I am in the camp of having both a manual and a relatively inexpensive power wrapper, used only for wrapping and finishing/drying. For any cork or potential wood turning, I have a turncrafter pro lathe set up in the garage, away from the wrapping and finishing room. Advantages: The wrapping station is serviceable for most all wrapping needs. I can touch up the occasional grip there but keep
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OUCH! I just bought one of the FTL 803-5's. Before the sale, of course. My luck on bad timing. Great blank though. Terry
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I've found the Fuji gold guides to corrode even in fresh water apps. They are the least corrosion resistant of any I have used. If you want the gold look, several suppliers offer gold coated zirconium rings. Forecast offers a TiCh coated frame with a gold insert. AMTAK has titanium frames with gold as well. With a little gold trim, this combo comes off very classy with a subtle amount of
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Hi Bob, Whether you decide to attend the NC show or not, it would be great to see you put on a presentation about 2-handed rod building at the April seminar at Lamiglas. There will definitely be many steelhead anglers there. Handle design, length and other specific tips on 2-handed construction would be greatly appreciated. Let me know if you have interest in this. I would be happy to
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There is little difference in performance these days between 1 and 2-piece rods. Certainly when we had to subject ourselves to metal ferrules, the 1-piece rods were far superior. Ferrule construction now has mitigated this quite a bit. Fish those 2-piece rods with confidence. Terry
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Yes, you can. You'll need to make sure that your ink isn't water soluble, or it will smear when you put the decal on the blank. Or, you can spray with a clear fixative before you apply the decal. Terry
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Hi Bob, I checked a couple of the likely sponsors (Jann's Netcraft and Custom Tackle) with no luck. I built a spinning rod with one of these a year or so ago. I ordered mine online from Breakaway: but I see that Cabelas has them as well. Good luck! Terry
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Billy's right. Just try it and see. If you enlarge the top of the hole a bit, you could posibly get away with putting a drop of finish in the hole to fill it. You will most likely get a small lump of finish there instead of a hole if you try this, but try it anyway. If you don't like the way it looks after this, then just hit the sig area with some sandpaper and put another coat on. No big
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I just picked up some RDR86MH blanks. The tip is a little heavier than I like for salmon trolling, but these should be good for fishing divers. I suspect they are the best blank for downriggers as well. I prefer the hot shot blanks for trolling spinners and herring for salmon here in Oregon. Good luck. Terry
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As Tom says, it is a tool of personal preference. I used to use a brush for applying finish. I tried a couple kind of spatulas and found some metal artist spatulas in different shapes and sizes that I now use for all my rods. They are thin and very flexible and work well for controlling the amount of finish used, as well as making nice even lines on the edges. The pointed spatulas are good
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Hi Fred, I have seen some older rods wrapped this way, with one continuous thread for both feet. I've also seen a couple of custom rods I repaired that were wrapped the same way. I've not seen any current production rods use this method though. I think herters used to sell a ton of that multi-colored repair thread. I see a lot of older rods repaired with this when I go through garage sal
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If you are a lamiglas loyalist, the IM700 series are good quality blanks. However, Lamiglas rarely gets mentioned in discussions about favorite or most requested blanks. You may consider Rainshadow RX7 or RX8 as a capable alternate. Also, the new switch blanks that Bob Meiser developed would be ideal for this kind of fishing. At 10 1/2' they can be used as either overhand or 2-handed styles
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Tim, You'll find lots of interest from friends if you charge retail for the parts, or only $50 labor for your rods. If you are producing split grips and above average thread work and good attention to detail, you should be planning to make $100 profit per rod. Once you start pricing in this range, it will be less of a "deal" for your friends and no doubt, you will get people te
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Dave, Do a search on filling cork or variants of that. You'll find lots of info on methods and materials. If the pits are small like yours, I generally just leave 'em. Big craters get filled with a mix of cork dust and titebond III, then sanded after drying. Terry
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Eric, The DR series blanks are a durable composite design that have the moderate action you are looking for in a downrigger/trolling blank. At the NW rodbuilders event, I talked this over with Karry Batson and this was his recommendation. We are in the middle of salmon trolling season at the mouth of the columbia where we use either divers or downriggers and need a moderate action rod with s
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Yup. Hard to read. The background design is very professional however. Try changing to a lighter colored font with blue or dark blue borders. Sort of inverted what you have now. Terry
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For Pacific Northwest Steelhead fishing, these are not the same. Depending on the size of flies your customer is casting, and whether he is planning to use floating, sink tip or a shooting head system, there are a number of choices to consider. In the summer, we tend to swing flies with floating lines. Depending on the size of the river, you could use the standard one-handed rod in a 6 or
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It would most likely have been a salmon over 40lbs to break this class of rod. Are you sure he didn't sneek on that Halibut charter and pop it on one of those 200lb barn doors? Other than that, I would agree with Cliff. Too much drag or a sticky drag and a bad angle either by horsing or with the fish under the boat. I'm impressed he actually broke this rod on a fish, even up there. A pre
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I agree with Tom. (What a surprise) The wrap itself hasn't moved, only the epoxy. This indicates a poor adhesion between the thread layer and the flexcoat. I would definitely try to sand and recoat and not redo the wrap. Terry
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I do the same trick with finish epoxy. Add pigment and add to the junction while the rod is turning. It levels out nicely if you elevate the blank so it levels a bit toward the reel seat. I tried rod bond but could never get it very smooth. Terry
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Hi Sam, I'll try to take your questions in order. Yes, you should epoxy the hood to the wood insert and the cork. Some reel seats have the hood already fixed to the insert. If yours does not, then you will definitely need to epoxy the hood to the reel seat. If you look closely next time, you can buy cork grips already inlet for the reel seat hood. I'm not sure I get your next questio
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The magnetic thread tensioner sold by All American is sort of a cool idea. You need to adjust the height of your thread router/eye bolt however. If the angle of the thread is too steep leaving the spool, it will tip over. The magnet has great pull force strength, but not much shear resistance when tipped from the top. Terry
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Hi Joe, I sent Trondak and email but I'm sure they are getting back from the holiday so I haven't heard from them yet. I was more curious to learn if others had seen this happen. I've used Color Lock for 2-3 years with no issues. This is the first problem I've had. I should hear from them in a day or 2. If I don't, I'll let you know. Your email address is hidden on the board by the
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All, Has anyone experinced undisolved particles in color lock? I see the instructions recommend protection from freezing, but, nothing for storage on the high end of the temp range. It probably gets mid-high 80's in my rod room. I thought I just had an old bottle, so I switched to the new bottle I just bought and same thing happened. No amount of stirring, or thinning (yes, I know I'm no
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Hi Jeffrey, Search feather inlays on the board. You'll find a lot of good information there. Also check the back issue index for Rod Maker Magazine. There was an article not too far back on doing inlays. Basic tips: Jungle cock nails and black & white grizzly hackle tips are easy to start with. These are available at most any fly shop where tying supplies are sold. Until you can
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Tom, I don't have a Renzetti, but I recall that there is a reverse switch on the foot pedal. This must be a DC motor? The less expensive wrappers are all AC motors so it's one direction only. However, I know the drying motor is reversible if you stop it by hand. Maybe a brief explanation of the 2 different designs and how you could modify the Batson wrappers to incorporate a reverse functi
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We did float this idea for the curriculum but had to shelve it in favor of time to do the fly tying and casting instruction. If the camp gets extended in future years, we could certainly add this in. Terry
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Hi all, Thanks for the tips. We were hoping to keep it under $50 a piece. Looks like the Hook and Hackle deal is about as close to that as we may get. Hoping to use 4 or 5 wts, but we can't be too choosy I guess. We tried to get in on the LL Bean deal but were too late for this year. Thanks again. If anyone runs across good deals, please shoot me an email. Cheers, Terry
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Hi all, My local Trout Unlimited Chapter is starting a kids fishing camp this summer. We are looking to outfit the first class with inexpensive outfits to learn to cast and catch fish. The class also includes introduction to knots, insect identification, fly tying as well as casting. We would like 12 sets that are the same rod model so the instruction can be consistent with each student.
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We do a lot of trolling for un-landlocked salmon here in the northwest. I spoke with Kerry Batson at our West coast rod building show and he recommended the DR series blanks for salmon trolling. These are composite blanks and take to downriggers well with a moderate action. 8 1/2 to 10 1/2 ft. models in the line class you are using. I'm sure Ron can get these for you as well. Most of us l
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