I just built a rod for my daughter and after the fact i did notice that reel foot and guides are about 10 degrees off line. Reel to left side and guides to the right.
it is totally my error and i know what i did wrong and how to correct the issue. But my question is- how really necessary is the staight line allignment for reel seat and guides? What will be effected ?
In this case its not big deal. She is only 4 and will be catching "fish", learning how to cast small jigs or tubes.The rod is isp841 7 ft cut down to 5.8, spinning reel, k frame guides, if that matters.

an easy way to correct the problem remove the guides an redo or remove the reel seat an re due, I never have good luck on the reel seat remove , so I would do the guides , it is your choice

William Sidney
AK

Hello,

Have her try it out and you may just find it really isn't a problem.

Since most people's wrists are canted inwards on the retrieve (spinning), guides that are offset to the right will tend to naturally fall back in line due to the way your wrist turns.

Unless, of course, the angler is left-handed...;)

-chad

I fish a fly rod I did the same thing on. I never have any issues. My problem was that the reel seat I used had a larger area for the foot then the reel I used to align the guides to it with. Didn't realize that the reel was pushed to one side of the reel seat while I was setting it up. Now I make sure to use the correct size reel when setting up for the guides. If it bugs you to much I would also go with cutting off the guides and rewrapping. Infact I might do that with the rod in question since I broke the tip on a trip to pyramid and need to rewrap that section soon anyhow.

Thank you guys. It does not bug me at all, at least on this rod. I do know what to do to correct, but will leave it as is, most likely. My question was more "in general", what would be an adverse effect of misalignment guides on spinning rod, if any. From what i understood from your responses, it is not much important. Just cosmetics, i guess?

In general, you might experience a reduction in casting distance as a side effect but, it will be to little to be noticed with the naked eye (for only 10 degrees angle). Another side effect will be birds nests or wigs as we call them (usually on higher degrees angles , undersized guides and thick or stiff line)
In the future you might double-check the alignment looking at the reel through the guides like this [www.rodbuilding.org]

ps. you can try to heat the reel seat with a heat gun and turn it around the blank but you have to work carefully not to overheat it . Heat will soften the resin and will allow you to turn it but you do not have much time to do it before it hardens again so you'd better mark your desired final position before you proceed at doing it.

kingofbeasts custom rods



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/2015 12:28AM by carol staiculescu.

Carol,
Please do not try to use heat to change the positions of the reel seat or guides.

Once epoxy has set up, heat might soften the epoxy, but if the initial bond is broken - it will not reset

(Also, a long time ago - I tried doing the exact same thing for the very same reason and ruined a perfectly good blank.)

Since she is 4, she is not going to be doing much, if any casting. As a result, there will be very little - if any effect on the fishing day, if the rod is simply used over the side of the boat or off a dock to dabble some fish in.

If you wanted to fix it, just cut off the affected guides and rewrap. The one thing that you could do, would be to space the difference over about 2 or 3 guides if you did not want to cut all of the guides off of the rod. i.e. get the butt guide in alignment with the reel, and then offset the other offset difference, by splitting the change between the guides being worked on. In other words, I mini spiral wrap. i.e, change the first three guides, 3 degrees each to get your necessary 10 degree correction for the alignment to stripper guide alignment.

Good luck

more way's to skin the cat it is your choice , leave it alone an plan for the next build she will like it DAD & Daughter project
enjoy LIFE now

William Sidney
AK