I'm looking for suggestions from those who have sanded down fiberglass rods (ice rods in particular) to tune the action.

What methods do you use, and do you need to seal or paint the rod after you've finished? I tried a couple of searches of prior posts, and didn't come up with much.

Thanks, once again, for sharing your time and experience!


Scott From SD

Scott,
The best method to use is a "gentle touch".

You need to go at it slowly and the most important thing is to not overheat the fiberglass. After you have turned a few of them to dust, you will very quickly realize that a heavy hand can either destroy the rods action or the rod itself.

When I do this, I simply chuck the blank in either a variable speed drill or a variable speed lathe. I spin the blank at 300-500 rpm. I generally start with about 150 or 200 grit paper to make any significant blank action changes. Then work down to 400 or even 600 grit paper. After finishing, I just polish the blank with a paper towel and leave it at that. If you want you could always use one of the wipe on finishes, or do a spray paint - especially on the tip. I will often paint the tips of the blank orange for better visibility in dark shelters.

When ever doing this type work, it is always nice to buy the blanks by the half or dozen pieces. That way, you can leave one blank as a standard unsanded blank. If you also have a final blank that matches the action you are trying to achieve, you can place it beside the untouched blank to use as a comparison.

Then, have a good caliper to measure blank diameters from the extreme butt to the extreme tip of the blank. If the glass material is similar, you will find that your sanded blank will rather closely match the blank diameters at various stations on the sanded blank - compared to the final desired blank.

Just remember that you can change a blank diameter by .004 or .006 and that may be more than enough to change the blank to your final action. Also remember, that even when you go to finer grits of paper, you are still going to be removing material from the blank to change the action. So, unless you are making rather significant changes in the blank, you don't want to start with too aggressive paper, or you will end up destroying the rod in an attempt to get the scratch marks removed from the in ital use of heavy grit paper.

Summary - go slow with finer grades of paper, taking care to not overheat the blank and you will be fine.

Take care
Roger

Roger, thanks for the great lesson, I can't wait to try this