this may be a dumb question, but is it possible to remove the guides and finsh off of a rod? i've built about 5 or 6 casting rods before trying the spiral wrap method. needless to say, this is the only way i will ever build a casting rod for myself. now i've got 5 or 6, that i'd much rather have spiral wrapped and these are not cheap throw away blanks!

Yes, you shave off the wraps from the tops of the guide feet with a razor blade and then peel off the wraps. Use a hair dryer or heat gun to soften any epoxy you can't get off with a thumbnail. You may cause some cosmetic damage to the places where the guides were though. So if you don't locate the new guides on those places it will show.

thanks william. my guide placement shouldn't change, i'll just spiral them around in the same place.

No reason why you can't rewrap the guides in the same positions and turning them down any way that you wish.
Likely though, the rod won't perform as well as if it had been measured up with the blank from the beginning for a good spiral configuration, but I can't see it being worse than the older versions of spiral wraps that did not take much into account for guide numbers and present modifications for better castability. Also whether it will change much the stress distribution, I have really no idea.
As much as is said about the spiral casting rod, I don't believe it is the end all solution to factory rods where the guides are angled differently, but what the heck, this may be a new angle for wrapping more guides and getting more work and some further experimentation?

For optimal spiral wrapped rods, the custom rodbuilder will take much more into account at the preparation stage in determining best placement for each particular blank and what purpose one wants best to be achieved (casting? fish fighting?, trolling? etc. also keeping in mind where the 'power' bend of the rod and best guide placement (and number) accordingly.

my opinion

Rich
Solyrich Custom Rods

i understand what you're saying. these are the first rods i built, and i used loomis's guide spacing, then tweaked. but i believe that using these guide placements in a spiral, is better than using these guide placements with the guides on top. so while i agree with ya rich, that the placement may not be optimum, at least they will be spiral wrapped.

on a side note, i got the first rod "undone" last night, and it came pretty clean. you can still see where the guides were, but it's not too bad. since these rods are for me, i may go ahead and tweak the position if needed.

thanks for the help guys!

If you want to remove the final residue of epoxy from the rod use a Dremel tool with the black nylon brush. Then wipe off the dust with a little alcohol on a rag. I've done this with blanks from Scott, Loomis and a few that I don't remember the brands. It seems that the brush is abrasive to the thread finish, but softer than the rod finish. The only remnant of where the guide was showed as a minuscule shiny area on the mat finished Loomis rod where the guide contacted the blank. Basically the guide seemed to have polish the tiny area under its foot.

It's a neat trick, and fast.

Roger