Found this site through google. Great information ya'll have built up here.
My son is what got me into this. I offered to get him a custom built rod for his 18th birthday. He decided he'd rather for us to try and build some. So made a order for everything. Cutting our teeth on a 8.0 medium heavy fast crank bait rod. MHX blank CB965.. Cork handle and reel seat done. Now for the guides. There micro and 10 of them. Starting at the tip I put one every 5" . Static loaded it up and started moving them around. If I set it where string don't touch rod from 1/3 load 2/3 then full 90. I run out of small guides. Looks like I need about two more before last two guides. Should I do that or move them all back and let the tip end just cross over rod some at light load?

Welcome to the site Jim. As you mentioned, there is a wealth of information available on this site, and a high amount of participation from it's members. You've come to the right place.

As far as your question on guide placement goes. The line touching the blank is considered as being okay by most members. But the line crossing over and going below the blank is a big no no. The reason being, when guides are spaced so far apart as to let the line pass below the blank it is causing the blank to over flex in that section of the rod. You don't want the line passing below the blank anywhere along its length, and you certainly don't want it passing below the blank in the tip section. Add the extra guides.

Also ... you mention the guides being micro guides. I'm guessing you're talking about the running guides. If so? What size are they? The reason I ask is, If they're like size 4's or even 4.5s or smaller, my guess is you're going to need more than just 2 more guides to get the line path to at least be acceptable. 12 guides not including the tip top on an 8' rod. That's going to be pushing it IMO.

Unless you went with titanium framed SIC or Torzite ring guides, guides are cheap. Especially compared to a broken rod.

I always buy at least 2 more running guides than I think I'm going to need. Any guides you have left over can always be used as stock on hand in case you break one, or you can use them on your next build.

One last thing ..... personally when I am doing static placement of guides, I don't go through the various steps of loading the blank to different levels. I place the guides with the blank fully loaded. It doesn't make sense to me to place them at one load level, then increase the load and move them again.

To each their own on that one though.

welcome to the form and the site .
what I would do is load the rod to a 45 degree angle and if you need an extra guide then by all means add it the 90 degree load is the most extreme load the rod would ever see and most times when fishing it doesn't get to that point until the fish is at boat side other wise a 45 is the extreme. the micro running guides are close to the blank and because of that it most times requires 2-4 more than a standard guide set .
You don't want the line to drop below the blank but if it rubs a bit that is acceptable.
try this and see if it works better than a full blown 90 degree loading of the rod as I stated the only place that would happen with any frequency is at boat side ,the distance of the cast angle changes every time.
here are some specs from a guide set I purchased it is for a 7ft.6 inch rod so you could stick in another guide
from the tip 2 5/8 in, 5 3/4, 9 1/8.13 1/4 17 7/8, 23 1/8, 29 1/4, 36 3/8,44 1/2, 53 3/4
Good fishing and enjoy the building

The best day to be alive is always tomorrow !!
Think out side the box when all else fails !!!
Wi.

You can always do a spiral wrap and not worry about the line touching or going below the blank, because the guides will transition the line to the bottom of the rod like a spinning rod. The spiral wrap will also allow you to use fewer guides making the rod lighter and more responsive, in addition it will cast just as well as a conventional wrapped rod. Retrieving big crank baits puts a lot of torque on conventionally wrapped rods, so a spiral wrap will make retrieving baits and fighting fish easier. There are a bunch of ways to spiral wrap, I find the simple spiral works as well as any. Do a search here and you will find a ton of info on this.
Norm

Jim,
An easy solution for your issue is to use slightly larger guides for the running guides like a size 6. These guides are reasonably small and light, but you can certainly use fewer of the size 6 guides than one would need if they were using a size 3 guide.

Good luck

I see no need for a guide to be placed closer to the tip top than about 3 1/2 inches, and that is close. That section of the rod is not really stressed that much. Many advocate doing like you did at 5 inches between, then adjusting. . Keep in mind there is no problem with going with equal spacing for the first few, with this rod maybe quite a few, then opening it up some. The last issue of the magazine had a good article on spacing. The article's author advocated placing the first guide from the reel line guide at about 13-14 inches. If you put the first (from the tip) quite a few at 5 inches between, that about defines where most of them go.

I have to admit, I've never gone as close as 13-14 from the reel, but will next build. Maybe I've been missing something.

Didn't have a chance to play with it today. I did pickup some more guides though.
The spiral wrap is interesting. Time to do a little searching.

Jim,
When I build a rod, I almost always put my first guide at 20 inches from the edge of the reel.

Then, I go to the tip of the blank and put pressure on the tip to flex it. I find the point on the blank where the blank first bends and am sure to put a guide at that location. Then, I will flex further and put the next guide at that location. Then, from that point, I just fill in the blanks - so to speak to be sure that I have a guide placed on the rod to insure that I have good line flow and line control on the blank - which at the same time keeps the line off of the blank.

Depending on the power and action of the rod, I may place the first guide at 7-10 inches from the tip on a very very powerful and still rod, or I may place it as close as 2 inches from the tip on an extremely light power rod with extremely fast action.
A very soft tip requires guides placed close to the tip. A very hard and tough to bend tip allows the first guide to be placed much further down the blank.

Good luck

At least one of the sponsors on the left and there may be more carry the Renzetti-Morton graph. If you don't mind the price point it will save you countless amount of time on guide placement, for the rods I build it has been spot on and only takes a few minutes to set your rod blank up. After using it for many years and checking it by static loading, it is my conclusion it will save you a huge amount of time and takes the guesswork out.

I have it laid out in a spiral now. Without adding any more guides Actually dropped a small one for a larger one at transition. Does it matter which side it rotates on? I have it on the right side now. Right hand reel so if laid down on deck transition guides would be up.

Well 7 guides wrapped. Getting thread started and where I want it has been challenging. Also had three wraps come loose while smoothing them after tie off. LoL I've had some kind of viral plague fo the last week. That's kept me out of work or doing ANYTHING for a week. Hopefully next time I sit down at it. Things will keep clicking with me.

Patience is what you have. When there's to many witnesses.
Tight lines - Jim