I add the butt cork (or whatever material) as the LAST step in making a rod. I use a single solid cork ring (with no hole in it), and bore it about 1/3 of the way through to be slightly larger than the outside diameter of the blank. Then I simply glue this ring to the secont-to last ring and sand it by hand. Only takes a few minutes to do this and you end up with a perfectly seamless butt that
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I made three Calstar Graphiter's for a local charter captain for tuna chunking. Used a CALGF760L6 blank, a Fuji BPS-29 24G seat, Fuji TNSG guides (yes, it's crazy, but they are WAY stronger than most realize), and slick butt. The guy loved them for tuna, and when he took them on a tog trip recently, he said it was the nicest tog rod he's ever fished (and he's been doing this a long time). He s
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Steve- I'm surprised that when you drop the butt, the power remains so similar despite the fact that the AA always decreases. I would think that with the shorter length and a lower AA, it would take a bit more weight to get to 1/3 deflection (even with a shorter total deflection needed). Do all blanks (that you've measured) act like this? The implication would be that you can slow down any
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I bought a Renzetti because I read so many glowing reviews AND many, many builders said it would "last a lifetime." It was a lot of money, but I am I glad I took the plunge. With this lathe I can bore the cork rings, turn my grips, and wrap and dry the rod. It's a rock solid platform for adding decals and putting on trim bands. I can wrap one guide when I have 10 minutes to kill
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You can make the gold wrap look a bit less garish if you wrap it side by side with another color. I've done glitzy gold/metalic pearl together and the overall effect is still bright gold but WAY more subtle than just a solid gold wrap.
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One point this really drives home to me is just how many rods are out there. All these rods get sold to someone. The custom maker has a phenomenal number of potential customers out there if they can just reach them with an offer. I make 1 or 2 rods a week, and even at that rate I get tired of wrapping. I am positive I would despise outwrapping.
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To keep weight down, I do more or less the last thing Tom suggested, except I do three complete revolutions before the guide foot to give the wrap a bit of "staying power" before I start winding up onto the guide foot.
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I second the suggestion to try the Struble U15. It's a great seat for saltwater applications when you don't want to spend a fortune on a titanium seat (and if, like me, you can't bring yourself to use cheap plastic seats no matter how practical they might be).
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Thanks! It's not easy posting such heretical thoughts, but I can't seem to stop myself ;-) I took some flak for that post, so it's good to hear Steve and I aren't alone. I was starting to think it was just a Carroll County MD thing...
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(Flex Coat finishing rod motor on sale for $40- a steal)
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If you are making split grip handles for others, be sure to ask what sort of rod holders they use. In tube-style of rod holders, split grip rods with long handles will end up having the blank itself come in contact the rod holder. This will scratch up the blank in very short order, mar any decoration you might put there, and it also makes the rod sit in the holder at more of an angle than it wo
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It hurts my back thinking about checking umbrella rigs every 45 minutes by hauling them in with a fast action 6' rod. I've hauled many, and I would never make myself a rod over 5' long. I have made a lot of rods for Chesapeake trolling on the Lamiglas BBT857S and Seeker SM30 and SM50, all cut to 5' or so. Save your money on blanks for a nice bunker spoon or unweighted parachute rig rod. Lets
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Putter- I'm using the 120 grit belts. Works perfectly. I've done maybe 100 guides including some heavy roller guides and I'm still on my first belt.
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It looks neat, but if grinding guide feet is your primary use for this keep in mind that for $5 more you can get a belt sander that will grind guide feet far more quickly and easily than a dremel. These were on sale a few months ago for $30. I bought one, and I will never consider grinding guide feet a chore again.
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That is genius, truly. Why didn't I think of that??? It got me to thinking- along the lines of what Tom had posted- why not just mount a flat piece of polished ceramic material along the side of the rod? Just epoxy it in place. This would be even easier than making one of those rings, and it would work on blanks of any diameter. I will try this on some Bunker Spoon rods I'm making this win
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Wow! I started a dialog with Rick back when the first CCS article came out. He and I both posted on a now defunct fishing board at the time. He seemed really interested, and sent me one 6 wt. TiCr blank to test and report back to him on. I did that, but #1 son came, that board died, and we lost touch. Great to see he followed up with you Steve! I still have that rod, and it's the fastest fl
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I have a T1 line and this site is the slowest site I access. Sometimes it takes 20 seconds to view a page, while other sites (e.g. Wash Post) that get millions of hits a day takes less than one second. There is definitely a bottleneck here that very few other sites have. Were this not such a unique and awesome site, I would have given up long ago.
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I've heard a lot of complaints (all second-hand), that braid + recoils = lots of line noise. Can any builders verify or refute this claim? I'm afraid to use REC recoils for fear of returns because of this.
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In an effort to keep weight to the minimum on my guides, I've been using Permagloss exclusively for guide coatings on all my rods for two years now. No, it's not as pretty as epoxy. But I'll take stronger and lighter over pretty every time. I love not having to mix it and the quick drying time.
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I write on blank waterslide decals placed on top of lined paper (so I can see the lines). Then I transfer the decal onto the blank. It's so much easier to be neat writing on a flat surface... I just use scraps of waterslide decal sheets I've ordered from Decal Connection over the years.
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I tried to do some test casting on a spinning rod years ago. It was very frustrating. There was so much variation from cast to cast... One cast would go 120', the next 110', the next 125', etc. I found that unless I did something completely ridiculous (e.g. first guide 10" from the reel) I could not detect major differences in distance. Being a scientist by profession, I quickly re
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is an unreal tool for comparing and buying digital cameras. You can actually view identical pictures taken with many kinds of cameras and compare them directly.
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I called from a hard line at work Andy, and you are right that call waiting does not work with that number. I left my cell number, sorry there was a bug in the line. I'll call you again Monday or Tuesday and we'll get it straight.
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I left a message with Andy on Tuesday, and have not heard back. I assume he must be too busy to respond to customers.
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In 1986 when I was 16 years old. I saved money all summer to buy a kit from Orvis. It's scary to think I've been making rods for two decades! I thought I was a pretty good builder until I started subscribing to RodMaker and I saw what other people could do... But how great your work can be has nothing to do with how long you have been making rods. It has a lot more to do with how hard you
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Do some practice wraps where the grip will be.
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Orvis uses SIC stripper guides on their Zero Gravity saltwater rods. This is indeed where they are most needed. Do we really need SIC guides on small rods catching fish that never make long runs? I use them, and like them, but even I feel like maybe I'm gilding the lily. Snake guides work fine on light fly rods, which is why nearly every manufacturer uses them. SIC titanium might be a bit ni
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EVA is a heck of a lot easier to work with than cork...
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I hear you Andy, I just happen to disagree. To make it up for you, how about if I buy you this very sassy Sage carry-on roller suitcase? It's perfect for the fly-fishing soccer Mom on-the-go. OK, OK, that was below the belt.. I'll stop.
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