Steve, I hope you use a 10X magnifier when you work with these guides. It makes it so much easier. Roger
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Thanks for all of the updates. Your comments have pretty well confirmed my initial thoughts, except for a slightly longer blank. I will go with the SJ843 and I expect that it will work just fine. Take care and thanks again. Roger
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Garey, If your wraps are still completely wet, I imagine that you mixed all of one part - either all A or all B. I suggest that you use Acetone or Xylene to brush the finish off of the wraps. Either one of these will clean the single part epoxy off of the wraps just fine. These solvents will also dry very quickly. I don't think that Alchol will do a very good job in cleaning the finish
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I received a call the other day to build a "gift rod" for a neighborhood friend. I asked what the rod would be used for, and what style rod it should be. The answer was this: It is to be a spinning rod to catch bass. There will be no more information about the rod. For other folks who fish a lot of bass - if you could choose one - spinning rod blank to fish for bass - what
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Jim, If you move the reel back 5 inches, you are effectivly making your rod 5 inches longer with respect to casting distance. Can you tell the diffference in casting - quite probably. Will it be a significant difference, not likely. I think it is more important that the rod be functional and work for you than to try to get the most casting distance out of a rod. If you really wanted to ge
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I would actually add a size 10 between the 16 and 8. Roger
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Dean, I have no idea what you just wrote. Roger
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Hank, Another thing is to use the blank well coated with epoxy to completly wet down the inside of the EVA, before the EVA starts to get snug on the blank. This extra epoxy the full length of the interior of the handle really helps it slide down the blank. Ropger
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Barry, Please think carefully about using the minima 3 guides. I built a couple of rods wiht minima 3 guides and the rods came back. The minima 3 have single swaged inserts and the rods ended up abrading the line. This happens, becuse when you look closely at the minima 3 guides, you can see tiny sharp edges on one side of the guides. I think that most of the distributors have stopped carryin
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I agree with Marc. I have built many rods using the Minima 4 guides and they work very well. But as Marc suggested for very heavy use as Muskys, I tend to also run a carbide tip. But for other applications, I use the standard Minima matching tip with no issues with either mono, or with braid. No wear or grooving. Also, compared to recoil guides, the weight is similar, but the guides are
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Marc, Consider the use of the Americal Tackle Aero reel seat. A very comfortable reel seat with a nice palm filling hump. The rear grip is adjusted so that it fits nicely into the back of the reel seat and creates a seamless transition to the reel seat from the back grip. Take care Roger p.s. Most of my clients who are given choices of reel seats almost alwyas choose the aero seat
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Gabe, Turn the heat up to the top in the drying area and it will shorten the time. If you have a space heater, just turn on the space heater and shut the door to the drying room. Roger
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Mike, Be sure that you don't have a retaining collar on the shaft itself that needs to be removed. In many motors, to disassemble the motor, the motor body needs to stay in the armature when the motor comes apart. As a result, you may find it necessary to reach through the end of the motor, use a needle to retract the brushes, and then use a paper clip or similar wire to hold the brushes in
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Garey, The easy solution to your issue if you want to keep the guide placement is to either use a larger first guide or a taller guide of the same size. I agree with you in that on a cast - with a virtually straight rod, that the line should not touch the top or bottom of any guide if things are set up correctly. As far as I am concerned, if a line rubs a guide it is potentially causing fric
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Bill, I agree with the other posts with respect to the use of the power wrappers that are currently on the market. The bottom line is that most of the commercial wrappers on the market don't give a builder the precision and control that one can get with hand wrapping. When I started wrapping, I built about one rod with a hand wrapper and decided that there must be a better way. As a res
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I agree with Bill on this one. I would use wire guides all of the way, including the tip. There is really not much reason to use a ceramic or other high end guide on a fly rod. You will also appreciate the much much lighter weight of the wire guides compared to any type ringed guide. Roger
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Eric, When you say that you t hink that a 2 foot leader is too short, do you have any fish catching or not catching test results where you have only changed the leader length. I often think that folks do things based on what others are doing, rather than cold hard test results. Remember, fish aren't rocket scientests. They are normally looking for something to eat, or to give them an in
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Charles, Whenever I get into a situation like this, I simply strip all of the guides off of the rod and replace the guide with a type that is of a matching color and appearance. That way, the rod will have a nice finished look and will be essentially the same as it was before. It is generally much easier to simply strip the guides off of a rod, and rewrap, than spending hours and hours of
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Isaac, Please drop me an e-mail: hflier@comcast.net Roger
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Andrew, Go to your local good will or salvation thrift store. You can often find old rods there for 50 cents or a dollar. See if you can find a few to chop up to get you some blank material to use to extend rods. You will often need a full length rod, to be able to chop out the right 3-10 inch section of rod to extend a blank. A pretty cheap source for inexpensive graphite material. Al
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Craig, The easy solution is to use short leaders and never reel the line leader knot through the tip or guides. There are very very few cases where a leader longer than 2 feet or so is necessary. Then, when casting, it is not a big deal to not reel any closer than two feet from the reel. Take care Roger
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Kevin, They will work great . A solid glass blank is virtually unbreakable. Finish as usual and you will have an excellent rod for pulling those 200 lb fish off of the bottom of the ocean. Nothing at all wrong with using a solid fiberglass rod for certain types of fishing. This is one of those types where this blank will work well. You don't want the blank to be too long so that you ca
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Bert, I have done this before, and did as Bill suggested. i.e. extend the blank, before putting the handle on the extended blank. Finish as usual. Roger
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Jay, If you are using micros- the use of a locking wrap really helps to keep the guides in place. As is always the case when wrapping, wrap the guides tight enough so that you can JUST BARELY move the guides for adjustment. Some folks feel that the use of CP keeps the epoxy from penetrating, and gives a poorer lock to the rods. But the overwelming majority of rod builders that use CP all th
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When you, as a custom builder build a rod, how long do you expect it to last and how many years of use to you expect the rod to see? Roger
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Joe, If you want to clean the epoxy from under the rear grip, the answer is heat. Use a heat gun to soften the epoxy and then use a single edged razor blade, scraped perpendicular to the rod blank. It is pretty simple to remove if the right amount of heat is used to soften the epoxy, without overheating the blank. Roger
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Roger
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Billy, If a person only wants a single coat of finish on the guides, then the best fix is to cut the thread off, rewrap, recut, and refinish. If you want multiple coats of finish, then of course you can always build up the finish, trimming the nubs between coats. It is also a good time to get the technique down for a close trim. Put a fair amount of tension on the thread, to slightly op
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Paul, The cleanest thing to do, is to cut off the wrap, rewrap, and recut closer to the threads. Take care Roger
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Col, There are a million different things that can be used for rod building reel seat arbors. Use the one or multiple product/s of this selection of a million that makes best sense to you from the perspective of a custom rod builder. If arbors make sense, use them. If cardboard makes sense, use it. If fiberglass tape makes sense, use it. If masking tape makes sense, use it. If foam arbo
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