I am trying to wrap wire guides to a ice fishing rod for the first time. I a having trouble with gaps in the thread when I get to the guide that I cant get rid of. As I get closer to the tip the guide is wider than the blanks and I get the gaps. It isn't as noticeable on the other end where the guide and the blank are the same size. I am using size A thread. So do I need to use a bigger size thread? I tapered the guides so the transition on to the guide would be as smooth as possible and I also tried to sand the sides of the guide a little to help. Do I need to sand more off the guide or do I risk sanding too much of the guide and compromise the strength of the guide. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. here is a picture to help explain this. Thanks Justin
[s1023.photobucket.com]

You can grind the side of the guide foot down so that it is more narrow. It doesn't have to be any stronger than the blank is.

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Justin,
X10 on Tom's comments.

The guide material is many times stronger than the blank material. No issue to grind down the guide to match the size of the blank. On very fine tipped rods, I generally do have a bit of guide overhang on the blank, but really no issue with gaps.

One thing that I do, that is of a great help is to use a power wrapper and a double support on each side of the guide as I wrap.

i.e. I have a rock solid support on each side of the guide within about 2 inches of the guide on each side.

One of the biggest issues with wrapping fine tipped ice rods is the flex of these very thin blanks.

A picture of the blank support that I made from pieces of solid glass blank material and a kitchen cutting board. I drilled a series of holes, the same size as the base of the glass blank material. I used a dremel tool with an abrasive cut off wheel to put notches into the tops of the glass solid blank material. Then, I used the appropriate base hole to obtain the appropriate spacing on the rod. A 1/4 inch hole in the blank support matches the holes in my other blank supports for the rest of the wrapper, so I can position the blank support any where it is needed to give the blank the necessary support.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

[www.rodbuilding.org]

[www.rodbuilding.org]

p.s.
As shown in the afore mentioned pictures, single foot fly guides work very well for ice rods and their use.

Be safe



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/2016 06:50PM by roger wilson.

Thanks Tom I will have to go back and do some more prep to my guides.

Thanks Roger, I will have to make one of these setups that you made that's a neat idea. I forgot to mention that I am using a power wrapper but I am still getting used to it yet . I just got it a few months ago. It is easier than trying to hand wrap small blanks. I did some practicing last night and its getting better.
Thanks for the help guys. Justin