Earlier I had announced that the cost of a RodMaker Magazine subscription would be increasing by a buck or two sometime later this year. Now I’m happy to report that there will be no increase this year. Not only have we increased the overall magazine content by about 25% to 30%, but we’ve done it without the need to increase the price. This means RodMaker remains the least expensive rod
Forum: rodboard

a friend of mine says these dark rings on his custom built rod are made of graphite? have any of you guys ever used this type of ring ? he said its for added sensitivity.
Forum: rodboard

For those of you who have done some grips, please poke your heads into the photo area and let me know if I am on track. IS this what I shoudl be seeing? What is my next step(s)?
Forum: rodboard

I recently gave a musky rod with a foam core grip to a person I could rely on to really put it to the test. He fished with it in a driving rain storm and commented that it was a little to slippery for his liking in the rain. It has only one coat of urethane on it. I am open to suggestions on what I could do short of rebuilding the handle. Thanks All Jeff Leonard
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I've spent the past few days tinkering with more urethane foam core grips. I had been using the 8lb variety but wanted something lighter but not so light as the 4lb. I checked with the Mfg. and they said that the resin is the same for all and that the hardener is the difference and that I could mix them equally to get a 6lb variety. I tried it yesterday and it appears to have worked very well. No
Forum: rodboard

I sat and tried to figure out an accurate cost / inch for the composite grips today. Here is what I came up with: 1.25" Carbon Fiber Sleeve $0.23/inch 1.1" Heat Shrink Tubing $0.07/inch 8lb. Density Foam $0.02/inch (based on the 1/2 cubic foot kit) That comes to a grand total of $0.32/inch I have been using the US Composites Laminati
Forum: rodboard

This afternoon I was making a foam core, carbon skinned grip for someone and it dawned on me that there are a very few simple steps in the technique that make all the difference in getting a perfect, smooth, lightweight, straight weave, glossy appearance versus a somewhat lumpy, thick, dull, etc., finished product. The articles were very good and contained all you really need to know, but lit
Forum: rodboard

Bill; Sometime back there was a discussion were one of your bass pro’s kept popping the (if I remember correctly) first bottom guide on the spiral out. To which you were trying some different ideas to correct this problem. I woke up this morning thinking about it and thought I would ask if you had resolved that issue and how?
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Can anyone fill me in on how this was done? Very interesting - especially Tom's comment about eliminating the screw. Thank you! Chuck
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Hello guys and gals, I am finally getting into the pouring of foam grips.....I have read all the articles and searched this site for the wealth of info here and in the mag. But as those that know me I am not too bright so I have a couple of questions: 1. I ordered the urethane A and B and release from U. S. Composites (found them to be very helpful). I do need to know how to size the skins I
Forum: rodboard

For those of you that have made foam cores, here is a question? If you are making a 12 in foam core who many cc's for parts a and b do you use? I have only try this once and used 10 cc each and it seems like that was not enough. Just trying to save some time and product from waste. If any one would care to expand on this topic. thanks again for all your help.
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For those of you that are using this product, I contacted Solar today to ask about coverage of the West product. They told me that one quart of product of 207 will cover 200 to 250 linear feet of 1 in carbon sleeves. You should be able to figure out your cost of making these if you can figure out the cost of making 1 foot of foam cores.
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Last week I had posted and asked about coating craft store EVA grips with something to firm them up a bit. I apologize for not remebering the name but someone responded and said that I should bore the grip out and install a foam core within it. I used a couple of the FlexCoat urethane bushings and it worked out great. So I just wanted to thank the person who offered that tip. It did what I nee
Forum: rodboard

I am a newbie at these handles and at rodbuilding in general. How slick/slippery do these handles come out? Is there a way to make them more "grippy" or "tacky"? Do you think if I added strips of "X-flock" to the handle that it would cut down on the sensitivity? Thanks, TONY
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I am working on a few grips with the blended blue/black sleeves from Soller and am having a finishing problem. It seems that after two coats of laminating resin I am getting pits in some of the areas of the skin almost like it didnt fill in cimpletely. Has anyone else had similar issues with this? I am having no problems at all with the strait carbon sleeves.
Forum: rodboard

Hi everyone, thought I would sign up after a couple of weeks lurking. I've wanted to build a rod for a couple of years now but I had so many already. Well this spring I went to the basement to get my rods ready for spring fishing and they weren't there. I've looked everywhere the best ones are gone. I'm glad I didn't have anything really expensive. The up side is that now I can build a couple of
Forum: rodboard

useing this stuff for the first time and love it! but my cut-offs stood up and those few small fibres of thread were expoxied. how can i best remove then without stuffing up my expoxy job? should i sand it with a fine grit sand paper then buff it a little bit more with one of those finger nail blocks?
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Hey All- I am having some trouble with fitting / finishing the ends of composite skinned grips that will butt up against / be inserted into a reel seat (typically an ECS or ACS casting seat). I have tried shaping them slightly undersized and using heat shrink tubing to finish the grips and bring them up to the right OD, but I get a real rounded shoulder and consequently a sloppy fit up into /
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I am about to build my first foam core carbon skinned grips and wanted to follow up on some feedback from those who have taken the plunge already. Everyone recommends the West Systems 207 epoxy, but doing a search there was talk of some alternatives that were less pricey. Has anyone actually tried any of these alternatives yet? At the show I saw that Steve Gardner had stolen my id
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I'm about to take the plunge and try this out. I've got two questions after reading the article and posts on the forum here. 1) What diameter sleeve carbon/fiberglass sleeve to get? I want to make split grip bass handles. My current cork grips are 1 1/4" tapering down to just under 1". So do I go with a 1.5" diameter sleeve? 2) The article said to ream the foam core to just
Forum: rodboard

At the 2008 ICRBE, Jim Burchette of Timberlake, NC won the Heritage Fishing Kayak and fishing package and Rachael Dupre of Houma, LA won the Renzetti Master Rod Lathe. The RodMaker Reception saw a ton of door prizes awared - somebody told me that I was on the podium handing stuff out for nearly an hour and fifteen minutes, and we were moving pretty fast. I think we had about 80 to 90 prizes
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So, I love the composite article. Tom's follow up method has worked best for me on the skins. I do, however, always seem to have a few small places where gaps in the weave show the underlying foam. This has not been a problem on spin seats or a reverse half wells, only on the front end of a modified wells grip where it tapers down to the blank. Anything I can do about this that y'all have figured
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What laminating epoxy do you use on the sleeve? I have the West system 5 min epoxy and it did not work very well. After putting flex coat 5 min epoxy on the core and sliding on the sleeve, I let it dry. Then mixed the West 5 min epoxy and applied on top of sleeve. The epoxy did not apply smoothly and it ended up being foggie. I reapplied a 2nd coat to fill in gaps that were missed on first
Forum: rodboard

Hi everyone, I wanted to share some tips I have came up with working with the carbon fiber sleeves over foam cores. I do not know if they will help but thought I would share a little about what I have learned. The first thing I came up with is wax paper can be your friend. I was having problems keeping the weave straight on longer fly rod grips. I ended up cutting a piece of wax paper that would
Forum: rodboard

i posted the question up in a recent post but just to make it seperate Im looking for anyone that makes foam core grips for a small job - and when i say small all it will be is a foam core fly grip and small fighting butt. So if you can help me out that would be greatly appreciated, just send me an email at benh@wadeconsul
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J.P. Timberlake is going to add a segment to his seminar on the foam cores and carbon skins. If I can juggle a few things around, we'll add an entire seminar on it. It's just a matter of trying to fit it in somewhere. J.P. has been working on this since he visited me back over the summer and we went through the process here. So he's got some measure of experience with it by now. .........
Forum: rodboard

Just a quick question regarding the foam grips, since they are white in color, can you apply rod armor to them to make them look different or can you color them? I was lookng at the mudhole catalog and noticed the Thanks Fernando Torres
Forum: rodboard

Just wanted to report that I finished up two identical 7' popping rods. One was made with a cork butt and fore grip and the other with foam core carbon skinned butt and fore grips. I was very careful to turn and shape the two grip sets as nearly identical as I could get them. The set made from cork weighed in at 0.8 ounces and the foam core carbon skinned grip set weighed in at 0.5 ounces. I was
Forum: rodboard

Well I've read everything I can on the subject of foam core composite grips(RM article and most all threads in this forum) Time to start ordering and building. I want to start using this style of grip on 30 -50 and 50 - 80 5'6" length. Rod holder issues will most likely not be a problem as the rods will mostly be hand held for halibut fishing. Will be using the light weight carbon fiber s
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Hey Guys, Just wanted to let you all know that we just recieved our first shipment of the new "Exotic Burl Cork" Turning blocks. These are 1.5" x 1.5" 12" long SOLID blocks of Exotic Burl Cork. Yes....solid blocks....just like a solid turning square of wood, ready to turn and finish. These blocks offer some REALLY cool features such as: 1. No more
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