I usually wait until after the carbon skin is on to ream the grip. It is much easier to trim the ends cleanly and I can sand it on my lathe
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You don't specify the smoker type, so I'm going to assume yours is a hot smoker. Here is a recipe I use for fish - haven't found one yet that it didn't work for. Brine (Very important) 2 Cups Kosher Salt 1 Cup Brown Sugar 2 tbsp Whole black peppercorns 3 - 4 fresh sprigs rosemary 1 gallon Water Bring the water to a boil and remove from the heat. Add Salt, Su
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You can mix black (or any other color) pigment into the epoxy while mixing it up - you won't need to paint it afterwards. You can pick up basic color pigments at your local hardware store. I also like to shape the arbor slightly undersized and wrap with thread prior to finish - I just think it adds a bit of protection to the foam arbor.
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I have the 6" Harbor Freight model - I think it was around $35.00 on sale. I put an abrasive disk on it and it works great for trimming even heavy all glass blanks. With a little care you can also sand the end of the blank if you so desire...
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Aftco makes a swivel tip - I use them for my Planer rod and for my Dredge Teaser rod.
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I make a lot of gaffs with cord wrapped grips. - to add a little texture, I will put down a simple chevron of #9 Nylon twine (just like a butt wrap), than just straight wrap over the top with #12 Black nylon twine or tuna cord. I will finish with thinned laminating epoxy - it works very well and the texture is not too aggressive.
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Yes you can, but you need to use white water slide paper, instead of clear. Print your lettering, fill the rest of the decal with black (assuming a black blank) I use powerpoint, make a black box on the screen, put my lettering over the top - whatever color I want, then print on white water slide paper. Spray with clear acryllic per the instructions and apply the decal. It works great
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Harbor Freight has a very cheap 6" chop saw that has worked very well for me - normally is about $40.00 but sometimes $25.00 on special I wouldn't want to do much metal work with it, but it works great for cutting blanks and the like.
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They have a definite benefit for the vertical jigging crowd - the blank tucks nicely under your arm much better than with a large grip section.
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So I was going through my stash to see what I need to pick up at the ICRBE and came across an unopened kit od Flexcoat Ultra V - Never used it and was just wondering if anyone knows anything about it?
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Practice does make perfect... I've had a bit of experience with carbon and kevlar laminations from boat building, so I carry that over to foam cores... I have a 1/4 steel rod that I insert through the core - I start with a dry, unsealed core, then put the skin on dry. it helps if you bunch the skin onto a piece of PVC pipe slightly larger than the core - helps to keep the weave aligned.
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If you cannot make Kevin's seminar at ICRBE, then his video is the next best thing.
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I have done a bit with raw paua - The abalone that Kevin sells has a sticky back and a coating over the shell (much easier to work with) My best results with raw paua are with double sided tape. Apply the double sided tape, then soak in vineagar to remove some of the calcium and follow Kevin's method.
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I have used both Gloss and Flat Krylon Acrylic with very good results. Just picked up a can of Krylon Flat UV Acrylic - seems great so far. Michaels has a pretty good selection
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The material is very similar. Just woven into a sleeve instead of a flat sheet... Carbon, Kevlar, and Fiberglass and some exotic fibers are available in woven/knitted sleeves...
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Krylon makes a Plastic primer spray that will allow you to put a standard spray paint on a blank - I've used it as a first coat on a couple of rods where the owner wanted a color not available in Fusion. Seems to be holding up well so far with just a thin topcoat of poly over the paint.
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Epoxy will crystalize over time or if it gets really cold. You can put it in the microwave or warm the bottle in warm water (my preference)
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If you mean carbon Sleeve to make carbon over foam grips, Look at Riley Rods to the left
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The whole thing about licensed logos is that you have paid the license fee to add it to your finished product. If you were to copy a logo and put it on a rod, then you would be at risk.
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Give Mike a call at Riley Rods - They have all of the sleeving, epoxy, foam and blanks as well
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Balsa will have higher crush strength than foam and more shear strength as well. As previously mentioned, it comes down to the density of balsa you can get. Great core material - even better if you can find very light balsa. All of the strength really comes from the carbon skin.
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I think it is all about surface tension. The Navy developed a sharkskin coating for ships a while back the little "teeth" had the effect of reducing surface tension on the hull - This is very similar to the high tech olympic swimsuits...
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I usually use D overwraps, but maybe not necessary
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What type of reel? Spinning or Conventional? Where will he be fishing? If he will be fishing in Florida, Live Bait Kite fishing is very common and Spinners in the 12 - 20 Class are used. If he will be fishing in the mid-Atlantic and with a conventional reel, you may want a rod with more backbone... For example - Many of the boats fishing the major Marlin Tournaments from NC to NJ are usi
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I haven't turned redheart, but I have turned a bit of rosewood - no major issues. Have you considered Mahogany or Sapele? they are a little softer, and do not splinter as much
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Epoxy will not eat Blueboard. It does make a stiff core material. It does compress more than polyurethane foam. If you ding it, it will crush and not spring back like polyurethane will. A layer of carbon sleeve will go a long way to protecting it. I've made surfboards and small boats out of blueboard covered by epoxy and fiberglass with good results.
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Just give it some more soak time for the smaller diameter sections and for smaller blanks. I find that for smaller blanks, 48 - 72 hours is usually good for the thinlam version.
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Last year, I was using the heaviest "Custom Builder" blank that mud hole offered - those worked well, but actually a bit more expensive than the custom builder gaff blanks also offered by mud hole.
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I have done 10 or so very small diameter graphite rods - both spinning and baitcasting using abalone as the butt wrap. The oldest is about a year old now and still appears to be holding up well with no visible stress cracks. I do not believe I would attempt to do the guide wraps with abalone - both for the weight and smaller diameter. For the smaller diameter blanks, I find that some ex
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I've used spray on adhesive (contact cement) and I've used good double stick tape... The double stick tape gave me much better results - almost identical to the veneer that Kevin carries. In my case, I cut the shell to the correct size, applied the double stick tape. I allowed it to "set" overnight and then used the vineagar method. You can usually find high quality doublesi
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