Steve- I glue different grits of sandpaper to paint paddles to use as sanding blocks. Their length gives you a nice handle. Free at H. Depot. They are often warped-glue two together with concave surfaces facing each other and clamp-they will come out flat that way. You can put different grits on opposing sides and get a 2 fer.
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What a trooper!
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Mr. Colby- Of those 100 or so rods you have built using very small guides-how many have been failures by design? I suspect you are a competent builder and I suspect if there have been any failures there have been few. I have not built nearly 100 using them but to date I have a 100% customer satisfaction rating on those I have. My high grades and yours too are for the same reason I bet.
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Jay- That's some old school stuff there. My dad and granddad would use a feathered treble hook on 18" of line-dabbling the tip of a huge bamboo pole in the water to make the commotion to provoke strikes. You could stick it back into overhanging bushes/willows-pull fish out hand over hand. Back in the day. Chris
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George- If you intend to restore it to its original look-after cleaning you will have to paint the aluminum with a zinc chromate primer to get enamel to stick. I'm guessing that the original finish may have been a baked on enamel. Powder coating might be another option, but that may not give you that original eggshell luster.
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You can rest assured that at the time they were sold-Herter's advertised them as being made of the best available materials, built by the most skilled craftsmen of the day, extensively tested under the most extreme conditions in the harshest environments the planet has to offer and personally approved by Jacques L. Herter himself. Getting their new catalog each year was like Christmas.
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Wher you start isn't that critical. Don't start too close to the tip-4" back is reasonable on that blank. After that-space them any way you like- If you static test per the method found in the library they will all end up in the right place. You will add or remove guides as necessary based on how the blank reacts to the load placed on it. Enough questions-Quit putting it off-Dive In! LOL
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Tip....5.5 as discussed-looks a little funny for about 10 minutes and then you will forget about it. If anything, the smaller guides will enhance casting distance. There has been a lot of discussion hear recently about the line touching the blank-do a search for an hour or so of reading.
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Brian Sure that will work but there is no reason to use different sizes on the 180-make them all 4s. The heavier mono or fluor. is the reason for larger ring-with braid's suppleness it won't matter-the braced frame for strength with all three. Set it up like Tom said-don't even think about the bumper until all the rest are set up-then place bumper halfway between 1st and 2nd from
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Brian- That 5.5 tube size tip you mentioned is your best bet from the standpoint of strength. That top has a braced frame-that will make it durable enough for all tasks-a single foot guide can be wrapped as a tip. Not durable enough IMO----the path taken by heavier monofilament (20 LB) makes the larger ring size desireable-that 90 degree change of direction the line takes at the tip does
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Brian That Fuji guide spacing suggestion is OK to use as a starting point-static testing will tell you where the guides need to be for that particular blank. Notice with their spacing suggestions there is no accounting for blank action/power. The spacing woluld obviously be different for a HVY/XTRA FAST and a UL/MOD action blank-using those extremely different blanks as examples. U
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Chris, that size 10 sounds awfully small-which probably makes it very short as well. Sounds like a setup that might have been recommended for a casting rod instead of a spinning rod. A size 20 may have been a better place to start, and then depending on line size/type you may have had to go up or down 1 size from there to get good casting results. Are you getting any distance with that setup?
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Stephen- When you get to see the rod, how it is broken may tell you something. A break that is splintered could mean that the rod was (perhaps innocently) subjected to some type of impact that at the time it occured didn't seem significant-something dropped on it-banged against the head of a trolling motor while casting(done that). If it is a clean break-that a different story. Ot
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Matt- Hand stones will surely work but tool sharpening is almost an art. Its not hard to ruin good tools-could become expensive-as Tom said angle is everything and a system that uses water lessens the chance of overheating and changing the properties of the steel in your tools. Good stones are not cheap. At least by hand you will be going slowly. Chris
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Seems like using one of the old Lew's/Fuji type offset handles which lowered the center of gravity as Jim mentioned in combination with a spiral wrap would produce a very stable setup.
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That's funny.
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Steven-I don't think you will see a difference if the black and silver get some CP on them. Trying to get it on all of the green while keeping it off of the black and silver will increase the odds of the end green wraps not being covered well. THAT might be seen. In that CP is pretty inexpensive, put it on the whole wrap and there can be no chance of a difference.
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Todd- Look several posts down the page-question about micro guides and spiral wrapping. Along with technique, guide sizes are discussed at length in the links Steve Gardner suggested. Probably where you could access the most information in the fastest manner.
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Bill- All of that may be in keeping with the Plain Jane Stealth Rod Plan.
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Generally I don't look back after topics have slipped off the page-glad I did-time well spent. I thank all of you for insight and thoughts. Some things have been cleared up for me. Simplification of these systems is a must for me and others I'm sure. Each time I've tried to read what is available I would get a little bleary eyed. Took a while just to consume this all and digestion will ta
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Is the surface of the blank not smooth?
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Tom- Perhaps Scott's name could be added to Library article listing for a little more credit given where due. I like seeing things added to the Library-just not able to get all the back issues-as the numbers on other back issues dwindle perhaps key items could be selected from some of them. Chris
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Check with Scott Parsons at Fish Stisks----I got one at the Expo in Feb.
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The ceramic scissors mentioned being available from Bingham Enterprises several posts down-I asked Karen that question specifically-she said they cut braid well-great price! Chris
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Bob Balcombe-you are correct. You can even taylor the cure rate with different reduced amounts of hardner. I don't know how little hardner you can use and have it still set properly but I know you can use too much. I don't understand the chemistry behind that, but I accept it.
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Steve-if I come across someone in need of a good owl rod I'll get that setup from you. I have one that works well for Great Blue Herrons.
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Catch and Release
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Bill- The split grips may look longer-maybe because of the gap-but most are 9-11" in length.......the same length they would have been made with a full grip.
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Alconites or Batsons for me as well-I really do not like the color of the Hardloy rings
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I glue different grits of sandpaper to paint paddles-I use them resting on their edge on the drill press table I turn cork on. This allows me to maintain a distance from the spinning grip that allows it to only contact the "high spots" as Terry mentioned. The table affords a rest of sorts. Also as he said once you are contacting all of the circumference-then it is concentric. I
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