I've tried to come up with a guide alignment tool using different types of lasers, but as mentioned above I had the same problems - plus a few more. As we know most if not all rod blanks are not 100% straight and no matter where I placed the laser (reel seat, tip or above the blank) i couldn't get the blank straight enough for the laser or the guides blocked the laser beam or both. A couple
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Scott, I contacted Abu Garcia last year and they told me that they make their own guides and don't offer the guides for the Veritas or Vengeance rods. I lucked out and found a couple of broken Veritas rods at one of the tackle stores I do repairs for and I've been using the guides from them for my repairs Let me know what guide you need and I'll check and see if I have one, i only have a
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Hey Billy, yes your correct I was talking about the chuck jaws where they grip the mandrel. I just talked to a guy a few weeks ago that thought he had a bad mandrel. I ask him to check and clean the chuck jaws and he found a piece of the acrylic shaving stuck to the chuck jaw. He had been turning acrylic reel seat inserts just before he started to turn his grips. Removing the acrylic shaving
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I have received some question on this topic and I wanted to share the information. Most of the people I've talked to about their lathe turning project being out of round never clean the chuck jaws and some never heard of doing that. It's a good practice to clean the jaws of the chuck before you start work on your lathe project, such as prior to installing a mandrel on the lathe chuck. It do
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Jeremy, I might be able to help out a little, I live in Owensboro KY and know some of the guides around the KY & Barkley Lake and built rods for some of the pros. Let me know what you need and I can contact some of them and see what I can come up with. Lynn Williams
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Mike, I tried this about 3 or 4 years and did the exact same thing that Raymond said. I cut the smallest hole I could to get reel foot in and used a heat gun to shrink it down but after using this setup for a few weeks the reel started working loose. If you could find a better type of shrink tube it might work better.
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Ken, I had the same problem when I tried the meat slicer. I took the blade to a machine shop and had them to machine the blade to about 0.010 for first 1 1/2" of the blade. It worked ok but when cutting slices under a 1/8" sometime it would destroy the cork slice. I finally burned up the motor on the slicer then I to went back to the band saw.
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Isaiah, I might be able to help, Send me an email of what kind of Kigan guides and sizes your looking for. Lynn Williams wcrods@roadrunner.com
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Jeremy, Stop in Phil Pros he does prop repair but he also has a large tackle shop, he is always good about sharing information about what's bitting. He is located a little north of Redding CA but only a few miles from Shasta Lake the lake has many fish Species, here are a few rainbow trout, brown trout, Chinook salmon, largemouth bass, spotted bass, smallmouth bass, black crappie, bluegill,
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You can't go wrong with the Castaway XP3 964, I just finished building one a month ago and been fishing it for a few weeks getting ready for a bass tournament. It works great for throwing traps, small to medium crankbaits I set the rod up using Castaway reel seat, their cork split grip and micro, like Bill said the rod ended up under 3 oz. Call Bill or Lance it you have any questions.
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Walt, I purchase my 12 hour timer from Lowes, but you can fine them at any home improvement center. Here is a photo of my home made dryer with the timer Lynn Williams
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You can't go wrong with CastAway blanks, great quality and performance, good prices and you always get great service from Lance and Bill at Swampland.
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Thanks everyone for your help. I found out the guides i needed were the PacBay LCTVSG after all. . Thanks again
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Thanks guys! Roger, I suggested that to the customer but he wants to just replace the damaged guides and use the original guides that came on the rod.
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I’m replacing a few damaged guides on an older Loomis GLX MBR844C rod for a customer and I’m not 100% sure of the guide manufacturer or model. The guides look like PacBay LCTVSG but not sure. I did contact Loomis and they said they were REC guides but this rod was built before they started installing REC guides. Any help would be appreciated. Thank You Lynn Williams
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I really enjoyed talking to Boyd Pfeifer especially about how much the rod building industry has changed since he wrote the book “Tackle Craft”. Luckily I brought my Tackle Craft book and got his autograph. Tom, please pass our thanks along to Boyd for attending the Expo - people like Boyd is what makes the rod building industry what it is today
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Billy, The front bench has a 2 foot fold down extension that can be folded up to make the bench 10 foot long and I have another 3 foot section that can be added to my Renzzetti Lathe that would make the lathe 12 foot long to accommodate a 12 foot rod if needed. Lynn Williams
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Jay, I just built a rod for lipless baits using the Castaway XP3 964 what a awesome blank. Contact Lance or Bill Stevens at Swampland Tackle, they can a help you with the blank and all the components. These guys are great to work with.
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Greg, Do a search on the Internet for "Super Sticker USA" and contact them and see if they can help. Gary & Jani Schaefer bought the " Webie" company a few years ago. Lynn Williams
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Thomas, I did not stabilize the corn cob on the one I did but it would be best to. All I did was cleaned the inside of the corn cob out then put it on a mandrel and turn down to the shape I wanted. On the reel seat and fore grip I used CA glue 1st then a coat of Flex Coat Lite. The Rear Grip I used 3 coats of Flex Coat High Build I think there are four photos of corn cob handle in my photo
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Brad, Check with Jimi Ellis at Southern Graffix.
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Roger, Here is a link to some heavy duty bracket (1/2 ton per pair) they come in white or black. You might also check at your local home/hardware center to see what they have. Just for though, most of the time the brackets will not fail it will be the screws pulling out of the wall so put a little thought into mounting the brackets to the wall. I know this from experience. Hope this he
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Thanks for the kind words - I think! I am very fortunate to be able to have a shop like this to build rods in and store my boat. Ken, the multiple rooms work very well for the dust problem. I also use the foam pipe insulator under the door and foam around the door to seal all the doors in the shop. These photos were taken a couple years ago. so the shop is not that clean now. Dave,
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Peter, I built the benches for wrapping and installing epoxy.Each bench was made from a 8 foot counter top that I found at a home improvement center. I bought all three counter tops at a discount because they had small defects and the base of the benches are inexpensive 2 door organizer some with a drawer. I used some PVC pipe as legs to support the back of the benches.The high area you menti
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As everyone mentioned a box fan and filter works very well, as Jim said you can do this for under $20. I also use a Delta dust collector system for the shop with a shop vac attachment mounted to the lathe. I posted a photo in the equipment and tool section with the dust system on the lathe.
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Tom, Congratulations on 13 years of RodMaker Magazine and hitting the 16,000 subscriber mark. Just think some people told you when you first started the RodMaker Magazine that you would run out of thing to write about in a few years. Lynn Williams
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Very nice! Easy to read and order from, user-friendly and great color.
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John, I experimented with rite dye about three ago and had no luck. I did what Tom said, turn the grip then install the dye and tried different way to set the dye on the grip. I even used a seal-a-meal, using a 6" grip with dye on the grip and in the bag then vacuum & seal it for 24 hours. After fishing with this grip for a few hours the dye came off in my hands. I found another dye
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Jerry, There are a few decent lathes out there, the jet 1014 lathe and the PSI Turncrafter come to mine and I'm sure there are some more. If you buy these lathe on Amazon I think they offer free shipping. I have been using jet lathes for years and had no problems. Hope this helps Lynn Williams
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John, Not sure if this is what you are looking for but below are a two post of hook keeper I posted on the photo page a year or so back using a jigging spoon wire. You can also use a spinner bait wire, 0.35 size wire works the best. If you have any question let me know. Lynn Williams
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