You can use TAP Plastics Gelcoat Pigments available from ; Also popular, is Testors model paints... drain off the liquid and just use the pigment that's left in the bottle. I think people have been using other pigments as well... but these seem to be the most popular. Erik
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Foam core tubing is actually ABS... usually comes in black. Very light and strong... my favorite for making el-cheapo rod tubes with. Erik
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I do mine while it's chucked in the drying motor (18 rpm)... I'll do a lot of the swirling while it's turning and I'll stop it from time to time only for an instant to do some swirling as well. You can actually use the sag of the finish to help create or change your pattern if you experiment a little... stop and let it sag one way... then turn it and let it sag another... all kinds of fun trick
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Derek... this had nothing to do with stainless steel guides... If you look back in the archives at my post a few months ago... I had a curious situation occur with some titanium concept guides (TLNSG) where the strut fractured spontaneously while I was grinding them. Titanium is a dramatically different material than stainless, and it turned out that I had just the right frequency of vibratio
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The fractures were with the TLNSG's which have a much thinner strut than the TNSG's. I've never had a problem grinding the TNSG's or TSG's mechanically. The final verdict on those TLNSG fractures was that it was caused by vibration / harmonics on the thin strut from my combination of grit and rpm's. Erik
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These aren't difficult to prep... I use a disc sander on my lathe with 120 grit sanding disc, then polish with the dremel polishing wheel (gray composite wheel). They'll wear out your sandpaper faster but that's about it. You can use a file as well... works just fine. Go for it... Also... don't be fooled by claims that certain guides come pre-ground... they almost always do a poor job
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Joe... Have you guys given any more thought to making some high frame surf spinning guides and larger tip tops suitable for surf rods? I tell you, the surf fishermen that I build rods for love the Titanium guides... makes a huge difference in weight on an 11-foot rod and titanium is the perfect material to stand up to the punishment these rods endure. The only problem is that on spin
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Mandrels... hands down. I'd recommend having a good assortment of them though so you can minimize your reaming as some have stated. I also have used Mike's idea about drilling holes in the ends of my clamps. Very good idea... funny how simple a good idea can be. I bought clamps at Harbor freight and they have big enough ends to allow holes large enough for up to a 5/8" mandrel. Erik
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Merrick Tackle is now dealing Diamondback blanks... of course you have to have a wholesale account to buy from them. Haven't seen any other retailers selling diamondbacks. If you don't have a Merrick account, find a rod builder in your area who does and see if they'll get the blank for you.
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Thanks for the explanation Charles... but when doing stress distrubition tests for guide placement, wouldn't it make more sense to place stress on the blank in the same manner that it will be stressed while fishing... i.e. tensioning the line out of the reel rather than pulling on the end of the rod with a separate line? It seems to me that if the rod wants to flex one way when you pull on t
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Richard... on my 11-footer, the distance from center of reel seat to first guide was approximately 25 inches and it was a size 20 ring to properly accomodate the side to side sweep of the line for the particular reel that was used (Penn 525 Mag). As far as locating the lock up point... I would attempt to stress the rod in the manner that you feel a fish would most likely stress it. For a surf
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I did an 11' loomis surf rod that I used 11 guides on... so I think you are in the ballpark. I did a ton of test casting and static testing with all kinds of configurations and this was the best I could get. Here's a photo of how my guides wound up looking. I can give you my spacing if you want it.... let me know. I had two guides in the butt section with one right on the ferrule. It
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I use Jasc Paintshop Pro which is similar to Photoshop but far less expensive. Lots of features and easy to use... probably can't do some of the high end things that you can do in Photoshop... but plenty good for the average person. Erik (aka kzreelrods)
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FYI... I happened to actually get a bunch of the Titans from Mudhole before they sold out. I haven't used any of them yet but will be shortly. As for quality / fit & finish... they looked great and seem to be very robust. I'm excited to try them out and can't wait for my backorder to get filled. Joe... you better keep the production line cranking... you're going to sell a lot of t
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I typically recommend nitrile gloves for general purpose incidental contact with epoxies... 4-mil thickness. Nitrile generally offers better chemical resistence than latex (though one should always consult the glove compatibility charts to determine acceptability for use with any particular chemical). In general, nitrile will provide excellent protection against the RESIN component (several
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This is a typical and classic description of a sensitization reaction. It is a situation where, after repeated exposures, the body develops an immune reaction and no longer tolerates the exposure. It is irreversible. Once you are sensitized, you will react to minute exposures from that point on. This is something that is known to happen in a small percentage of the population and epoxies ar
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Try Gudebrod 257 Rust with and 340 gold nylon as an underwrap/trim... both with CP. Looks very sharp... see...
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Here's the flip side of the coin... I recently had a customer who gave me a great testimonial which included comments about how there was no comparison between the custom musky rod I built for him and his other so-called "custom" Jim Grandt and Fig Rig rods he had purchased in the past. He is now a repeat customer and will likely continue to be. Even though it was no news to me
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I'm on the exact same page as Mike as far as preference for double-foots as transition guides and the location of the first 180 degree guide. As far as starting distance from the reel seat, it depends on how fast of a transition you make. As Mike said, the first 180 degree guide should be about at the lock up point. That, in turn, will determine how fast of a transition you can make. Since
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Nope... just put a little dab into your epoxy and mix thoroughly. Add enough to make your color opaque and that's it. Erik
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Mike... Titanium is harder and will eat up your abrasive faster than stainless steel. The TNSG series are heavier and more forgiving when dressing the feet than the TLNSG's (concept frames). Be careful not to be too heavy handed with the TLNSG's. For the guide foot on the double-legged side, the two legs are joined together at the very tip of the guide foot. If you get too heavy handed o
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The best!!!
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In addition to the great advice above, you might consider the Fuji Silicon Nitride II guides for this application as well. I'm currently using them on a standup rod for the first time and they seem very nice... lighter in weight than many other comparable guides but very strong and robust.... not at all wimpy. Also, for the butt grip, a nylon sleeve style grip is nice if the rod is going to
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FYI... to my surprise I called Mudhole this morning and they said they now have the Titans in stock. I placed an order for a bunch of them... not sure if any of them will be on back order, but I thought I'd put out the word that it looks like the Titans have arrived. I'm pretty excited about them as are many of my customers... finally a titanium framed guide at a reasonable price. Jo
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That looks like a great idea... I can't tell you how many times I've stood there looking at the "clamp section" of the hardware store trying to figure out a way to make them work for cork rings. One question... instead of pulling the mandrel out and then putting it back in for turning, why not bore another hole in the opposite clamp and just keep the mandrel in place the whole time
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I make a ramp using 5-minute epoxy. Once hardned, I turn it in my wrapper to sand it to a nice clean taper and wrap thread over that and apply finish. Works nicely. Erik
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Greg... here's my advice. Get the Mudhole Tackle catalog. There's enough instructional information on the first several pages to get you started building a rod. You can get by with the following equipment & supplies if you want to build a couple rods to see how you like it. - a thread bobbin ($5) - a burnishing tool ($2) - a 1 Tablespoon size stainless steel measuring cup/spoon
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I use the stuff from the autoparts stores as well. I like the little combo packs with 12" x 12" sheets of several types of gasket materials. The rubberized cork and the dark gray fiberous gasket materials make great trim rings. The tan fiberous gasket stuff isn't very robust though. You can also get bulk cork and rubberized cork sheets in various thicknesses at McMaster Carr. One
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