Sanford, A split grip is very simple to make. 1. decide if you want any fore grip at all on the rod. Many of the split grips use no fore grip. Just a plug on the front of the reel seat and some trim for the front of the reel seat. 2. Then, you set the position of your reel seat. 3. Decide on the amount of back grip on your reel seat, as well as the shape of your back grip. A common lengt
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Dan, When I fit the tip, I first double check to be sure that you have a "Clean" tip. By that, I mean, to check the tip, to be sure that it has been trimmed cleanly. no bulges, not straight, or bad finish, right at the tip. If necessary, I trim the tip a 1/16th- to ?? so that I do have a clean tip. When, I fit a tip, I insure that the tip slides easily onto the tip of the blank. I
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Kevin, Great colors that go with darb blue are other shades of blue, as well as blue metallic. For trim - silver makes a wonderful contrast. Also, white is a nice contrasting color. Generally speaking, when I make a rod like this, I will use a dark blue thread, that is NOT NCP and use no color preserver. That way, the thread blends into and matches the blank. Then I will use a light
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Just for clarification, Sean used the word dimmer switch for the DC setup. I am only guessing, but I think he means that he is using a dc motor controller to control the speed. It is possible to use a dimmer switch to control the power coming from a transformer which - if sent through a diode, would be dc to the motor. -- I also use the same thing that Sean mentioned. i.e. I use a 90
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Sean, Generally speaking most of the timing motors shown above are just fine with respect to heat. However, if you use one of the low rpm - shaded pole motors, you are right, they get hotter than a pistol. I do use a couple of shaded pole motors for drying motors as backup, but ONLY with a high speed fan, blowing cooling air onto the motor. The overall best solution, if you want to u
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John, Pull off the tip and use a tip sizer or caliper to measure it. Or, if the tip is still on the rod, just put a caliper around the blank just below the tip. Roger
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Michael, Remember for drying, you can always flit the rod end to end if the motor is running in the wrong direction. i.e. if you like to finish with the rod turning one way, and have the rod inserted into a motor mounted chuck and find that the rod is turning in the wrong direction, simply put the motor at the other end of the bench and the rod will then be rotating in the right direction.
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Ed, I use a rod wrapper that I have built that will spin a rod at up to 1000 rpm. I use the same wrapper for finish appliction. It works very well. Since I have complete control over the speed of the rod, anywhere from 0 to 1000 rpm, I simply use the fastest speed that is possible that is consistent with good finish application. It may be 1 rpm, 200 rpm, or somewhere in between. For all
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P.S. Here is an example of a Flex Coat commercial dryer chuck. As mentioned above, you can essentially make the same chuck for about $2. Take care Roger
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Jeffrey, To make a nice rod drying chuck, you can simply use a pvc butt cap of about 2 inches in diameter. Find a piece of pve pipe which will fit over the outside of the butt cap, with just a slight amount of clearance. Then, use a piece of neoprene with about a 1/2 inch hole cut into it. Stretch the neoprene over the end of the pvc cap, centering the hole. Then, slip the piece of pvc pipe o
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Paul, Basically, any speed that will keep the epoxy from puddling on one side or the other of the rod. So, essentially, any thing from about 2 rpm on up will work. I have used either a 6 or 10 rpm speed and it works just fine. However, for actually applying the finish, it is nice to have a rod speed that is much faster. I like to use a speed that is in the range of 50-200 rpm. Then, h
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Lorenzo, Rather than using sandpaper or something similar, just use Xylene. There are very few things that Xylene won't clean off and make like new. Roger
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Jerrfey, You might want to check out a motor like this one: Basically a very similar motor with the very big exception is that this motor has a very substantial shaft on to which you can mount a coupler and a chuck. With the motor that you have selected, you really don't have much of a shaft. The shaft that is on this motor is a plastic shaft that will really not support a chuck. Ra
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Mitchell, You can make your main wraps as well as your trim wraps as long or as short as you like. What ever looks good to you, go for it. Take care Roger
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Here is another link for some discussion and pictures of some different dryer cabinets>
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p.s. Here are a couple examples of drying cabinets with heaters that have been made by other viewers:
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Lorenzo, I am curious as to why you are putting color protector on your writing? I have never seen a need to put anything on the writing other than the standard 2-part epoxy guide coating that you put on the rest of your guide and butt wraps. Roger
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Hunter, Go to an appliance store and pick up a cardboard box that is used to go around refrigerators. Take the box home, and use a box cutter, and tape to create a box that you can drop over the top of your rod that is being dried. You can make the box so that you can lay it on the side, put the dryer inside, and have a side lid - held on by tape that will enclose the rod. Then, just pu
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Morris, When you talk about using a rod for a particular purpose, you have to think about the total load that the rod will be casting, and what sort of fish you will be catching. For example, if you fish for crappie with nothing more than a light - 1/32 - 1/16 oz jig, no other weight and no bobber, then a light moderate rod like you are asking about can make a lot of sense. However, if
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Chris, Whenever I have a rod blank to plug, I simply grab a piece of solid blank material - graphite or fiberglass, chop it to about 4 inches and chuck it into my electric drill. I then, run the spinning piece of solid blank material against my 100 grit spinning belt sander belt. I check from time to time as I go, to see if the plug fits the blank or not. When at least 1-2 inches of the plug
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I posted this picture some time ago, but for those who have not seen it, I will show it again. For those times that you have a handle and want to put a 100% perpendicular finish on the end of the rod handle to glue on a butt cap, I decided to use a cross vise in conjunction with a spare disk sander that I had on hand. I ran across a cross vice at Harbor freight for a few $$. I simply moun
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Tom, You can really simplify your life. I have been using a "gizmo" for years to hold a blank in the lathe while I turn the handle. Very simply put, it is a solid piece of either graphite ro fiberglass blank material that is turned down on the lathe using relatively coarse sand paper to a size that is a bit smaller than the inside of the blank that you want to hole. If I hap
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Charles, Your experience is exactly why many folks don't buy large batches of finish. Generally speaking, as Tom Mentioned, the hardner of many different finishes will tend to yellow a bit over time. So, it is generally to your advantage to use finish that is as fresh as possible. Good luck Roger
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Lorenzo, If I have not used a particular set of syringes for a long time, I find that there will always be crystalize resin in the part A syringe. I use the following to clean the syringe. I always have a can of Xylene on hand. Xylene is the solvent of choice to do any type work with epoxy and epoxy style finishes. i.e. it is a solvent that is very compatible with epoxy and works very very
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Carlos, I generally make my first placement at 20 inches from the face of the reel. Then, I tape on the rest of my guides to give me good rod loading. After that, I will put my reel on the rod, and with a taunt line from top of reel to the tip, I will slide the butt guide up and down the rod, until the line just touches the inside of the top of the guide. Then, if necessary, I will adju
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Mitchell, If you have a full length adjustable speed rod lathe, you can chuck up your entire rod, with good intermediate support, and use the lathe to spin the rod as you sand. It will make the job go very quickly. If you have a full lenght rod lathe with no speed adjustment, it is a good idea to tape on some counterbalancing guides on the rod, to help to keep the rod from vibrating and os
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I agree with Herbs comments. Wet sand, with a block on the sand paper to only knock off the high spots. If worse comes to worse, you may have to bring it back to the blank and start over. Take care Roger
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John, When you are just starting, it is not a bad idea to run on the slow side - i.e. closer to the 1500 rpm speed. You can develop your techniques and "touch" at this speed. But, I think that you will find, that as you get more proficient, and learn the "touch" you will likely increase the speed to the maximum speed of the lathe. The slower turning speed will allow for
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Carl, Just mark the side of your butt section, and the matching side of your tip section. Since the guides are rotating, you would do your client a favor by making alignment marks on each half of the rod. That way, it will be easy for the client to assemble. Other than that, just go ahead, match up your alignment marks, and place and wrap your guides as though it was a one piece blank.
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Ed, Whenever I work with a multi piece rod, and have any potential flexing issues, I always wrap the butt of each section before doing anything at all with the blank. It is just too easy to have a butt section of a rod piece split out and ruin a great blank. Roger
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