I am sure this has been dealt with in the archives but I was hoping to get some feedback from more experienced builders before I place a mail order.
I live in Western Australia so I have to do quite a lot of "theoretical building" before I place mail orders and tweak out my guide spacings with what I have....

I thought I would try making a small stream fibreglass rod from a blank I picked up at a very reasonable price:

6'7" 3wgt 4 piece
9.38 mm butt
4/64th tip top (1.53 mm)

Minima Guides:
M10 Stripper
M8 Tamer
SV6 Reduction Guide
F5 Choke/Running Guides
MVT #4 Tip Top

With judicious knot tying I have gotten away with ceramic #6 F guides on my 10 wgt graphite rod so I reckon the #5 running guides will be okay

The #4 MVT tip top may be a bit small but it looks like it sits up off the blank a bit so I thought I would give it a try...I have a few spare #6 ceramic tiptops if needed

The M10 stripper might be a tad small but I used a ceramic M10 stripper on my 2 wgt graphite rod and it seems to work well although I have really only cast my own rods so I might not know any better!!!

This will be the first time I have used minima guides but it sounds like they are nice and light and should be durable enough

Any Thoughts?
Cheers
Mark in Perth
Western Australia

Mark,
I don't think that it makes a lot of sense to have the tip top any smaller than the running guides.

The Minima guides will work well for the purpose you have in mind.

But, to each his own.

Thanks Roger

Those matching Minima tip tops only come in a 4 size

I was hoping to hear from people who have tried that tip top on smaller weight fly lines and get feedback on whether a M10 stripper would be big enough or should I consider a M12

Thanks Again
Mark

The 10 sripper should be fine for a 3wt line. I use them a lot.

Are you designing this flyrod blank to be an ultralight spin rod? If yes, I would use a size M16 as the stripper followed by a M8 and a M5 as reduction guides and use either F5 or F4 as runners. The size 4 tiptop will be fine with either the size 4 or 5 runners. Theses would be set up using the Fuji KR GPS at Anglers Resource. If you really want to use a smaller stripper then use a M12, followed by a M7 and a M5 with the F runners of your choice. The SV guide is not needed.
Norm