Thanks a tonne, Roger....Method one is a no-go. The walls of this graphite Clearwater blank are really thick, so the pass-through will be too thin to mate with the female section, unless I start butchering it, to alter the taper. The female section at mate-point has a wall thickness of an animal-hair over a sixteenth... this is a congo rod, made on these custom blanks from the 80's for river-fish
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As per above, I'm going to attempt to make a tapered male end for a sleeve over female style rod. The rod lost about 4"off the butt, meaning that the female section no longer sleeves over. It only mates about 1/4" down, instead of the 2-2 1/4" the factory set up for. I need to make an insertable extension in the butt half, get it bonded in forever, then taper the "stickout&
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Thanks, Folks....TM is no longer distributed up this way. The new owner of the name has not set up a Canadian distributor. No worries... Cash is cash, and I'll just send it south. KD.
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Hi, Folks...I will attempt to clarify the query. GlassCoat, as Tom mentioned was very quick, when processed in a usual build manner. Threadmaster is very close, and is speedy enough for my deal. But if there is now a _faster_ one.....kewl. The question goes to the rest of the pack: when used in a conventional manner..... is TM still the fastest, or is there a quicker one out there. I'm n
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Several new (to me) formulations are now available. I don't do enought volume to try all the brands, they would be sitting on the shelf, as I don't do enough volume to have a fast turn-around. It's counterproductive to have 5 or 6 "heels" of this, or that resin. The question.... currently: whose present-day resin (one you can still buy) has the shortest pot life? I'm just about out o
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Some blank makers re-enforce the ferrule section with a different colour coating than the main rod. I prefer to cover up the odd colour, with a wrap as long as it takes. I feel this looks better than the transition of one blank colour to the other. Where there is no discernable colour shift, then I follow the guidelines as per posts above. I try and made the ferrule wrap blend in, (length-wi
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Hi, Mike, I save them, and any time I get a repair in, with either no button, or a rubber one, I just send it out no charge with the metal ones. This, when I use fly reel seats for gear rods, where the button is not needed.
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I've been using methanol (methyl hydrate) in solid form as sterno canned heat for my little steam engines as a kid, and its liquid form in my zippo lighter when I smoked, and in my alcohol lamps for rodwork, since the book entitled Fiberglass Rod Making by (the late) Don McClain, was published, in 1973. I still have the book. Edit: I understand in America, de-natured alcohol *is* methanol...
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Well, yes....Hopkins and Holloway's brand is Seymo.... We're playing edit tag, LOL....I'll eyeball Angler's w/Shop. Thanks. Appreciated. KD.
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Why not methyl hydrate? Denatured ethyl alcohol is totally not in available this town. Methyl is gas line anti-freeze, available anywhere where it freezes. I've not noticed any ill effects by using same for maybe 20 years now.....
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A fast search using Sage Guides came up blank. I am curious to learn which brand of guides they use on the factory product. Specifically: the stripping guides, on double handers. Or are they exclusive to them, therefore not available to buy on the general market. Thanks. Ken. PS: a few months ago a fellow with a hidden email address enquired about the thread technique Sage uses on the 2-ha
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I cannot be sure what they are using, but: Gudebrod 340 gold appears to be equal to, or so close to the factory's work. You should use a fairly slow-set resin, as it comes out all blotchy at first, until the resin fully soaks into the threads. I used Threadmaster regular, and got the resin to fully soak. Hope this helps. KD.
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Old school tungsten carbide rings are not inserted...they are brazed to the frame, as they are a metallic substance, not a ceramic. The same stuff on saw blades, mason drills, etc. Pac Bay makes them, possibly others. You could search 'guides for wire line' and see what comes up. I don't know the Batson line at all. I use Fuji, and Pac Bay until I use up all the ones I have, then I can expl
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If inserts are popping out, I suspect the guides are inferior offshore clones of the big names. If the guy is using braid, and has the coin in his jeans, the old school now-coming-back-into-favour _tungsten carbide guides_ might be the answer. Those things fell out of favour years ago, because of the obscession with weight, among other reasons. Ceramics were less spendy at first, but now, tho
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What Jim says. Before I started locally, I picked up the phone, and checked. No-one in town was doing this, so I called some of the other towns in the area. No-one was doing them within a 100 mile radius. So I called a couple a major centers, and picked a lower number than them, because they were in actual business, with overhead costs. A firm in Alberta charges 15.95 a guide, plus the guide,
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Nothing new under the sun, and a search using the topic header brought up no results. Generic reel seats, or named ones are of a length that accomodates every reel foot on the planet. Ergo: an 18mm trigger seat from Fuji, after a small baitcaster's let in and snugged down, will show about an inch of threads before the cork starts. I find this unattractive, and reduce the threads showing to a
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Thanks, Tom. KD.
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I took my special kind of stupid pill, and left the two jars of Rod Bond outside, where it was subjected to zero and sub-zero temps, in both the centigrade and Farenheit scales. For about 2 weeks. I simply forgot I left it out. I searched using rod bond freeze, frozen rod bond, and those terms came up blank, begging the quesiton: After it unthaws, and comes back to room temp (61F) will it st
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"Macrame" cord comes in 2 stock diameters: 4mm and 6mm. It's reasonably priced: usually between 5 and 6.00 US per 100 yards. It comes in _many_ colours. It's supple braid, so quite easy to turn around a blank, complared to some nylon braids, which are can be tlghtly braided. On a 1¼ blank, it takes _about_ 2.7 feet per inch, so your 100 yards/300 feet of cord goes quite a ways.
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Hair dryers can be both a friend or a foe, depending on the wattage of same. I use one routinely, to help 'pop' some entrained air. But, on low, not on high. High will send the resin off the rod, category 4, into the closest wall. I'll run the dryer on high (pointing it well away from the rod) for a little bit, to heat up the element, then go to low, so the soft wind is nice and hot, for the f
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Thanks Ted...this was to be a sort of "one-time" thing, with the butt sections I have available. I've been working with cork since the high '70's and these rings are about the same quality as today's factory Sage two-handers. That's pretty decent. It seems a bit of a pity, to just let them sit in the corner. Best, KD
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Thanks for the positive and negative replies, folks. These are not "cheap grips"... These are high end casting rod butts, with Fuji seats, and no filler in evidence in any voids to fall out later...like most preformed grips sold, that I;ve seen. I am not in business, I'm retired, and as the saying goes, have all the time in the world, with about 10,000 cork rings in the drawer, a
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Thanks folks.... because I typed late last night, I needed to add the clause that the plan was not to (entirely) de-laminate the corks, but to thin out the inner wall of the graphite to permit insertion of another blank. If it turned out that the wall was either paper thin, or totally removed, so be it. Any extra weight from the original blank would be no big deal. Extra weight close to the hand
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I tried my subject title in the search box, along with saving cork grips, and both came up blank. The local sports store always has a selection of pristine butt sections of casting rods, because several makers always send back a complete rod, on warranty claims. There may be as little as an hour on the rod, meaning the corks, and reel seat are candidates for re-cycle. Especially at today's
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If memory serves, cork bark can be processed 2 main ways: with the grain and across the grain. Were the terms not specie cork, and mustard cork? I believe specie cork is used for cork rings, and mustard for wine bottle stoppers?
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Ye olde spine bugaboo. Years ago, one of the few reference books available at the time (Fiberglass Rod Making, Don McClain), made no mention of the "S" word. All he did was eyeball down the blank, and put the guides along the "belly" of the blank. Which just happened to be the straightest axis. 'when I ordered my blanks (Fenwick, and Lamiglas), all I had to tell the suppl
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One thing that's always puzzled me RE: mandrel-turning, and that's getting the bore concentric with the rod, once installed, along with a tight front ring, to avoid the use of a 'hosel', or a winding check, to mask the over-bore up front.....as one reams to the bore and taper of the rod. I suppose with the use of dedicated gritty reamers, this goes away. But them how many gritty reamers does o
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Cannot wait to give it a try.... the Canadian rep is expecting his shipment shortly, as it's nearly fall. Andy: can this stuff in consumer putups be flown in USA air space? We will be arriving\departing America from Philly on the 13th/29th of August, and could bring some home with us from a USA supplier, if it flies. thx. kd.
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A trick I use for my seamstress buddies: I buy plaids, ginghams, and houndsteeth cloth.... In flannelette, or acrylic, or whatver I need at the time. All these types of textiles, have built-in straight lines to gain the best utilization from the cloth. They can just cut and sew down any of the pattern lines, and do a great job. No weird off cut at the end of the bolt, from funny scissor cuts.
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Rodger that, J..... mine are only 16. Unlucky. The hood and the threaded barrel metal parts are gold in colour. Good hunting. kd.
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