Hey Everyone, i have a friend that fishes King Salmon on Lake Ontario and want to build a couple of downrigger rods for him. if i'm not mistaken they should be all glass due to the constant bend and force on the rod. Have any of you built for this application and can suggest a couple of blanks to choose from? I'll probably go with the spiral wrap on these as well Thank you
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What would be a comparable blank to the lx80hbc? I use it for flounder fishing with 2oz weight and a mullet. Love the rod but want to change a few things like eliminating trigger and possibly spiral wrap
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Have caught the BFS bug. Has anyone has built an ultralight/spiral wrap baitcasting rod for trout or panfish? I have a couple old Abu Garcia UL spinning rods I may scrape and attempt. Seems it would create better line flow through the guides. Use of fiberglass blanks would IMO provide a more appropriate soft action. Any comments or solid advice always welcome. Tuna
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Hello, I am new to the hobby and have done 6 rods. I wanted to get into more decorative wraps but have trouble just keeping my standard wraps clean. I've given up with size A. How do you all make it look so easy? I have the CRB wrapper but wonder if tention is too tight. I will break thread pulling through sometimes. On video folks just pull it so easy. I use size D and it is easier
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In an effort to advance my guide placement knowledge, I spent most of the afternoon doing research. Not surprising, there's actually quite a bit of information available on the internet. I found old articles on "equal angle" and setting up peg boards and concentric circles, etc... and information on New Guide Concept. But, the one article that delivers the message in a simple, concise a
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I have two questions on unrelated topics . Hope it's okay to combine them into a single post . #1 In Rich Forhan's articles in the latest issue of RodMaker , he mentions using guide spacing of 5-6-7 down to the spiral wrap where he uses 6-6-6 . What does he mean by these number sequences ? #2 I have noticed that on several spinning surf casting rods in the 10 to 11 foot range the number o
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I’m sure this has been discussed. I stopped at a custom rod builder in my neck of the woods to buy a tip top and hook keeper, which I always forget to order. I brought a couple of rods to critique. I’ve only made 5 or 6. He said I was doing alright, but my spine was off on my baitcasting rod. Thought I paid close attention to the right spot. He then explained how I should’ve put the first 2 g
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I saw these a while ago, has anyone used these reels? They can be put on a spinning rod and the reels weight is under the rod. I poster picture
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When I was into bike building and metal fabrication I spent so much time cruising forums and blogs of various builders and fabricators and I always fell hardest down the rabbit hole for chronicles of builds. To watch the build progress and read the conversations that happened along the way was amazing. To watch someone's vision unfold over time was a great experience and basically represented fue
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I was at a fishing show and 1 vendor had a spiral wrap spinning rod has anyone ever build one and what would the benefit be ?
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I'm going to be starting on a Phenix TJX-63MH slow pitch rod for a customer. Nice blank. I've never made one before, but it's pretty straight forward. I have all the components. Here's the dilemma: Phenix spiral wraps their slow pitch rods. I'm in complete agreement with the concept. I have a spiral wrapped Phenix 700X3H which is absolutely amazing to fish. I told the customer that I highly recom
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Been out of the game for about 10 years. Is the new guide concept still a good way to set up a spinning rod? I'm building a 2pc 10' spinner (SU1207F-2-MHX) for surf casting and using a van staal vr150 with 50lb braided line (12lb diameter in mono) with no connecting knots. I'm trying to build it as light as possible while being able to cast as far as possible. Also any suggestions on guides th
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I have an X-Ray MB-736 blank I would like to setup with a set of micro guides. Possibly looking at the Titan Artus micros, but also open to suggestions. What combination of sizing and spacing is everyone using for micros?
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I’ve seen several people talk of placing guides on straightest axis of blank vs finding the spine. What are the pros and cons of each and why one way or another? Thanks
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I have some inexpensive 9’6” (10-30 lb) 2 piece factory rods setup for trolling salmon, and am thinking to modify the current guide configuration to a spiral wrap. This would involve moving 1 existing guide and adding 1 more guide, and both would be the transition guides in the spiral (successive 60 degree offsets). My question involves having the spiral transition guides span the ferrule.
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In the now infamous thread "Has NFC gone downhill?", there was some discussion by some pretty experienced people regarding the preferred placement of guides on a blank. As is often the case, there was also some disagreement among the participants in the discussion related to this. Because it has been bugging me, I decided to address it. First off, I agree with Ed Rose who in the di
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First post here. Looking to build a few rods and wanted to get some input from forum members on guides as things seem to have changed a little since the days of winding using telephone books. I've got three NFC's to use for drum and cobia rods and I'm planning on a simple spiral wrap. I'll be using Avet SX's on two of them and a Diawa Lexa on the other. The line (50lb braid) comes off the Avets 2
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I know in the past Kistler used NFC blanks, can anybody share their experience/data with the new Kistler rods/blanks?
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I’m working on my very first build - a cheap kit that had everything for 20 bucks. I decided to see what some different techniques felt like adding some flare to the wraps. Single/double inlay wasn’t too bad, spiral inlay with size D and smaller than A felt alright, spiral with A and smaller than A was tough - plus at that time I decided to give hand tensioning the thread which worked better in o
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This seems like a solid wrapping, I admit I'm new - but this appears to me that it would hold equally well as with "traditional" wrapping techniques. I've seen comments about wrapping on unsanded X-ray blanks and wonder if this would help - thoughts? It let me post so in trying the link here Again...
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What are your GO TO rods for your FAVORITE kinds of fishing? I'm curious what some of the best rod builders and fishermen on this forum reach for first. New to rod building and don't have lots of rods yet? Chime in with what you do have and why you like it. Have a couple favorites for the same category? Freshwater and/or Saltwater? Fly, Spin, Cast? Go for it! Also, I thought it might be h
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As the title suggests, how do you align the guides on your rod builds? There must be pros and cons to either / both methods to be considered while developing a personal preference. Personally, I position the guides of my builds in the straightest, line-of-sight alignment because when sighting down the rod (as virtually everyone does, including customers), the guides are in perfect alignment with
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I know this has been discussed before and I have done some searching but I must not be searching the correct key words or something. Anyhow, I have a small diameter tip on an ice rod and want to use a certain tip top but the tube is a touch to big. I figured I could do a wrap on the tip to fill the gap but I’m concerned about getting a good bond between the blank, the thread and the tip top. H
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Little off topic but not too far off. Bit of wrapping porn I suppose? Since I started wrapping, cylinders have a different aspect. I have a titanium pen that will use virtually any pen insert (uni ball jetstream is a favorite) that i always look at and thing about wrapping. I've even eyeballed my favorite screwdriver shanks haha. But i did exercise this borderline compulsion recently by buildi
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What is the feeling about using color preserver on wraps? I had heard it weakened them and would not let the epoxy penetrate.
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New to fly rods and not sure best practices for graphite ferrules. First, building on a graphite NFC LMX blank, so the blank has light ribbing in texture and then the ferrule sections have a ridged transition into a smooth male ferrule insert section. So a couple questions: 1. Not crazy about the ridge where it transitions to the ferrule insert. The ridge, when assembled with its mating b
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I'm going to build a bait finesse rod for stream trout just because curiosity is killing me. I plan to use an NFC 601 (IM) or an NFC 602 (Delta) paired with a KastKing BFS Zepher reel and PowerPro 3 LBS braid. Would like to be able to throw 1/32 oz jigs. I have a Fuji rv6 I can use for a stripper and minima 5's or 4's for running guides. I am thinking about a simple spiral. Can I use single foo
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I am building a catfish rod and need to what size seat, size guides and number of guides to use. This will be a casting rod. I’m not sure what size guides to use. I know the customer uses Abu Ambassador 6500 and 7000 reels. Blank NFC 8’0” s-glass composite Medium Heavy , moderate/fast action Thanks in advance for the info.
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Is the hot glue sold for tips special or will an ordinary glue stick work satisfactorily? I’ve used a glue gun before, squirt some in the tip, some on the blank.
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If a Tip Top is Glued on with Tip Top Adhesive, is there a requirement for Wrapping it? Is it more for aesthetics? Or do you wrap over the tube a little to help secure it? I am building an Ultralight rod and wondering if it would be okay not to have the wrap Tip Top. On my Ice Fishing Rods I wrapped a guide for the tip top, but this is first time I am gluing a tip top on. Thanks
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