Lynn, Why don't you take a couple of pictures of the undamaged guides, with a ruler next to it and post it on the picture side of this forum. Then, give us a link and perhaps someone will have a very good idea of the exact guide. Take care Roger
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Ryan, Another option is to check the internet as well as surplus stores. A couple of years ago, I found a bunch of new 6 rpm motors in a surplus store that were virtually identical to the flex coat motors for 50 cents each. My only downside was that I only purchased a half dozen. When I went back to get more, they were all sold out and I have not found any since then. But check these source
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Lynn, If you are replacing a "few" damaged guides, why don't you simply strip off all of the guides and replace all of them as a complete set to the style that you like, That way, you don't have to try to match anything. Take care Roger
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Cheng, Just get a diagram for each style wrap. Tape your guides in place temporarily, thread line through the guides and tip and do some test passess of letting out line and retreiving, both unloaded and with a loaded rod. See which style suits you best and wrap the rod to your liking. Remember, when you look at the various style spiral wraps, the differences that you are considering,
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Matt, Since you put in 1/3rd alcohol, I doubt that this finish will ever cure. Alcohol does really not dry fast enough to escape being entrapped in the epoxy as it cures. Once the surface of the epoxy cures, the alcohol is trapped forever. If you put another coat on top of the first soft finish, you are going to have a hard shell on a soft foundation. Notk a very good idea. If you hav
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Jim, Nothing is standard. Simply look up the specifications for the rod in the manufacturers index and you will be set. Take care Roger
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Billy, once y ou put on the 2 or three guides to get to the bottom of the rod, you will no longer have the line touching the blank under any circumstance. Then, simply put on enough guides to get the line to follow the contour of the loaded blank. In 44 inches - maybe a total of 5 guides? Take care Roger
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Torin, Roger
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Jay, You need to temper your desire for absolute light weight with the needs and comfort of the fisherperson in mind. There are quite a few things that one can do to make a rod lighter. But, if the ligher weight comes at the expense of fishing comfort, then the changes aren't the right changes to make for that particular fisherperson. Light weight is great and helps out for many things.
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John and Bill, Yes a heat gun can blow dust into your finish, if you have dust in the shop. That is one of the reasons why I do everything that I can to keep dust out of the shop. i.e. no grinding, turning or sanding is done in the wrapping and finishing room. All of the grinding, turning, and sanding is done in a different building to keep all dust out of this building. After turning, gr
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You get a little of each effect. Roger p.s. When I am working with very soft tipped rods - necessary for building light tipped walleye rods I make a point to NEVER trim the tip. For these soft tipped rods, about 90% of the overall action of the rod is contained in the first 6 inches of the rod. By trimming as little as 1/4 inch off the tip of some of these rods can have a rather s
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Andy, When making grips of individual pieces, I simply take one ring - turn it to the size of the id of the reel seat and then sand it to width so that I fill the space left by the undercut of the reel seat. You really don't have to, but it just makes me feel better to have the void filled. Otherwise, if using a prebuilt handle, I will either cut a Tenon, as you have done, or cut a piec
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Bob, If you want to use a particulr product, simply go to the vendor and ask for a list of characteristics in a sales brochure. They will be happy to supply it and generally will give you the information that you need. Most vendors have thin and thick finishes. If you use a thin finish, you normally need 2-4 coats for excellent results. If you use a thick finish, you normally need 1-2
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Justin, In addition to your excellent comment you can pick up a set of inexpensive plug cutters. It is nice to have a set on hand to allow you to cut various sized plugs for different projects. Take care Roger
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Josh, If you have a lathe, simply put a piece of foam on a lathe and then use files, shapers, coarse and fine sandpaper to achieve the shape that you want. If you don't have a lathe, you can do the same thing with an electric drill. Simply put a threaded bolt into the end of a drill, put on a nut and washer, slip on a piece of eva, another washer and nut and go at the shaping. If you ha
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Andrew, A lot of great answers to your question. But, remember, -- no question is stupid!! It is never out of date to ask a reasonable question to expand your knowledge base. Take care Roger
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John, As Jon said, chopping the blank of a rod is no big deal. When you are looking for a fast action rod, the deal is the rod tip. Don't trim from the tip, or you will ruin the rod. The same thing is true about extending a rod. If you have - say an 8 inch rear grip, it is not a big issue to extend a rod by 6-8 inches since all of the extension will be hidden in the butt of the rod.
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Bob, Several solutions to the problem. 1. Use the following to attach your guide. a. Use 1/8th inch wide or narrower tape to adhere the guide to the blank. b. Use sliced up rubber tubing, or readily available very small elastic bands to hold the guide in place. These very tiny binders are readily available and really make positioning the guide easy. c. Before mounting your guid
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Sean, I agree with your recommendation. i.e. There are other very nice inexpensive guides on the market that have a much cleaner and nicer look than the Hardaloy guides. Take care Roger
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Paul, You might thing about one of the Lamiglas blanks, or a blank with similar characteristics. Roger
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Ken, I think that to figure out which guide is taking the most pressure is to run the lnes through the guides, and put maximum load on the rod. This will simulate a fighting fish. I completely agree with Tom, in that the line that is making the largest angle to the respective guide will likely have the most wear. If you look at an untra light, when the tip is fully loaded, there will
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Jim, I do it all of the time. I just put a dozen wraps on the blank you are wrapping, tie it off, and then liberally wet it down with alcohol. Wetting it this way, will very closely simulate the effect of applying and curing finish. Take care Roger
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Andrew, Actually a butt guide on most rods would work just fine with a stainless steel ring with no ceramic or other insert. Relative to the other guides on the rods, there is very little force and its ensuing wear on the guides. Especially, if this is your first rod building attempt, I would certainly put very inexpensive guides on the rod. You will find that you will have made mistakes
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Ricky, Many folks simply use a rod guide to guide the thread of the rod wrapper. If you need to have the ring up in the air, you can simply take a piece of piano wire, straighten the guide foot, and then use fine copper wire to wrap the guide onto the piano wire. If you like you can make it even more permenant by using solder to make the wrap permenant. Then, simply mount the piano wire a
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You can scuff if you like, or not scuff if you like. Many folks do one of each and have no difference in the results. Yes, a bit of tooth (from the scuffing) will give the epoxy a bit more to adhere to, but about 99% of the time you can refinish with out scuffing and have excellent results. Just be sure that the area where you are applying added finish is very clean. Take care Roger
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Jay, If you are happy with the apperance of the finish, no need to add a second coat. Generally speaking the only purpose of the finish is to coat the wraps, help the wraps adhere to the finish - and finally for appearance. If the thread is well coated, the finish is smooth and to your liking leave it alone. Many folks including myself will generally use only one coat of high build on t
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Tom, I use a very very thin abrasive wheel to cut blanks, eva, cork rubberized cork, etc with no issues at all. I suspect that there is actually less dust and waste using this method than using any type of hand or band saw. I will agree that if you can spin the material to get a nice uniform cut, that a very sharp blade on a good knife does a great job on EVA and Hapalon. Actually I use
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Andrew, I simply wipe down the guide with alchol and make sure that it is completly dry. This will insure that all of the dust is off the coating. Recoat and you will be fine. Take care Roger
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Steve, You are right, I am not familiar with every single rod and blank, and it is certainly up to the manufacturer to leave ribs on a blank if they prefer. I apologize. Take care Roger
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Rick, No normal "production" blank should have visible ribs. Normally, the ribs are part of the layup process and a good production run will sand off all of the ribs. Either sand off the ribs, or exchange it for a different blank. i.e. Unless you like the looks of the ribs. Sometimes these ribs add a rather unique special effect. They really don't affect the action of th
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