Mike, I don't know if you have had this lathe very long or not. There are a few comments on some of the blogs about watching out for the drive assemblies on the head stock: I am guessing that as long as you are careful and don't overload it, it will work very well for you. The lathe uses a standard mt2 head stock and tail stock so that there are lots of chuck options. You migh
Forum: rodboard

Mike, That idea will work fine with one small modification. If you just cut off a piece of tubing and stick it in the rod, you have a very sharp edge that will cut through a line in an instant. I would suggest that if you do use a tube for the tip of the rod, that you use a naile or other tapered object to "bell" out the end of the tube and to prevent the end of the tube from cut
Forum: rodboard

Ken, Great idea. I have a 30 foot roll of non skid liner in the shop that I picked up for a $ at a garage sale. I use this material all of the time under my other bench tools to keep them from moving as well. Thanks again for reminding me. Roger
Forum: rodboard

Maryann, I have tried all of the methods suggested above and use none of the methods. I have never actually had a tip fail, but I would sometimes get nervous to know if I had enough glue in the tip of the rod. Now, I use a very simle very reliable method, as follows: 1. I have the tip prepped, the tip top prepped, and I have trial fit the tip on the rod tip to know that it will nicely
Forum: rodboard

I would trim them to 5 feet, trimming only from the butt of the rod. I would use the same guide layout as if the rod were 6 feet long, except I would leave out one running guide. You should make the handles a bit smaller and a touch shorter, but not too short, You still need the leverage of the rod butt, in case a big fish is caught. Borrow a child from somewhere to help with the fitting of
Forum: rodboard

Kevin, This is the saw that I use for much of my rod building, to trim blanks, cut arbors, and clean up cork: I remove the metal blade from the chop saw and replace the blade with a 3 inch abrasive wheel: I keep a vacuum running behind the wheel to take care of any dust when cutting and it works very well. I modified the saw by removing the rotating base, and grinding off al
Forum: rodboard

Andrew, Whenever I ship a rod and buy insurance for the rod, I insure it for at least the value of the selling price of the rod. In other words, whatever is on the invoice to the customer is what I insure it for along with the cost of the shipping. For the few times that I have had a problem, I have never had an issue with payment. I just send in the receipt and receive the money back.
Forum: rodboard

Kevin, Any abrasive wheel will work just fine. You can use a high speed grinder, a dremel, a chop saw or something similar. Quick and easy. I do it all the time and have no issues. Roger
Forum: rodboard

Gordon, Another thing that you can do is to simply do an overwrap on the tip. Of course,without a liner of some sort, the line friction might eventually wear through the fiberglass, but it will take some time with crappie line. Roger
Forum: rodboard

Lorenzo, When you do a spiral wrap, you can pretty well have the guides position in about the same locations as if you were doing a conventional guide. With respect to guide alignment or rotatation on the blank. I simply put them where it seem to make sense for a nice spiral on the rod. Then, I will pull off about 50 feet of line from the spool, and with gentle tension on the line, reel the
Forum: rodboard

No
Forum: rodboard

David, Actually a few years ago, there were a lot of builders out there that attempted to balance rods by inserting weight up the inside of the blank. But due to the shorter balance arm of the weight as it moved up the rod, everything except about the last 1/2 inch of the weight did nothing for the balance, but simply made the rod heavier. I think that if you looat over the past, and differ
Forum: rodboard

Justin, You say that you are going to send the rod back and it is a bummer. From reading your post, about the only thing that really bothers the fishability of the rod is the clicking of one guide. Why don't you simply cut off that guide, retie it and recoat that guide. Use a bit of "GENTLE" heat to slightly soften the epoxy, and a razor blade to cut off the thread and finish. S
Forum: rodboard

Lorenzo, Start with a small batch and see how it goes. Especially when working with a new guide style I don't necessarily know either how much epoxy will be required and how long the applicaiton will take. I dislike working with epoxy that has began to cure at all. So, if I were you, I would start with a small batch, and coat what you can, until the mix begans to thicken. Then, mix up
Forum: rodboard

Larry, Whenever working with skeleton seats, I simply take a normal seat of the same size, measure the OD, and length, and make the insert accordingly. If you have never tried it before, you might try enclosing the front or non threaded portion of the reel seat in Cork. The folks around here who do this, normally call it a hidden hood reel seat. But, if you have a conventional sized spi
Forum: rodboard

I do exactly the same thing that Duane does and it works very well on all sized blanks. Roger
Forum: rodboard

George, Depending on your buiding situation, and whether you have a permenant shop and or rod building bench or not, you may consider the use of inexpensive florescent shop lights that hang from the ceiling, if you are of the type that moves up and down your rod. If you drop the lights down, so that they are only about 6-10 inches above your head, in a line that is just in front of your head,
Forum: rodboard

George, Depending on your current vision, and whether you wear glassess, you may be able to go to the drug store and pick up a pair of 2.5 or 3.0 power reading glassess for $10 that will suit your needs perfectly. If your vision is fine without glassess, this solution of using reading glassess works very well. For task lighting, I use a light that is very similar to this one: I pl
Forum: rodboard

Jim, If you do like to balance your rods, you might try lead tape: Some folks use weight on the inside of the rod blank. This is really not a very good idea, because if you use weight on the inside of the blank, you end up putting weight up a good distance into the blank in an attempt to balance the rod. Rather, you want to try to keep your weight at the extreme end of the rod handle. That
Forum: rodboard

Robert, Remember, if weight is of any concern to you, that Wood is much much heavier than cork of the same lenght. Just take that consideration into your rod design. Roger
Forum: rodboard

As Mr. Gamble pointed out, use manrels that are JUST long enough to support your work. If your handle is shorter than the mandrel, slide the mandrel through your lathe chuck so that the end of the handle is touching, or very near the chuck. This will help to keep the mandrel from flexing. It also helps if you are using the "hardened" mandrels, which don't flex as much as common hard
Forum: rodboard

Bill, Any time that you want to drill a nicely centered hole in a piece of work on a Lathe, it is generally to your advantage to spin the workpiece and hold the drill bit stationary. If that is how it would work for your setup - go for it. Your description is a big vague, with respect to what item is being held in which chuck. Roger
Forum: rodboard

Duane, Since you don't have any issues with metallics, as I tend to do. What do you use for a thread tension device when wrapping metallics? Roger
Forum: rodboard

Michael, If you don't have an old fishing rod, go to the salvation army or good will store in your city. You can often pick up old fishing rods there for less than $1. This is certainly a good source for old rods, and or blank material, if you need repair stock for a broken rod. Roger
Forum: rodboard

George, I have excellent overhead lighting, as well as localized halogen task lighting. But all of my wrapping is done with the aid of a head band mounted magnifier: I typically use the 2-3 power magnifier. Since I wear bi focals normally, I also take them off and put on my "computer" glassess which have a focal length of 28 inches. The combination of the computer glas
Forum: rodboard

Tony, Whenever sizing reel seats - (i.e. seats needing an arbor) - I simply select the reel seat that fits the hand of the client. If you are using a reel seat with an exposed blank concept, then you need to match the size of the blank. Try to obtain a reel seat that begans to get tight on the seat about 1 inch above the final reel seat position. Then, when gluing in place, the glue will lu
Forum: rodboard

Lorenzo, It is pretty tough to do MAIN wraps with metallic thread for the reasons mentioned above. Have you thought about using standard thread for the main wraps, and then using metallic wraps for the trim wraps? Roger
Forum: rodboard

Devin, The singlest largest and main reason that reel seats turn is very simple. Not enough glue in the right place. When ever gluing a reel seat in place, I make a point of insuring that I have a liberal application of glue covering all of the surface where the rod will be glued. I also start with the reel seat a good distance up the blank, and coat that portion of the blank quite li
Forum: rodboard

Sanford, Any time that you go to build a rod, you need to consider the type line and the type fish you are going to try to catch. A fisherperson is not a happy camper if he/she hooks into a big fish and then find that they don't have an adequate rod to handle the weight of the fish. So, yes, lighter rods can be a lot of fun, when working heavier fish. But you need to walk the tight walk wir
Forum: rodboard

Kevin, Often, when you are trying to figure out a color combination, just go out and look at automobiles in the color that you are trying to figure out. See how the cars are painted. See what the colors of the interior are in the car. See what sort of contrasting trim might be on the vehicle. Essentially use the cars as a big color pallate. Easy to see and visualize the color matches and
Forum: rodboard