Chip, If it is the tip only, you can actually use one of many different tips and have a reasonably good match. Just get the right size and color and it will look fine. Of course the exact correct matching tip is nice. Roger
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Mitchell, Go to your hardware or big box store to the paint department and get alchol from there. It is the 97% variety and will burn with a colorless flame that is soot free. If you buy alchol from the drug store it will only be 70% and it will burn with a yellow, sooty flame and sometimes not burn well at all. Take care REW
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Rodney, I have helped a lot of kids fly fish and I don't start them with fly rods. Rather I set them up with spinning rods, and casting bubbles with a fly on the end of the line. We catch lots and lots of fish that way. Just because you want to fish with a fly, does not mean that you need a fly rod to fish a fly with. As a matter of fact, you can take a spinning rod and a heavy ca
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Marc, I have used both and I will agree that there is a slight difference in the action of the guides, with a slight nod toward the tich finish. But, I have also found that it is dependent on the lb test line, type line, as well as the weight of the jig, lure or weight being cast. The slight difference is more pronounced on lighther lures and harder casting lines. Roger
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Ron, No, not true. The thing that you can get too tight is the actual tension on the thread. You can get the tension on the thread so tight that it is virtually impossible to adjust or turn the guides. If this is the case, you may run into an issue with actual damaging the blank. But I have never seen, where packing the thread tight, can ever be too tight. It is in your best interest to pac
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Rodney, I think that these are a great choice rods for children. About the right length for them to handle and pretty tough. But, having said that - it is likely in your best interest to not to try to make them so general purpose. I personally think you would be better off to build them up with conventional spinning reel seats, and when it comes time to go fishing work with them to learn th
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Bill, To answer your question, I generally do the first guide placement with a load test on the bare blank. Then, I place tape where I feel that the guides need to be for the initial setup. I then tape the guides in place for a quick load test with a reel and line through the guides and tip. If necessary I will readjust none, one or all of the guides as needed. Once I have the setup for thi
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Lorenzo, I use a power wrapper for everything. I essentially start the wrap and then typically wrap as fast as I can and still maintain a tight wrap. For the long butt wraps, it is normally just a matter of starting the wrap and then - pedal to the metal until the wrap is nearly fnished. Then, stop for the locking thread and finish off the wrap. For guides, especially short wraps, the o
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Barry, As is the case for most rods, fewer guides is generally better than more guides. PUt on only enough guides to get a good loading on the blank. Since this is a pretty heavy blank, with fairly minimal bending for casting, and even fishing, the total numbers of guides should be minimal. Also, with the use of a rod of this length, don't be afraid to have the first guide or butt guide a
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Chuck has it right. If you wrap a guide and apply CP you are effectivly fixing the guide to the rod in that spot and with that orientaion. You really need to wrap all of the guides, align all of the guides, check for wrap gaps and tighten if necessary - before apply CP and finish. CP really does have a gluing effect on the guide. You don't want to try to rotate or tighten a wrap after
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Billy, Actually, I have to disagree with you on the use of a file for Eva or Hypalon. I use a drill to hold a file and run it backwards in cork, eva and hypalon and find that the file cuts all of these materials like a hot knife through butter. I just spin the file at 2500 rpm and it quickly reams out the interior of the handle material - irrespective of the type material. If you try to use a
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Lorenzo, There is no easier way. There are just different ways You can put on the tip guide first, the butt guide first, or put on a middle guide and work in both directions. Or you can put on every 2nnd or 3rd guide and go back and fill in the blanks with guides. Just pick a method that works for you and use it. But generally speaking most folks likely put on the butt guide first a
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For those who have access to a metal working lathe, you could apply the principles from this 1940 text from MIT to make yourself a fine tapered steel reamer to ream handles if you were so inclined. Rather interesting reading on a large variety of machine shop practies. Roger
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Thoomas, Or, if you are a production rod builder of certain rods, blanks and handles, you could do what commercial rod building manufacturing shops do. i.e. have a machine shop make a custom milled reamer for each specific blank that they manufacture. Then , they simply have an operator, take the handles, run them up and down the reamer, and in 2 seconds, each handle has been prepped for
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Thomas, You can really simplify your life. Pick up a 1/4, 516th, 1/2 and 5/8th 10-15 inch coarse round file. Cut tne handle end off of these files and round and or grind down the ends so that they fit into the end of a 3/8th or 1/2 inch drill. Pick up a set of 15 inch aircraft extension bits up to size 5/8th of an inch. Use a caliper to measure the size of the butt section of the
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Tony, I use the 1 inch belt sander all of the time to prep guides. I use the standard - red aluminum oxide - grit 230 paper. It works just fine. I always holde the guide perpendicular to the paper. The end result is that there are very fine groove across the guide foot when finished. The fine grooves are perfect to help hold the thread nicely on the guide foot. Take care Roger
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Joe, Out of curiosity, what is your exact guide setup and what is your guide spacing, starting from the reel? I am wondering if you may simply have the first guide too close to your reel seat. However, I will say that if I am planning on the use of a larger spool reel like a 4000 or similar I will always go with a size 30 first guide and or a "tall" size 25 guide. I also
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Russ, When coating in a high heat area, take the time to wrap a sweat band around your head. This will keep the sweat out of your eyes, and will keep the drips from falling on your rod. REW
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Tony, Although it may not be necessary, I always wrap the tip section at the joint for the tip over style multi piece rods. I just feel more secure by having thread run to about 1/64th from the joint to insure that there is never an issue with splitting at the joint. I normally don't do any wraps on the part of the rod that is inserted into the other part of the rod. One isse that can happe wit
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Take a bunich of plastic baggies. Put the components for each rod and or blank in the bag. Ues a biner or tape to tape the bag to each of the blank. Get a long cardboard box, Put all of the rods, blanks and baggies into the box. Put the box up in your garage and forget about it for now. If anyone comes for a rod and or repair - dig out the rod and find the one of interest and take care of i
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Billy, You don't accept anything for repair unless you have a name, address,and phone number do you? Send anyone that has had something stored for over 30 days a certified letter and tell the person that he has 10 days to notify you with respect to the disposition of the parts and or rod, or the items will go away. Roger
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Bruce, Virtually all of my rod repair - i.e. splicing, fixing etc. is done with 5 minute epoxy in the interest of saving time. I have never had a failure as a result of glue failure on any of the rods. Take care Roger
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Bruce, Lots of folks use various brands of 5 minute epoxy who need the fast setting times of the 5 minute variety. For those folks they typically glue up each part of the handle separately. If they are gluing up a long handle, they will often do it in two stages to allow them to get it together without having the glue setup. The epoxy will hold up very well for fishing rod use. As one of the
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Phil, Most of the finishes that I use have at least a 5 minute working time. Some longer, if you keep the mix thin and cool. Roger
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Bill, I would be curious if you would simply send me an e-mail with your stop watch measurements of your large production dryer. i.e. put a mark on the center shaft. Count the number of revolutions in a minute. put a mark on one of the spots where a rod rests, count the number of revolutions in a minute. I have yet to figure out how the two numbers could be different. One revolu
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If I may interject - I think that Jim is referring to HOURS, when he uses the 6 and 36 numbers. If I recoat, I would likely use a number like 6-10 hours between coats. Roger
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Alex, Actually, if one has an accurate scale it is pretty easy to figure out the mix ratio by weight if one needed to. One could simply take two idential measuring cups, say 1/2 cup or there abouts. Use the scale to measure the empty cup. Then, fill both cups with each part of the mix to a predetermined level. Weigh the total amount of each cups weight. Subtract the weight of the cup. The
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The following articles gives a person some pretty good insight about epoxy in general, and also points out some of the specifics of epoxy use, handling, types, etc. If any part of the article applies to you as a rod builder during your work, consider using the advice. Roger
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Ron, If you are uncomfortable in working too fast, and if you aren't comfortable working with a thinnner finish, simply work in smaller batches. If necessary, mix one batch per each guide. Tom is correct however, normally you should spend no more than about two minutes total to do a complete guide finish on a typical 8 guide rod. i.e. 10-15 seconds per guide. I use my power wrapper t
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Bill. I read your post with interest. I do agree 100% with the physics equations with respect to circumfurence, angular velocity and tangantial velocity. But for the case of a rod dryer, you really don't care about these components of rotation. The only thing you really care about for a rod dryer, is 1. i.e. how many total rotations will the rod make in a given amount of time. Lets say
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