I have been using pac bay minima guides for the last year on many of the rod builds. I really have not had any issues at all with these guides and my clients as well as myself find that they give excellent service with essentially 0 issues. Have any of the other users of these guides have any issues at all with respect to durability or any other type of issues. I have found that they
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Actually, with respect to the guides, you can get by with just changing the first and 2nd guide on many casting rods to change them to a spinning rod. You just need the taller first guide to get better line flow from the reel. Take care Roger
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Mike, I wonder what was going on last night. I was in the shop turning handles. During a moment of inattentions - I think that inattention is the cause of most accidents - I went to remove a handle that I had just turned down, without turning off the lathe. The handle ended up broken, the manderal ended up broken and the tailstock on the lathe ended up broken. Fortunately, I suffered
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Justin, One of the big issues with just using epoxy to fill gaps, is that it is very difficult to keep everything equally spaced. i.e. if you have a large gap, it is quite likely that there will be a bunch of epoxy on one side and very little on the other, resulting in a handle that is not properly centered. A very easy and simple thing to do, is to simply take masking tape of a nominal
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Pete, The requirements for wood turning - compared to metal turning are quite different. One thing to consider, if you wish to puchase a metal - specific lathe for rod building and handle turning is the length of the bed. Many metal turning lathe beds are relatively short, and normally don't have bed extensions available. However, many of the smaller wood lathes have a longer bed to
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Bill, You mention not being able to write on a glossy blank. I had the same problem until I went to Testors model paint for the media. I then use a fine tipped scripto quill to do the lettering. Be sure to use fresh paint, and mix it frequently. If necessary to clean, use the testers brush cleaner or use Xylene to clean the brush and be sure to keep the paint at the right consistency. P
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Thomas, When ready to trim, use a fresh razor blade or a very sharp fine tipped fly tying scissor to trim the tag thread. Put tensio on the tag thread and clip as close to the wrap as you can. When the tag is cut, it will virtually disappear uner the wraps. A slight burnish should take care of the rest. Also, it is a good idea to flame the wrap to both shrink the wrap as well as to melt any rem
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John, It is certainly not a bad idea to put the majority of the pull throughs on the off side of the blank for visual appeal. However, with respect to ties offs, you normally should not be able to see any of the tie offs at all when finished. However, with respect to trim. Sometimes when multi color trim wraps are put on, there is a thread cross over as part of the procedure. As a result,
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Josh, When a person goes into an establishment and looks at a rod, or when a person comes over to pick up a rod - almost without exception - the first thing that a person does is to site down the rod and check over the rod. The person will check to verify how straight the blank is as well as to check the orientation of the guides. The people virtually never check to see if the guides ar
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Seth, The comment about using the piece of PVC under water hose is a very good one for a virtually industructable piece of rod handle. A 5 foot length of PVC pipe will cost you about $1. Just use a heat gun to get the piece of tubing perfectly straight before using it on the rod. Put a piece of cork at the front section of the butt to give you a nice comforatble grip. Then, put a n
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Josh, The best thing to do is to have each of the blanks in your hands, check the action and power. Also, have a sensitive scale handy to check the weight of the blank. These things should give you everything that you need with respect to the blanks. Take care Roger You can always read specifications, but it is in the hand testing that really tells the story.
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Dan, Alcohol does a good job for most general cleaning. However, there are times that one of the following may be necessary. 1. Lacer thinner - for thinning some one part finishes. 2. Xylene - for removing very hard to remove or partially cured epoxy. 3. Acetone - to take care of any thing that the above three things don't solve. Caution - Xylene and Acetone - in particular are v
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Milt, With respect to cabinets under any bench. The answer to this question is simple. Are you going to stand at the bench or are you going to sit at the bench. If you are going to stand at the bench, you don't keed any knee room and you can have cabinets to within a few inches of the edge of the bench. If you are going to sit at the bench, you want to sit down at a prospective bench
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Greg, You might ask the client if he has recently switched from Mono to Braided line. If so, it is likely that there is nothing wrong with the guides. i.e. braids will result in sound from the guides and may also seem that they are fraying, when in fact, they really aren't. However, as the other post suggested = a test with a q tip to detect any cracks or bad spots in the guide is in orde
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Herb, I think that one simply has to go with the flow. (so to speak) I have never seen an advertised pot time - be equal to what it is in reality. For example most 15 minute epoxies have a real pot time of about 3 minutes. 1 hour epoxies have a pot time of about 15 minutes. Most of the rod finishes - for myself - have a usable pot time of about 5 minutes. Each person has a differ
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p.s. The controller that is used in todays linemaster variable speed ac controller is nothing more than a nylon base with a nylon foot rest on top of it with an arm on the back of the base. The arm pressess against a variable switch which is nothing more than the typical variable speed ac drill motor controller. Actually, I think that linemaster was quite clever to use this design. There ar
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Micachael, Any of these ac/dc series wound motors that are used to power the typical ac powered rod wrapper can be controlled by any of the readily available electronic or mechanical rheostat style controls. It is a simple matter to change the wiring of any of these lathes if needed. All that you have are two wires going to the motor and possibly switche and or other controls that swit
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Herb, I simply have to ask the question: Main issue is that I prefer my finish to end at the end of the wrap and not overlap onto the blank. Why do you prefer to do the finish this way? I always worry a bit about having a 100% positive seal on each and every wrap and wouldn't want to run without a bit of a safety margin on the end of the threads. Do you have a specific reason t
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Herb, I read your comment: "Main issue is that I prefer my finish to end at the end of the wrap and not overlap onto the blank." I simply ask the question - WHY? Take care Roger
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Neil, If you look at this picture of the pac bay roller guides, it will give you the information that you need. For this picture, the reel would be on the right side of the picture: Take care Roger
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John , The question that you need to ask is this: Which is stiffer. If you compare two equally sided graphite blanks - one tubular and one solid graphite - which is stiffer? I suspect that you won't find much difference. Certainly the solid graphite will be heavier and it will also be quite a bit stronger. But with respect to flex, one would have to test to see. My guess is that there
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Herb, If you have a power wrapper, use it to apply your rod finish. I use the power wrapper, to apply the finish at about 200 rpm. With the wrapper, it is easy to quickly accelerate the rod for long places to apply finish but to stop it instantly, when you need to work in and around the corners or back side of a guide. I simply use a disposable brush to get the finish on the rod. With t
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Dale, Lay the blank on a flat table and roll it across the table. Note if there are any bends,or if there are any points during the roll when the tip lifts off the table. You are simply looking for the straightest axis. Rolling the blank across a "FLAT" table will quickly disclose the exact axis. Take care Roger
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Owen, On the samve vein, I wish the guide manufacturers would do the same thing for micro guides. I love the idea of the smaller guides for conventional bait casting reels. However, I am not crazy about the fact - that if I need to build the conventional with enough micro guides to keep the line off the rod (as requested by many of my clients) I have to go to an excessive number of guides.
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Neil, When building roller rods, I have always placed the butt or first guide, such that the high roller is always facing the reel. The low roller will always be facing the tip of the rod. The idea, is that the high roller is used to guide the line as it comes off the large reel and doesn't tangle on the roller. Take care Roger
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Michael, I have no idea what you had to pay for a foot pedal. But if you want to go right to the source in the future, go to Linemaster.com and order the replacement pedal directly from the manufacurer. These are very high quality industrial pedals that will last many many years. From their web site- you can find your nearest local distributor, of if you need to; you can order dir
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Jim, No big deal. Just use 1/4 inch masking tape to shim as necessary. Leave 1/8th - 3/16th gaps between the rows of tape. The gap between the rows of tape will hold the epoxy and give you an excellent bond between the reel seat, handle and blank. Glue it up and move on. It will be fine. The very slight weight build up that you get is certainly not wortht he cost of replacing the handle.
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Dennis, If you go to one of nearly any rod building shop, it is quite likely that you can either buy a nut that is an exact or near match to the missing part. You may have to buy the entire reel seat to get the nut but they are available. If you talk to nearly any of the sponsors on the left, they can likely help you. Take care Roger
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Use the product that works for your particular needs. Take care Roger
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Bob, If you have used the motor a lot, it is possible that the brushes in the motor have worn out. You can check fairly quickly be disconnecting the motor leads, taking the motor off the unit, and then removing the screws which hold the end of the motor in place. If you open the motor slightly, you can peer beneath the cover of the motor and check the status of the brushes. The brushes
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