Hey Fellas

I am working on my first couple builds. Curious of a sure fire way to mark the needed areas for guide placements on the blank.
Do you guys have a stick on tape on a workbench or on a track?

I have a few charts about optimal placement of guides depending on blank size and what not but holding the blank in place to mark the locations is what Id like an idea to try.

Thank you in advance

Chris

One way is simply to tape the assembled blank to your work bench. That frees both hands to measure and mark the initial guide locations.

Then when you've completed the static load test and the guides are in their final positions, return the rod to the bench, tape it in place, and record those final guide locations for future reference.

A tape measure affixed to the work bench is convenient but not a necessity.

chris,
In the past I have often built 50 or 100 of the same rod. For those cases, I scribe a straight line down a piece of cardboard. Then, starting from one edge of the cardboard - that I use for tip placement, I will run down the line, measuring from the tip of the blank to the next location and scribe a perpendicular line on the line on the cardboard. When finished, I made a note on the end of this particular line as to the blank and use for the rod.
Then, for the next build, I lay the blank on the line, and use 1/8th inch wide masking tape to mark the blank for guide placement. After I have the tape in place, I place the blank on rod rests so that I can easily spin the rod as I tape the guides in place - using the previous tape placed on the rod blank.

Good luck

Roger
Do you use a piece of cardboard the length of the rod?

Chris,
I use a piece of cardboard that is longer than the longest rod that I am building.

Be safe

I am kind of wondering if what Chris is asking is more about guide placement rather than doing a bunch of the same blanks at one time. I also wonder what type of rods he is building? I am kind of "old school" with spinning and fly rods, and have never built a casting rod. The answers might be different if we knew what Chris was building.

Mike Bradfrod
R.M.B. Fishing Rods
Nampa, Idaho

Chris, I do use the stick on measuring tape on my work table. As I only do fly rods, I'm rarely dealing with extremely long rods and most fly rods are multi-piece. I mark to location on the blank with white china marker 1/4" from where I will place the guide. This allows for easy cleaning off the mark after I have the guide in place. Goo Gone cleans it off without a trace. As I do static test, I sometimes am changing the guide location, again marking the same way.