You should be glad it failed at this point. Better that after the build and sale. My opinion is that 6" is very important if you liked the action of the rod. Yet I have know people who cut the tip off blanks to make them stiffer. Email the supplier and get another blank. There are some blanks that naturally have weak tips. I had one Sage that I used to keep one of the broken tips in my
Forum: rodboard

Thanks Jim. Just what I wanted to know.
Forum: rodboard

Down to the last one of my treasured All Star 7', 3 piece spinning/casting blanks. Does anybody know how the current Batson 3 piece blanks compare?
Forum: rodboard

For my own use, I use ceramics on my lighter rods. A 4 wt is still a pretty good casting machine. I have used ceramic all the way. . On very light 3 and 4 wt rods I like 3 or so recoil guides at the top, either a recoil top or a titaniium ceramic, and ceramic the rest of the way down. On some of the area tailwaters you have the opportunity to catch a rather large fish on a 3 wt in very clear w
Forum: rodboard

what is to loose by giving it a try? Do it first, before you wrap and you can just cut it off it there is a problem.
Forum: rodboard

"...it is hard to find the spine on the blank but after flexing and rotating it several times, i was able to find it.... That sentence pretty much says it for me. And many builders do deliberately do it that way on some rods anyway. I do not know how important a spine that is so weak you can not find it is, but I am sure it is a whole lot less important than trashing a built rod to chang
Forum: rodboard

One small factor. To me, if I am mostly casting heavy lures for the blank I want the reel seat a little further up the rod than "normal". If I am mostly casting light lures for the rod, I like the reel seat a little further towards the back than "normal".
Forum: rodboard

Might depend a little on how you work and how "sharp" and good looking you want them to be. I tend to work directly off the grinding wheel and grind pretty often. So I like the slow white wheel grinder with the wolverine jig I have set up near the lathe. The grinder and the jig costs somewhere around $200. The grinder and wheel is about $100. Unlike the poster above, I use the 60 g
Forum: rodboard

Looks like the customer should have given some guidance. Fly fishing covers a lot of different methods. If you just have to pick, a moderate action 9' in 5 wt covers a lot of territory. Something like the old Sage RPL or a GL3 or one of the moderate action St. Croix or Rainshadows would be a safe choice. Leader strength is more important than rod weight in fish landing with a fly rods. If you
Forum: rodboard

went with a guide in alaska and he furnished 9.5 ft, 7 wt, G. Loomis (I think gl2) rods that worked extremely well. I would build one of them in a heartbeat if I was going back.
Forum: rodboard

Glass, graphite, or bamboo? The Orvis bamboo rods have the reputation of being labeled with a higher weight than the modern preference. Partly that thought is to help sell the used rods with the undesirable hight ratings. Partly it is probably right. I do not know about the glass rods. They feel funny to me now anyway. The Orvis graphite 9 weight I have is probably stiffer than the rating.
Forum: rodboard

I have a couple of the old GL-3, 8', 4 wt, 3 piece blanks and would not mind parting with one if that would suit your needs. To me they are a crisp mid speed blank.
Forum: rodboard

I think that fisherman tend to get clumsy in cold weather. I know I do. That leads to more broken rods.
Forum: rodboard

I take the square and rough it out round between centers first. Then I hold it in a standard 3 jaw lathe chuck for drilling. I do not like fooling with the independent jaw 4 jaw chucks. Waste of both time and expense for me. I have a Nova chuck but have not really warmed to it. I get a very good grip with a standard 3 jaw.
Forum: rodboard

I personally would not want to shim a grip on a 3 wt. I actually build my light grips directly on the blank and sand to shape in the lathe. These light rods bend quit a bit under the grip when loaded and I like that feeling. I hate to do anything to stifen the grip section. If you do shim it, how about cork tape? and sand it until the grip fits over it.
Forum: rodboard

On that rod, my choice would probably be Alconite all the way if I was budget concerned, SIC all the way for the best performance, and perhaps a combination of all three if it were to be "my" rod. I would try to spring for a SIC-titanium top. Lot of my lighter rods end up now with a SIC or Alconite stripper, 3 or 4 single foot ceramics, recoils the rest of the way, and a recoil or S
Forum: rodboard

I bought some 3 piece Allstar blanks just before they quit selling blanks. I built myself a medium spinning rod and a heavy casting rod. I also built a 2 piece, 8.5 spinning rod. I have traveled a lot in our camper in the last 2 years and those are the rods that go. Frankly the action on the 3 piece rods seems to suffer a little. That is okay. I did not go to Alaska to practice casting. Th
Forum: rodboard

CTS site says "Lifetime Warranty" agains defects. User pays for abuse. They decide. Sounds fair to me. I would strip the blank and send it to them for evaluation like they suggest. I bet they will cut you some kind of a deal. I know rodbuilders hate lifetime warranties. I don't blame them. But there is nothing wrong with using the service you purchased when you bought the blank.
Forum: rodboard

tape some guides and a top on it, tape the reel on it, and go cast it. You can find out right away if it will do what you want. My experience with multipiece rods is that you will probably be better off trading the blank for one that you want instead building this one short. You can always leave some of the sections assembled when you take it apart.
Forum: rodboard

I have had terrible results with the graphite slip rings in terms of holding the reel. Each time I have tried them I have ended up cutting the handle apart and using something else. I have had better luck with the Al rings for light rods. for rods that get some heavy use I will not do the slip ring thing again. I love the idea of slip rings and putting the reel where you want it, but
Forum: rodboard

Winston LT 8.9' 5 wt. Wish I had a 4 wt too.
Forum: rodboard

I now use the tamer guide almost automatically. I put it 4" up from the stripper. I test cast and seldom move it based on the test cast.
Forum: rodboard

I sometimes fool with a old Craftsman mini lathe. Some of the reference sources for these lathes state that there are were approximately 3 differernt tapers used as a Morse #1 taper. It is not at all unusual to get a accessories that is supposed to be a Morse #1 that does not fit a Morse #1 arbor. And yes, the taper can be longer than the hole for it. I finally bought a #1 taper reamer and a
Forum: rodboard

I have built a couple of rods on 3 piece tip over butt spinning or casting blanks. I do not think you really want a 4 piece spinning blank for a general purpose rod. Maybe with spigot ferrules and a soft, slow action rod. I think St Croix does offer one.
Forum: rodboard

Sometimes heating it in boiling water for a while works. I have cut blank and drilled it out of the seat.
Forum: rodboard

I have had a fair number of fly rods and blanks break over the years that were not my fault and I am pretty sure I did not damage. When you wrap a new blank and go out into the driveway and the middle section splits lengthwise about a foot long in the middle of the section I see that as a rod problem. . Perhaps they sanded the scrim too thin? This blank was a replacement for one that had
Forum: rodboard

REC has the one and five eights tubs also. They will cut to length. I am pretty sure Custom tackle with have it in the Landmarfk aluminum tubes also. I have not found a industrial source of tubing that looked good for rod building in other sizes.
Forum: rodboard

The large ones are pretty big. Too big, in my opinion, for most fly rods.
Forum: rodboard

Been a while since I weighed them, but the Fugi titanium tops are pretty light. Lighter than a standard wire loop top for sure. The recoil tops are lighter yet, I think. All in all, I really like everthing about the titanium SIC fujis except the look. But I put up with that because they work so well. The cerment tops are nice too, but a bit too pricy. The recoil tops are light, but butt ugl
Forum: rodboard

I don't think I would try to cover both bases with one rod. I would build a 6 wt or a 7 wt for smallmouth, one that I really liked and felt comfortable fishing all day with, and add a 9 wt line and heavy leader for short casts if I wanted to try bigger flies for musky. A fast 8 or 9 wt is a workout for several hours of casting and fishing. Later you could build a 9 or 10 wt if you want to targ
Forum: rodboard