Phil, Since I like to make clean cuts with minimum waste and effort, my main chop saw is one made of an 8 inch miter saw. These saws are quite inexpensive, i.e. about $50. This a picture of a typical saw: Again, since I only choose to do straight chopping, I have added a straight bar along the back of the saw, and elevate the cutting surface by 2 inches by adding a piece of aluminum
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My last several rods have all been made with no fore grip. You can obtain the plug from some of the sponsors which fit nicely inside the front of the reel seat. Just cut the inside arbor a bit short, then chuck the plug into the lathe and ream the center of the plug to the diameter of the blank. Now you have a perfect seal for the front of the reel seat with a nice fit on the blank. Wrap t
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Rick, For light biting walleye here in the midwest, I build quite a few "rigging rod" using fly rod blanks. This style fishing is the employment of a fairly light weight - 1/4-1/2 oz - then a long leader - like 12 feet with a single small hook and a live bait impaled on the hook - like a crawler or a leech. For the times during the mid summer blues, this style fishing which mean
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I agree with Justin. I think that the presence of a fore grip depnds on whether the rod will likely to be held by the fore grip. If the hand is never put on that part of the rod, for bringing in fish, then I don' t think that there is much use for the fore grip. But for any heavy action of heavy poundage saltwater rods, I think that the fore grip is essential. For many of these style ro
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David, All true. One big difference, with the 6 inch wheel compared to the 3 inch wheel, is that the 6 inch wheel is twice as thick. Not that it is that big a deal, but the 6 inch wheel will have double the saw Kerf. One thing that I really like the 6 inch chop saw for, is to cut PVC pipe that you use for shipping rods. You can easily cut a 4 inch tube with the 6 inch chop saw, by spinn
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David, All true. One big difference, with the 6 inch wheel compared to the 3 inch wheel, is that the 6 inch wheel is twice as thick. Not that it is that big a deal, but the 6 inch wheel will have double the saw Kerf. One thing that I really like the 6 inch chop saw for, is to cut PVC pipe that you use for shipping rods. You can easily cut a 4 inch tube with the 6 inch chop saw, by spinn
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Phil, Yes, if you leave the 2 inch blade on the mini chop saw, you will limit the depth of your cut. But first of all, I don't use the blade for cutting blanks. If you use a blade, it is too easy to catch a tooth and chip out a blank. That is why I remove the blade and replace the blade with an abrasive cut off wheel. I also replace the 2 inch blade wiht a 3 inch cutting wheel. I fabricat
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Rick, A rod can be built on any blank tha you like. You can put any style handle or guides on any blank that you want as well. The conventional difference between the typical fly rod and the typical spinning rod is action. i.e. generally speaking the average fly rod tends to have a much slower action that works well for fighting big fish on light leaders. Conversely, the average spinnin
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Previous convention had that as the power of the rod went up, the size of the thread used on the rod went up. But in todays world many rods are all built with size A. When one compares the total number of wraps per inch for each of the different sized threds, there is not that much difference in overall strength of each of the rods for a given inch of wrap. i.e. thread A is less strong than t
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Frank, There is a 3rd option. Use NON NCP thread, and use no CP. i.e. use plain nylon thread wiht no CP. I think that the colors are much brighter and look much more natural with this technique. But, everyone has different wishes with respect to the look of their rods. Roger
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This is the saw and abrasive wheel that Ken spoke of. I also use the same thing. Roger
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Dan, You always have the option to buy handle material and make your own split grip. If you do buy handle material, you can make the split grip with the dimensions you wish as well as the shape that you wish for you or your client. Roger
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Scott, Give an MHX blank a try, you might be very suprised at the blanks. Roger
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Steve, Why do you really care if the rod is perfectly level? Are you worrying abou tthe epoxy running and sagging out of position during drying? Roger
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Mike, It is not suprising that most folks know nothing about custom fishing rods. After all - if you look at averages - the average fisherman probaly fishes 2-5 times a year. For those folks a broom stick and cotton cord will likely catch as much fish for them as some of the best rods on the market. Simply put, they have neither the desire or appreciation of a custom rod. Roger
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Steve, Check out the MHX blanks from Mud Hole - Not bad blanks. Roger
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Col. I have to disagree with your statement about not using parts to increase profit on the bottom line of the business. That is why we have a business license, and that is why we buy parts wholesale and sell parts retail. We need a profit to stay in business and any well run business will use EVERY part of the business to grow profit. Whe you buy the parts, you have to order, stock, an
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Jim, The longer the rod. The action that casts the longest distance. The spine of the rod makes no real difference with respect to casting. Use the smallest and the fewest guides to control the line. Use the lightest guides No reason to have a ring in the guide. i.e. snake or stainless guides will work just fine. Don't worry about the grip, just make it a straight EVA grip and tape
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Dan, Although you can attach a chuck to the small plastic output shaft of these microwave motors, they are really intended to simply have a gear sit on top of the motor to spin the rotating disk in the microwave. If you can find a motor with a 1/4 inch shaft about 1/2-1 inch long, it is a much easier job to attach a chuck and you will end up with a much sturdier attachment. Folks use dr
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You could simply take a piece of rubber, vinyl, button, metal, etc. etc. etc. Use a drill to drill a hole that matches the blank size. Then, use a plug cutter to cut out the material with the smaller hole on the inside all ready drilled out. For example: I picked up a set of these a couple of years ago and use them to cut cork plugs for the ends of butt caps. They are inexpensiv
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You could shoot off an order for a dozen winding checks with a .15 id and solve the problem. Roger
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Larry, Do a bit of research and get the answer that suits you best. Take your planned guides and wrap them on the rod, but don't finish them. Then, put on your planned reel, planned line, and a 3/4 oz casting weight. Go out and make about 100 casts, both upwind, cross wind, and downwind. Do gentle, moderate and severe casts - grade the performance of the rod. Go back to your shop, cu
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Larry, I think your guide size could be perfect depending on the lures that you are going to throw. If you are going to be doing a lot of pitching of heavy lures - say 3/4 - 1 oz lures - it is likely that the size 30 stripper is just right. I had a couple of clients that did a lot of northern pike fishing where they did a lot of pitching heavy spoons using spinning gear. The first co
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After wrapping a rod, a magnified view of the wraps will sometimes show dust and or skin cells from wrapping. To eliminate the issue, I use the 3M blue low tack painters masking tape to tack off the wraps. I have never had an issue with the low tack leaving any residue, and it does an excellent job to remove dust and other left behind particles. Roger
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In my dirty room, I simply use a shop vac on the lathe. When finished, I sweep up, then use compressed air to blow any dust out the door. In my clean room, I use a honewell room air filter on low, just to keep air moving and to take care of any floating dust in the room. I never do any "dirty" work - i.e. sanding, or lathe work in the clean room. The lathe work is done in a s
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Ed, Go to woodworkers.com to check out some of the commercial cleaners available. Roger.
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Michael Do yourself a favor and pick up a full set of inexpensive alconite guides - ranging from size 6 to size 40. Do the same thing for a set of stainless guides. These guides will then give you a pretty good idea of guide size needed when matching guides to existing guides on a rod. Basically you have an outer diamter that is somewhat simiar to the stainless guides. Then you have the
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John, I agree with you. Unless you pay and arm and nose, it seems that there are two grades of cork on the market. Bad and terrible. But, also tend to be pretty critical. But for the bulk of the rods today, I really don't have much choice except to use filler on the worst spots. After trying many different mixes, blends, glues and fillers, I have found that Elmers Light Oak filler is
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