I am just starting to build rods and have a friend who I am going to build a worm rod for. I am building for the cost of components to get practice. He said he would like it to be butt weighted. He is willing to give up light weight to have the rod balance with the tip up in his natural grip position. I was thinking about assembling everything other than the butt cap and putting his reel on it and using lead weights to get the balance he is after. My question is about securing the weights in the butt, can I just epoxy them inside the bank and then install the butt cap? Seems counterproductive to add weight but if that is what he wants...

You can find some adjustable weighted butt caps if you look on most rod building websites. If you don't like the look of it or if you've already bought the butt cap then I imagine it would be safe to epoxy some lead weight into the inside of the butt if it fits well.

Sam, there are all kinds of good and productive reasons for wanting either a balanced, or tip light rod for fishing slack line techniques. A tip light rod enables the user to feel light bites better, I would even go so far as to say, much better. It makes rod rod tip manipulation easier and more precise, and it decreases arm fatigue, just to name a few.

Depending on the blank you're using, the guide train you're building, the length of the rear grip and the weight of the reel you're using, you'll probably find that you won't have to add that much weight to get the rod to balance nicely at the reel seat nut. How much more weight you'll have to add to get the rod to feel "right" in your friends hand, is another matter.

Personally I like the rods that I use for slack line techniques to balance at the reel seat nut, with the reel mounted and full of line, and line ran through the guides.

My most recent build was a 7'2" casting rod built on an Immortal blank, with what I would consider micro guides, (I used 4.5 Fuji CLAG guides) as running guides. No fore grip, with a split reel seat, and split rear grip using EVA foam. So the rod itself is pretty light.

From the end of butt to the back of the reel seat I placed at 10", and the reel I use on it is a Shimano Castaic 200 SF. I only needed to add 3/8 of an ounce to get it to balance at the reel seat nut.

As I said earlier, depending on how tip light your friend wants the rod and the rods construction, I doubt that you'll find you need to add over 3/4 of an ounce. Yes that seems like a lot, but if the rod was going to be tip heavy, the balanced or tip light rod will feel lighter in the hand, despite the added weight.

The way I did it, and will do it in the future is ...... I taped weights to the bottom of the butt until I got the balance point I was looking for. I then took a full length foam reel seat arbor and sanded the OD to fit into the butt of the rod blank. I then cut the arbor so it was slightly longer than the weight I needed to add, and reamed the ID of the arbor to accept the weight I was going to insert. I coated the weight with rod bond, slid the weight in, centering it in the portion of the reel seat arbor, and filled the ends of the arbor with rod bond, Then coated the arbor with rod bond and slid it in the blank. I waited until the rod bond was dry before I put the butt cap on.

I used a single 3/8 oz tungsten worm weight for my weight. I used tungsten because of its weight for its size. I wanted the weight concentrated in the smallest area possible, just inside the blank.

I think you'll find that the topic of adding weight to a rod to balance it, is quite contentious on this forum. Some find it a total waste, while others find it to be smart and thoughtful rod design.

I clearly fall in the latter camp.

The weight of the reel he intends to use should be considered. It has a physical impact upon the balance of the tackle.

Thanks for the input guys. David, thanks for the arbor idea, sounds like a great way to accomplish what I am trying to do.

Sam,
I used to add weight to a rod, but now I no longer ever add any weight. Rather, I try to use the lightest components that are needed for the tasks and then, with the reel in place on the rod, adjust the length of the butt grip to have the rod balance.

However, if you want to add weight in an inexpensive fashion, use lead tape wrapped around the last 1/2 or 3/4 inch of the rod butt. You can get lead tape from various industrial sources as well as the internet and also golf equipment shops.

Lead tape is routinely used to balance both golf clubs as well as tennis racquets.

It is easy to have a rubber butt cap made from a rubber chair leg tip. For freshwater rods, where the typical rear grip will be about .9 inches, one can easily use a rubber butt cap that starts with about a 1 or 1.25 inch cap. These caps, typically have an ID of .75 or 3/4 inch. So, if that is what you are going to use for a butt cap, then one has the difference between the OD of the butt of the rod, up to the 3/4 inch inside diameter of the rubber butt cap. If you find that you get rod balance with lead tape that is less than the 3.4 inch, just wrap the butt of the rod up with masking tape, until you get the necessary 3/4 inch diameter to have a nice fit of the butt cap on the end of the rod.

---------------
Normally, it is not a good idea to put weight on the inside of the blank. The reason that it is not a good idea to put weight on the inside of a blank, is that a person might be tempted to put several inches of weight down the inside of the rod blank to achieve a balance, but that only comes with a weight on the inside of the rod, that is much greater than if you can concentrate the weight at the extreme 1/2 inch aft position on the rod blank.

This is the teeter totter principle. i.e. light weight out at the end of the board for balance, or heavy weight more near the center for the equivalent balance.

Good luck

What David said!!! Put the components in place on the blank, install the reel, thread the line thru the guides and tie a sinker on the line similar in weight to what will be fished. Let the sinker dangle in midair and the rod should sit in your hand without the tip trying to drop to the floor. It should not want to rise either. Neutral balance. If you can stand a slightly longer butt section you can move the seat forward to compensate for this, if not the butt must be weighted. When you're fishing a plastic worm or jig it's much less tiresome than having to hold the tip up in the first place before you're even feeling the bottom. Some of us seem to have trouble understanding that a slightly heavier rod can sometimes be more comfortable to fish with. Lynn

Lynn,
I respect to your post, but I suggest that the rod should be balanced when there is no weight on the end of the rod.

This is because, when I fish for walleye - my main target - the jig or lure is typically on the bottom of the lake or river. Then, the line is essentially slack - or no weight on the line. Thus, with a balanced setup, any change in the line is instantly felt.

But, on the other hand, if you fish for fish where your jig or weight is above the bottom of the lake - then certainly your approach is correct.

Be safe

O.K. Roger you busted me! I'll split the difference with you.Take 1/2 of the sinker weight off, and it'll still be better than tip heavy.

Tennis racquets, golf clubs, and baseball bats strike objects (for money) while fish poles throw objects. Tennis players must make a multitude of strokes and seek the lightest racquet, while golfers and baseball players make as few strokes as possible, and add weight to the far end, not the hand end, of the lever they swing. Why wouldn't casters imitate tennis players and shun more weight?

Phil, with all due respect, the casting aspect of fishing has nothing to do with this particular balance issue. This is really about the the way the rod sits in your hand as the lure is worked back to the angler after the cast. Lynn

I began using Creme Worms in 1958 and I have never added weight to a rod. That would make it less sensitive to slight tugs. When I wanted better "balance" I moved my grip hand up the rod.

Problem solved. Lynn