I've been asked what I want for Christmas. The thought of a lathe has been in my mind lately. Please feel free to chime in with your opinions on these questions; is it cheaper to turn your own cork grips and reel seat inserts or just buy them? Can a Renzetti rod lathe/ wrapper do these task reasonably well? By the way I give respect to Renzetti proucts and thier quality seeing that I own a traveler fly vise, tied 12doz. flies to get it, I just have never seen a rod lathe in action.

Sammy,
I say indulge yourself. Both the Renzetti and the Clemens are outstanding lathes for the money. I have a Clemens and it can do any wrapping job that I may encounter with ease and speed, all precision made and will last a lifetime. The Renzetti has all the characteristics as well. The gentlemen at the left of this post will give you all the details if needed. As far as doing your own cork turning I say go for it! I get great satisfaction out of constructing and shaping my grips versus buying them pre made. I do mostly Burl cork and I havent found any preformed in this type material and quality I prefer. I use a seperate lathe with 1/2 horsepower motor, a wood lathe converted for this purpose, does all I can ask for. Hope this helps, I think the lathe should be at the top of your Santa's List.

Good Luck and tight weaves.

Pat Barnard
Pat's Custom rods

These machines were designed as "do-everything" specialty rod building lathes. With the 1/10th HP motor and solid state foot control, I have been satisfied that EVA and cork grip turning is easy and quick. Wrapping and finishing on the lathe is great as well.

Being able to turn your own grips opens up new possibilities for you. You may still use pre-formed grips on some repair jobs, or instances where the customer doesn't want to spring for a top-notch custom turned and shape grip, but at least you have the option between the two.

If you had the money, the space and the inclination, then having a dedicated machine for each task (turning, wrapping and finishing) is the way to go. But these lathes offer the rod builder an all around machine that can do just about anything you could want to do on a custom rod in just one package.

Sammy, you have seen my lathes, maybe not in operation though. But I would say that after having them for so many years I would feel lost without them. It would be a great Christmas present.

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Sammy,
Go for the Renzetti if you can convince those asking you what you want for xmas. As a less expensive alternative you, or others out there, may wish to consider one of power wrap machines offered by Batson enterprises. We even are having specials on this until the end of November per our posts previously.

There are several good lathes available, just depends how much you wish to spend at the moment and with upgrading from a hand wrapper, the Batson power wrapper/lathe would not disappoint. I agree though the Renzetti is a fine piece of equipment, and I even use a Custom Power Wrap of a different name going back a few years with absolutely no problems.

Part of rodbuilding, as I can see it, with equiping your rod shop several wrapping and lathe devices complement each other and no problem with graduating up to the idea of a power wrap from a hand wrapper and the ultimate Renzetti Lathe. All may serve your puproses for a long, long time and provide great satisfaction. I also would add a mini lathe (not wrapper) as a separate unit in another corner of the shop.
Decisions, decisions???

Rich
Richard's Rod & Reel

You may wish to consider one of the new 'metal' mini lathes offered by Grizzly or Harbor Freight. If you plan to make reel seat inserts or NS ferrules, you will need something similar. They are about $300.

Thanks for your views fellows. Hopefully at christmas or soon after I'll be posting how I'm doing with one of these tools.