a lighter rod which is more comfortable to fish all day, and a shorter handle can allow the reel an
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Good deal! May I ask what happened to the larger sized tips from Pac Bay and Fuji? I deal almost totally with surf and boat rods and have a constant need for sizes larger than size 12 tube. I have a pretty regular need for Pac Bay BPHT and Fuji Harloy tips in larger sizes. I keep the smaller sizes in stock, but rarely use a tip thats smaller than a size 9 tube. With many being as large as a
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Excel should do just about everything you need, but you can also look at the following link if your looking for something simpler, there's a number of downloadable programs there, several are free. Volutive makes nice professional invoices, but won't do much as far as inventory, Quick Books is probably the best there, but it takes some getting used to if you haven' t already been using it.
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I have an older 12 x 36" Craftsman metal lathe as well, I have assumed that that was made by Atlas since a buddy has an identical lathe in which the only difference is the logo on the gear cover. I bought that one at a farm @#$%&, still sealed in it's wooden crate about 15 years ago. It;s been an excellent piece or equipment. I did a quick search and found a pretty neat site on old wood work
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I've had a few factory rods that I repaired that had what felt like uncured epoxy below the outer coating, those looked ok but when I cut into the wrap to replace a bad guide, the inner layers and thread were still sticky or wet. I've seen this on quite a few rods lately. I just sort of figured that it was due to a rush job at the factory or a bad mix of the epoxy if that was indeed what they had
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What about flies? I would think that it would draw insects? When I was a kid, a buddy oiled his bycycle chain with cooking oil and in a few hours it was covered with bees, ants, and other insects. I would also be concerned as to what other things are also in vegitable oil, there is most likely sugars and other undesirable items in there such as proteins, carbohydrates and lipids. i wo
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I have to agree that most rods will show any defects within the first few times they are used, but I also think that many customers have the impression that it being a custom rod means it's indestructable. I can't count how many times I've seen guys high stick a rod and snap the blank, but I've also observed a few break when the angler grabs the rod near or at the tip to hoist a fish over the
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Looks good! I believe the lathe I use is older, but I'm not sure who made it, there's no name on any of the castings and it is driven by a separate motor which mounts below and drives the lathe via a belt. I was told that it looked like either an old Craftsman or Atlas lathe, but never bothered to find out for sure. I am in the process of converting it to a modern chuck and I'll do a complete r
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I have the BGSGT tips, but have been trying to figure out who is making a similar guide in a smoke or black Chrome frame. I have been getting lots of OEM rods in for repair with the tip missing it's ring, since most of these are new rods, I need to be able to match the rest of the guide set. I realize that most of these rods like nearly all OEM rods these days are from China. but some are pretty
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Might anyone know who makes or sells a trolling, heavy duty, or turbo style #14 tube size tip top in smoke or black chrome finish with a gold ring? I need a pair of them for a repair. Any ideas? Basically what I need is an Amtak GCUT tip but in a turbo style frame. or a BGSGT if that style came in a smoked or black chrome frame finish. Ring size would ideally be 10mm, but at this point anyt
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