I have two Loomis GLX blanks to build.
One is a FR1206 10ft wt6, and the other FR1084 9ft wt4.

I was hoping to find a guide spacing chart on the Loomis web-site, but without succes. And also should I place the guides on the spine or 180 degrees off on these blanks ?

Can anyone help me on this one ?

Thanks in advance !

Gunnar Joergensen

Guide spacing charts are just a guideline, and usually apply to how most factory rods are made, but having said that I can recommend the St. Croix rodbuilders catalogue with a basic idea about spacing. It may also show up with their website. They also sponsor this site with the list to the left.

As custom rodbuilders, at some point it's best to achieve the spacing according the criteria of what the blank deserves and what it may be telling you to do. The fundamentals of checking the spacing by statit deflection tests and stress distribution will make your custom rod better than a factory 'rubber stamped' spacing guide.
Now, I'm not knocking the good potential of these fine rods with great care taken by those who produce them, but by constraints placed to keep factory rods within a reasonable selling price, the staff trained to place guides at specific points according to a chart, do it with a different frame of reference than would a dedicated custom rod builder.

In getting satisfaction with a begining rod to build, I confess to using the charts, and often will refer to ideas about the spacing even now.
But, you would be better served with increased rod performance by studying more the concepts that go with the fundamental skills with a custom rodbuilder. Good sources of this information is with RodMaker magazine, or if you want a fairly basic and very comprehensible read, check out Kirkman's book called "Rod Building Guide..." .

The charts are okay, but heck, go one better for your custom rod with knowing the applied fundamentals which eventually you'll absorb by osmosis as 'second nature' in rod building, yet always leaving room for the newer principals such as concept guide system or the spiral wrap. One way I like to approach is the tip guide has a certain place it would like to rest close to the tip top, and the butt guide has a certain distance it is comfortable from the reel, the rest of the guides in between are what need to have more concern and 'tweaking'.

Hope I didn't complicate the issue, but with time and practice you'll understand what is meant here.

Rich
Richard's Rod & Reel

Gun, Click on the Gloomis ad on the left column, click on tips and instruction then click on guide spacing. Look on the section of GLX flyrod blanks and the guide spacing is there.

Thanks both of you.
Now I`ve found the spacing charts, and the answer from Mr.Garbowski really enlightened me. However, what about placing of guides vs. spine ?

Gunnar J

I agree with Gunnar and Rich. What you have to remember is on factory rods is that they use a aveage when spaceing rods they are mass-produced. When it comes to building your own rod I recomen puting one guide per-foot of total rod You may start out by putting the frist guide 41/2 inches from the tip top then add an addional inch to each guide. You may have the same searies blank, but not one blank works the same as the other.

Guides should be place 180 from the spine for a fly rod.

There is no wrong position on which to place the guides, but each location will result in different performance characteristics from the same blank.

You have three choices - 1. Guides on spine (outside of relaxed curve). 2. Guides opposite spine (inside of relaxed curve). 3. Guides on stiffest axis (natural concave bend).

The first will put the spine into play on the forward cast and give a bit more lifting power for fish fighting. The second option gives a bit more power on the forward cast but a bit less for fish fighting. The third would give you the most possible power for either fish fighting or casting depending upon which side of the stiffest axis (blank's natural concave bend) you choose to locate them on.

Rod torque or twisting during fish fighting is not an issue in any of these placements as the loaded line through the guides hold the rod stable.

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