Miles, For boat fishing, unless you are in a kyak, some extra length normally works to your advantage. Go with a 6'3" 6'8" or 6'10" -- with no nipping on the length. If you are just fishing over the side of the boat with little to no casting, then a shorter length may be to your advantage, but if you have any casting at all; the additional length will be to your advantag
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Note: I always store my epoxy bottles in their normal upright stowed position - to paraphrase the directions from the air crew - before landing the plane. Then, in order to be able to reach the bottom of the bottle, I simply place an extension on the end of each syringe that will reach to the bottom of the container. I use appropriate sizes and lengths of old rod blank stock for an exten
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Bruce, Your issue about air bubbles in syringes is really a non issue. Simply put, If your supply bottle is upright, and you wish to use a syringe, work the syringe up and down a couple of times to be sure that it is not binding up and is clear. Then, with the syringe fully closed insert the tip of the syringe or an extension that you may place on the end of the syringe, and suck the par
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Note: An excellent way to have a power wrapper is to have a motor on the power wrapper that will reliably turn the rod continuously at 5 rpm and simply turn up the speed to any faster speed that you wish for wrapping. That way, you are working on a rod and wrap at speeds that are convenient for you. Then, when it is time to apply finish you can apply finish at any speed up to the maximu
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David, I do the same thing as you do. I build a full length grip including any contrasting material that I may use for a butt cap. I use material with a hole in the middle - including the material that I use for the butt cap. Then, I can put the full length grip on the lathe and turn all of the grip - including the butt cap. Thank as you do, I will cut a plug, using a plug cutter.
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By the way, if you want a convenient way to add weight convenienty and in the best location, try lead tape. Lead tape is used industry wide to balance tennis rackets as well as golf clubs. Essentially the last inch of rod blank at the butt of the rod is used to wrap on the lead tape. Lead tape comes in various widths. I find that 1/2 inch widths is a convenient length to use. Es
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If you decide to add weight to the rod, Only add the weight at the extreme butt end of the rod. Never put weight up the inside of the rod blank. By putting weight up the inside of the rod blank, you are doing very little to balance the rod, but you are doing a magnificient job in making the rod heavier. It is all about balance and lever arm. When you put weight up the inside of rhe ro
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Just keep a few thin wall plastic pvc tubes around for such needs. But, before using the tubes, drop a rope through the tube and then, tie a long thin towel on the rope and pull it back through the tube a few times to insure that the inside of the tube is 100% clean. Then, just put the incompleted rod in the tube and put test caps on each end to ensure that nothing gets into the tube. o
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A few ideas. I shop vaccum works very well for dust collection. I made an L shaped stand from lumber such that the hole holding the floor vacuum attachment is placed - so that the line of the floor vacuum attachment is in line with the center of the mandrel holding the cork grip being turned. In addition, purchase or make a water filter that fits in between the vacuum hose and the i
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Alan, I put the inserts on the rod dryer and apply two coats of thread finish and let cure. Easy and very long lasting.
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Just take some black electrical tape and put a double wrap on the scratch and the rod will look like it was built that way. If the scratch bothers you and you don't want to do anything with it - then retire the rod and get on with your life. Best wishes
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Ryan, Here, for example is a multiple rod dryer that was built many years ago and has been used over the years to dry many many rods. The motor in this example happens to be an AC motor with a controller that varies the speed from 0-50 rpm. In use the dryer is set to turn generally at 10-15 rpm. But, for special needs can be adjusted to turn more slowly or faster.
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As John stated so well, the answer is use what you need to build the perfect fishing rod. If a person has a variable speed motor that can be varied from 0 to 300 rpm or so, you have the best of all worlds. You have a motor that works well to do excellent speed for completing long wraps on the rod. You have a motor that can be varied at needed from 0 - 300 rpm and anywhere in between fo
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Glenn, Pretty simple. Take a tape measure and measure from the wrapper bed to the center of the closed chuck. Record that measurement. Go to each rod stand and set it at the same height, minus the radius of the rod blank at that location. But, for most wrapper setups, just use the distance from the wrapper bed to the center of the closed head stock chuck and set the resting surfa
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The scratch appears to only have scrubbed off the finish. Forget about the scratch and go fishing. If the rod breaks, the rod breaks, If the rod doesn't break, count your blessings. Best wishes
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Bruce, It is really easy to make a rod dryer. Be creative and enjoy your creation. Best wishes
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With respect to David's comment about chucking up a rod blank. First take masking tape or similar and put about 3 or 4 wraps of tape - tightly around the butt of the blank. Then, take a piece of solid stock, like graphite or fiberglass that is larger than the inside dimension of the butt of the rod. Take this rod and cut it to about 6 inches or so. Then, chuck it into a drill, a dr
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When I do the sanding, I start with 220, then 320, then 400, then 600, then 800 and finally close with 1200. Except fo rthe 220 and 320 I do all of the sanding wet. I just put the butt end of the blank in a 5 gallon bucket with about 3 gallons of water in the bucket and it is easy to keep the sand paper wet. A light touch is the way to go. Be observant and change sand paper grit when
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Ryan, As Mark said - not likely. IN a case like this, I remove the guides. Then, I use very gentle heat and a razor blade held at right angles to the blank to remove everything that is coating the blank. Then, generally speaking, I just go down to 1200 sand paper used wet to give the blank a mirror finish. Then, I wrap the guides back on the bare blank and coat the wraps with sta
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Bob, In addition, if using cork sanding's to fill cork pits - choose your glue carefully. Relatively speaking cork is soft - compared to many things. As a result, you would like your filler to have essentially the same level of hardness as is the material that you are filling. If you don't have this match between material and filler - you end up with a poor job of filling the cork.
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Bob, Many years ago, I built my first fishing rod. I rolled this rod by hand. After completing the build, I said to myself, "This is going to be the last rod you build by hand". Thus began my quest for building the best power wrapper that I could build. Over the years, I built a lot of different power wrappers using different power sources and configurations. Along the way,
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Dale, Create a duplicator of your grip design. Just make a template out of 1/8th inch plywood or equivalent. Effectively, you will simply create a shadow template out of the 1/8inch stock. So, the idea is ; that when finished with your template, you should be able to lay your template on your grip while it is still in the lathe to determine where you need to sand or shape next - t
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David, I suspect that it may be the reel. To answer that question, take the reel in question and swap it to one of your other spiral wrapped, offset guide 1 - and see if there is a difference. Take care
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For all of the spiral wrapped rods that I have built, I use three guides to get from the top to the underside of the rod. I also offset the first guide at about 10 degrees in the same direction as the spiral. As a result, I get essentially 0 line stacking on any reel that I have used with the spiral wrapped rods. However, if I place the first guide at 0 degrees, I will inevitably get li
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Bruce, Yes, age does tend to get in the way of doing things as well as one could do, when there were fewer years on the body and eyes of the person in question. Over the years, I have settled on a system that works very well for me. For my normal days I were lined tri focal glasses. i.e. reading on the bottom, mid range in the middle and distance on the top lens of the trio. In additi
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Simply put, build one, fish one, and report on your results. For myself, I have built many rods of this sort for others, but for myself, I simply prefer a conventional wrap. If one is fishing with a heavy rod, with heavy line for off shore blue water fishing, it could make some sense. But, even in that case, especially if one is using roller guides, the typical rod will still be buil
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Any time that I have an open male end rod blank that needs to be plugged, I do the following. I simply take a piece of solid fiberglass, or graphite blank that is larger than the rod blank. I chop off about 4 inches of blank and chuck it into a variable speed drill. Then, with the piece of rod blank spinning, I will hold the extended 3/4 inch of rod blank against a spinning belt sander
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At least for myself in my location, as soon as the length of the package - hits 8 feet, there is a penalty fee of about $265 in addition to the standard feed for shipping the rod and or rod blank. This appears to be true for UPS, USPS, and Fed Ex. Best wishes.
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To remove a cork grip, do the following: 1. Take a pair of slip joint pliers , and using the pliers in its extended position, chew the cork off the blank. 2. Then,with the use of heat to soften and a razor blade held at right angles to the blank scrape any residual cork off the blank. The heat will soften and the razor blade will quickly remove any remaining cork and or glue from the b
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