Howdy

Figured I would start with a little intro and background on myself before I just started posting up newbie questions here.

I currently reside in Saint Helens, OR and have lived here for about 12 years or so now. Prior to that I have lived in various states across the country. I am originally from Yuma, AZ which, other than here, was where I spent the most time in one place.

For a long time my hobby was wood turning. I made duck calls, elk calls, and all sorts of other trinkets to pass the time and also have things to give as gifts, donate to functions, etc. Divorce and downsizing forced me to sell off my wood turning stuff leaving me without a "puttering around" hobby.

Since I am not really into water fowl hunting like I used to be and fishing takes up most of my outdoors time, I decided to dip my toes into the world of rob building. I have always had an admiration for custom rods, so heck. Let's give it a whirl and see where it goes.

My experience on one of the call making forums I used to belong to was that there was a mix of old timers and newer folks. The old timers grumped about how they did everything with minimal equipment and fashioned together lathes and manufactured all their own turning tools while the newer folks compared notes on what the "best" new fangled gear and specialty tools to use. I imagine that same mix of experience exists here. I, obviously, fall into the new crowd.

I watched all of the instructional videos on Mud Hole, some more than once, and decided to start off with their complete kit, which arrived on my door step yesterday. Not really knowing what all I might need the kit seemed like the perfect way to go and ensure I didn't get caught without a critical component in spite of maybe having some things included I may or may not end up using. Included in the kit was Tom's book, which looks like a great resource for learning as well.

The first, and most obvious, thing I have learned is that this hobby is almost the opposite of getting started in wood turning. The initial expense of getting to the point of just making my first pile of wood chips carried a fairly heavy cost. The upside was that after that, the cost of doing it was very minimal. With this, the initial cost was almost nothing really, but I can already see that the materials costs is where it is going get potentially expensive.

So, hopefully here soon I will get a chance to break out the gear and start off on the wonderful journey that all new hobbies start with. Making lots of mistakes.

I'm sure I will be making some "stupid question" posts in the near future and will do my best to search for previous posts before asking. If I happen to ask something that has been discussed feel free to flog me mercilessly, but I would appreciate a link to the answer that I was unable to find on my own.


Thanks



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/2015 01:14PM by Ed Johnston.

Glad to have you on board lots of information here

William Sidney
AK

Ed,

Welcome to rod building and the rodbuilding.org forum. You will find on this forum that there are no stupid questions, just questions that don't get asked resulting in a screwup! We all have different levels of experience, some good and some bad. Hopefully, the questions and answers on this forum will help you avoid the bad experiences.

Welcome to the addiction!

Don Campbell
don@sensorfishingrods.com

G'day Ed
welcome to the addiction that is "Rod Building" there is no known cure for it as Donald said "there are no dumb questions the only dumb one's are the ones you don't ask".You will receive a lot of different replies to all your questions & everyone will be correct .All you have to do is pick the one that works for you .As for the cost of the equipment that will depend on how involved you want to become .When you start purchasing a motorised wrapper ,a band saw , a wood lathe A pedestal drill & a metal turning lathe your out lay will go through the roof . Then comes the costs of all the materials you will accumulate.

Then will come the costs of other equipment that you never thought you would ever use .That is all the negatives .The positives are the great people you will find on this site if your lucky you might find another builder that lives or works close by that doesn't mind you wandering into his shop or to give you a quick answer over the phone
We are all on here to learn something new & we all have at sometime in our lives been in the same position you find yourself in & the amount of knowledge on this site is amazing .Good luck on your adventure into Rod Building

Regards Baz

Bundeena
NSW Australia

Welcome Ed.

Having just recently finished my first complete rod build, I'm one of the new crowd you speak of. I can tell you this, you have come to the right place. This place is a wealth of knowledge, with members such as Donald Campbell who posted earlier, that are quite willing to help a "newbie" out. Donald, as well as many other members have freely shared their thoughts and made suggestions that have helped me immensely.

As has already been said, the only stupid questions are the ones you don't ask. I'm sure I've asked a stupid question or two, or ten, in my relatively short time here. And everyone has been met with nothing but helpful suggestions, or remedies to problems.

These guys are great, and have welcomed me with open arms, as I am sure they will welcome you.

Your mentioning of doing searches through past threads is spot on. You'll find a lot of different answers to topics I'm sure you'll have questions about. But don't be afraid to ask a question for clarification of something you read in a past thread. Perhaps mention that you read something in a past thread and ask for further explanation if need be, and I have no doubts someone will help.

Oh, and rod building is definitely an adiction. If you're like me you'll be planning your next build, or next 4 or 5 builds before you even get your first one done.

Welcome Ed

Hope you are use to getting addicted to your hobbies. I started out building a rod for both of my grandsons after I was diagnosed with Bladder cancer 2 years ago. I wanted for each of them to have something that I had hand made for them before I started my treatments. So I watched the youtube videos for every step on you tube, mudhole and get bit outdoors and order the equipment and parts to get started. I built the first 2 rods for my grandsons and went through treatment. Everything went well on the rod builds and the cancer treatments. Now 2 years later I have 2 power wrappers 2 - 4 rod flex coat dryers 1 other 4 rod dryer station and 3 single dryers 1 lathe for turning handles and about 100 blanks in my shop. I just started out to build 2 rods for my grandsons remember. My wife now says it would have been better if I would have got hooked on drugs or booze then she said she would have been able to send me to a treatment center to get me off my new addiction, but she has searched the web and has not been able to find a treatment center or any type of meeting for rod builders to talk about their addictions. But I told her about this Forum and told her I would be able to get help on any rod building issue I had and there was no problem with my addiction I had plenty of help if I need it. So again welcome and be careful and don't get addicted and become a rod junkie.

Best Regards,
Frank McKinney