Ray, One of the reasons that I decided to try the "formed" jaws, was to minimize pressure on the handle. By forming the jaws to the shape of the handle, much less pressure is required to hold the handle securely, and thus lessen the chance for any marks on the handle. I also had an issue with the cork always slipping off of the jaws and decided that I would rather not mess with it
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Raymond, I also tried the cork tape on the jaws of the chuck. This certainly helped the problem but did not entirely eliminate the problem. But by contouring the inside of the chucks jaws to match the contour of the rod handle, all of the problems have been solved. Also, there is no coating or finish on the inside of the contoured jaws. Since the shape of the jaws is the same as the shape of
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Bruce, Put some different pulleys on your drill press so that you can run the drill bit more slowly to keep the heat down on the plastic. Roger
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Andy, The very best thing for drumming up business is to have the overall national economy improve about 100%. Get everyone back to work and allow them to open their pocket books more often. Fishing rods for the most part are luxury items. In virtually every part of the country, there are numerous stories of failing business, slow sales, etc. It is tough to sell product, when every credit ca
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Tom, In addition to the above, posts, I will first do a physical exam of an unknown blank and then do a very SEVERE flex test for the full length of the rod, in virtually all directions. i.e. I will do flex tests at 0 - 90 - 180 and 270 degrees for the tip, mid, and butt section of each rod, after physical exam to insure that I have no field failures. I don't want to spend a minute of my time
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I read and understand the post by Duane about scuffing the rod blank. Ordinarily I would agree with this post, but for the case of an exposed reel seat, one needs to be a bit careful with the rod scuffing, at least in the area of the reel seat where the rod blank will be exposed. One really doesn't want to scuff the finish of the blank so much as to be able to see the scuffing effects on the rod
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Charles, With respect to guide size and placement, I suggest that you simply place, test, change, and test to get the optimum spacing and setup for your setup. My favorite reel by far - for this particular setup that you are running is one of the bass pro, or us reels large spool reels. These are very light compact reels, with very very large shallow spools. The small reel gives 31 inches
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David, I have had the same problem - both with the pac bay deluxe chuck as well as shureline, and taig conventional machinest chuck. I think that the basic problem is the point of the jaws on the chuck. There is simply not enough area of the chuck to guarentee that the chuck will maintain contact. It is not a problem with the adjustment of the jaws changing. I have marked the jaws and I hav
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Chuck, Yes, I know. But the point that I was making is that it is possible to have the adhesive on the face of the graphic rather than the back of the graphic. Consider any of the face front adhesive products that are given to you for the inside of your windshield for seasonal park entrances, etc. All of these graphics have adhesive on the front of the graphic and are designed to be applied
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Andrew, Tom pointed out an excellent solution for this reel seat several months ago. He suggested on using the fuji style butt caps that are sized to perfectly fit the inside of a size 16 reel seat - same size as the minima reel seat. Then, simply ream a hole in the center of the cap for a perfect, press fit onto the rod blank and the problem is solved. Note: when you use this style
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Chuck, With respect to decals on the back windows, Have some of the decals with the sticky on the face of the decal rather than the back. That way, you can put the decal on the INside of the window and not have to worry about it being scraped off. Roger
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Blair, If you are talking about a rod, building it and shipping it to Australia, I would certainly recommend building a 2-piece rod. Otherwise the shipping will be really really really expensive. Also, have you checked to see what the customs charges will be when you ship to Australia. When you ship to some countries, the customs charges equal or exceed the value of the rod. Roger
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Ed, It is interesting that you mention a break that was 18 inches back from the tip. A few years ago, a very well known blank and rod manufacturer brought a new - very desirable rod blank. It was a 6'6" medium light blank - with an extra fast tip. This blank manufacturer was just getting into the relm of making extra fast tipped blanks. In this particular case, the blank manufactur
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Dale, I agree with Ken. Normally I build on this color blanks with blank and am well pleased with the result. A couple of times, I used NCP dark charcoal - and that was a big mistake. The color ended up being much too light and ended up clashing with the blank. However, I have used non NCP dark charcoal with excellent results. A virtual perfect match for the blanks. But you can't go wro
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Ed, You mention - "Sam lifted a Crappie from the water" when the rod broke. Out of curiosity, was the rod vertical, with the crappie hanging on the line? The reason that I ask this question is that is exactly what happened to me when I broke a rod on a Crappie. i.e. I lifted the Crappie from the water, and was holding the rod vertical when the rod snapped. Of course, in re
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Herb, You have plenty of time. Take the razor, slice the threads the get rid of the thread. Wipe all of the finish off of the blank and start over. Be sure, do it right. It is simply not worth it to try to take a short cut and end up with a job that is a real deal to try to fix. Right now, cut your losses and start again. It will only take 5 minutes to cut off the guides and clean th
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Thomas, Materials, diameter and lay up. Use a caliper to measure the same points on each of the rods. Generally - if the materials are similar and the layup is similar the heavier action rod, will be larger diameter at the same points on the rod. Take care Roger
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I agree with Eric. I just use hot running water from the laundry tub, after I have sprayed the handle down with simple green. I then, just use a tooth brush to scrub down the handle. If the handle is in tough shape, I may put the rod in my full lenght rod lathe and do a touch up on the handle while in the lathe. If necessary, as Eric pointed out, I may follow up with Elmers Golden Oak wood
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Richard, If you order two or three spools of the color that you think is close, I expect that you will get what you need from Mudhole. It looks like one of the reds will be about ideal for you. Remember, you need to put a coat of finish on these threads or just wet them down good with alcohol to see what the final color will look like. Take a look at some of the red thread rather than
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Richard, Remember, there is no such thing as a stupid question. All that there is - is a simple lack of knowledge. Answering questions is what this forum is all about. Take care Roger
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Danny, Generally speaking, St. Croix blanks are of excellent quality. You can check the specifications on a particular blank of interest from their web site: stcroixrods.com click on - rod building - and then click on blanks. Take care Roger
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Dave, Low sales? Roger
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Dale, As Tom pointed out, you can choose any size guide that you prefer. As he also pointed out, you can generally go with guides that are smaller than a size 8 from both a weight and a line size perspective. But, I will say, that for many people, the convenience of having a larger guide side when both threading line, clearing gunk that might get on the line, as well as being able to pass
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Rick, Custom rod builders get lots of calls to make specific rods - made on a specific blank - for a specific purpose. The blank may be fitted with a spinning reel, a casting reel, or something else. That is why they call it custom. Early on, I found that there were many blanks that turned out to be great specialized blanks for our types of fishing here in the upper midwest that were normally
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Drew, After working with many many different customers over the years and trying lots of various color combinations, the vast majority of the folks like a guide wrap that is the same color as the blank. Then a bit of contrasting trim on the ends of the wraps to high light the guides. But, of course, there is always the client that is the exception to the majority. Take care Roger
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Drew, My wife is an artist and helps me with color choices. She has indicated that when you work with a royal or similar blue that the best metallic color choice would be a silver metallic, rather than a gold. On the other hand, if you work with a green, brown, or red, then the gold would be a better metallic. If you were going to go with a metallic blue. I would use a plain nylon
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Kevin, If you aren't using one already, get yourself a good magnifier: You can use these with glassess or without. They make a huge difference in the ability to easily work with various sized thread. The advantage of this type magnifier, is that it lets a person work at a convenient arms length. Take care Roger
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If a large arbor is needed - i.e. a lot of filler space; I will use one of the foam arbors that work so well. If only a small amount of space is needed, I will simply use masking tape as a filler. I use narrow tape and leave a bit of a gap between each row of tape. That way, the epoxy will be between each row of tape and insure a good bond. I have never had a reel seat or handle come loose,
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Kevin, If you can twist it, you can get it off. Twist it all of the way off, get a good coating of slow drying epoxy inside the grip, as well as on the blank. Slip together, wipe off the excess and you will be good to go. Roger
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Andrew, Don't discount the use of a solid fiberglass rod for lake trout. The solid glass rods that I have been building for several years, are all fished by fellows who fish deep water for big fish. I have never had a complaint about a rod not having sufficient sensitivity. Just because a rod is fiberglass does give it a lack of sensitivity. For winter ice fishing and the extreme cond
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