p.s. The epoxy won't come out of the shirt, without cutting the fabric out of the shirt. However, to avoid such an occurance from happenning in the future, get in the habit of obtaining and using a shop apron. Many of us that work at rod building, use shop aprons all of the time. It is much better and easier to leave the epoxy drops on the apron hanging on the peg at the end of a long
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Jan, I have a product that works very well. I have several sewing machines and material. Pick up a piece of matching material, cut out the part of the shirt and sew in a new matching piece of material. When well done, you won't be able to see the change. Epoxy, really pentrates the fabric. I expect that when you look closely, you will find that the epoxy has completely penetrated the
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Richard, To make nice clean cuts on rod blanks, I might suggest the following: If you get this saw, remove the blade and replace it with an abrasive cut off wheel: The abrasive cut off wheel makes a velvet smooth cut in all kinds of materials. There are no teeth to catch and leave a jagged edge, or worse, catch and tear out a piece of the blank. Also, with no teeth on th
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Don, Thanks for the update. I hadn't read your post before asking my questions. Thanks again for the clarification. Roger
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Essentially, this is the style stand that I wrote about above. Very useful in the shop for a myriad of uses. Take care Roger
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p.s. On a slightly different vein, I use multiple "home depot" sourced stands to support my power wrapper, to easily roll the wrapper down the bench. I have also used these to support my long rods if needed. They sell for $19.95 at Home Depot, are foldable, extend from about 20-40 inches above the floor. They have a roller top that is about 14 inche wide, with a flip up arm on
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Ted, Do you know the size and source of the Pyrimad stand? Thanks, Roger
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Raymond, You have posted a picture of a rod stand in the photo section: The pictures make it difficult to know the size and or materials used to construct the stand. Can you expand on the materials used in the construction of the stand. I think that I can guess as to what was used but I would like a good explanation. Thanks for your help. Roger
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Terry, I keep a harbor freight - 1 inch wide belt sander on the back of the work bench as well. I also keep a few different grits of paper handy. For most of the guide work, I use about a 180-220 belt. With the belt sander, I hold the guide so that it is at 90 degrees to the belt movement. If I use 180 grit paper on the sander, I find that I essentially put tiny micro grooves across the
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Royce, Great advice. However, another good thing to do is to go to your favorite neighborhood hardware store and bring along your current O rind drive belts. Pick up a good selection of several extra O rings so that you don't have to worry about a replacement in the middle of the night when it is not possible to get an inexpensive replacement. Generally speaking a good hardware store wi
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Scott, I was also fishing yesterday using a single conventional spinning rod. The water temp was 34 degrees and the air temp was 26 degrees with about a 30 mph wind blowing. We were throwing light 3/16th - 1/4 oz jigs in the Mississippi River for Walleye. Yes, we were both getting lots of icing on the tip and the upper two guides. That is where most of the wiping occurs during aline ret
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Mike, You only need 4 inches to hold your reel. So, find the 4 inch spot on your blank where the reel bqlqnces your rod. Make a cork handle that is 4 inches long - either on the rod or on a lathe and then glue the handle in that spot. Put on a 1/2 inch butt to cap it off and you are done. Use tape to tape the reel to the cork and you have a very very very light reel seat and finished ro
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Where can one obtain the large ring Ice rod guides that are used to build ice rods for outdoor use to prevent icing. I really don't want any guides with inserts, or if they do have inserts - a very very thin insert. Typically size 10-20 or so. Small or even micro guides are great when used - where the temperature is above 32 degrees. However, if you are out fishing on the open ice in
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Dr, I agree with the previous post. i.e. there are likely better poles around - ready made. I have a multi section aluminum push pole that expands and twists to lock at any length. It also has a boat hook at one end to aid in manuevering the boat around the dock. I really enjoy the ability to telescope the push pole and think that it would be tough to duplicate such a thing in a rod bl
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Bill, I agree and also disagree with your post. When working with epoxy it is difficult to not have a bit of overrun - especially if you do an excellent job of coating both the outside of the blank, as well as all of the inside of the reel seat. Having said that - I do agree, that immediately upon glue up - while the glue is wet and semi viscous, the use of ONLY a rag or cloth is the right
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If you want it light, Do the following: 1. Strip the rod: 2. Strip all of the finish off the rod. 3. Spin up the rod and use a buffer to buff the blank to a nice sheen. 4. If it is a spinning rod - put on about 3 guides. 1- size 40 or 50 to minimize choking for the heavier line. 1 guide about 2/3rds up about size 16 1 tip about size 10 to allow for easy knot passage
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David, I suspect that you are right. This reminded me of the time that the family and myself had gone to Yellowstone Park in December for a winter tour of the park. The outside temperature was -54 degrees. We were riding in a Park - Bombardier. i.e. a tracked vehicle that had originally been built in 1936 and kept in running condition. However, the defrosting of the passenger windows wa
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Bill, I am curious as to why you thread the thread through so many eyelets? I have thought that the fewer the eyelets touching the thread, the better the thread would be when wrapped on the rod. If possible I prefer to use an eyelet in the front center of the spool so that the thread only touches an eyelet now and then during the wrapping process. Thanks for any illumination. Ro
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Phil, Out of curiosity, how - under normal circumstance - could a rod become butt heavy? I have never seen one, unless there has been a huge amount of weight added to the rod, a super heavy reel, or an extra long butt on the rod. Thanks for any update. Roger
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Tim, Solve your problem by not using a "thread" tensioner. Rather, use a "spool" tensioner. If you tension the spool, the line will not be pinched by a tensioner and will spool off cleanly. Your problem is fairly common for the thread tensioners that pinch the thread during its tensioning. Check the photo on this web site for a few examples. Lots of good id
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Mark, I had a similar situation. I had built a pair of ultra light rods for a good client. All finished up and shipped out. The day he received the rods, he called and explained his concern. I had aligned all of the guides and tip perfectly, but they were all about 20 degrees off set from the reel seat. Apparantly for the one and only time, I had aligned all of the guides on both of t
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Tom Thanks for the update. Roger
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My buddy and I were out fishing today. The temperature was about 26 degrees, and the wind was blowing about 30 mph. We were fishing on the Mississippi river in Pool 2 - near the St. Paul, MN airport. With the temperture and blowing wind, I was having a lot of problems with my guides icing up. I was joking about the fact that we were right at the end of the runway, and if the pilots were ha
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Marc, Rather than using weights that fit inside the blank - use a weight that will fit on the outside - butt section of the rod. My preference, if necessary to balance, is to wrap - 1/4 inch, 3/8th inch, 1/2 inch, 3/4 inch or 1 inch lead tape around the extreme butt section of the blank before adding the last section of handle or butt section. There are many sources for lead tape. You can
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Jeff, The other answers are right on. i.e. any good brand epoxy will be just fine for rod building. However, there is a difference in the strength and flexibility of epoxy. Generally speaking - the longer the cure, the more flexible the joint, as well as the stronger the joint. i.e. 5 minute epoxy is a bit more brittle than 1 hour epoxy. Also, 5 minute epoxy is a bit weaker than 1 hou
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I suspect that it is a permenant change - deep in the glass due to uv radiation. The best way to restore it is to replace the blank with a new one of later vintage. Take care Roger
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John , I would build this as a 6 foot rod, with a 9 inch back grip and with no fore grip or a 2-4 inch fore grip. I would size the grips to be no larger than 1 inch. At that age, the hands are not too large. The spiral is a good idea if you want to. However, a conventional rod will be good as well. Take care Roger
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Check out surplus stores for 6-12 rpm timing motors. It is often possible to find these motors for as cheap as 50Cents each. Take care Roger
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William, Another rod dryer design that works very well is the style that uses a single center support along with 3 or so plywood circles that have lined notches in the circles. The rods are places in the slot and held in place with rubber bands. Of course the rod is placed such that the plywood circles do not interfer with the guides. Then, just a single motor drives the single center
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Gavin, If you have never worked with it before, do yourself a favor and shrink on a few pieces of material that you don't care about first. It is not a big deal - just use a heat gun or hair dryer to supply non flame heat to the shrink tubing. A flame will certainly shrink the tubing, but you run the risk of having it ignite and or melt. The heat gun and or hair dryer minimize the risk fo
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