I went to town (Monterrey, Mexico) today to look for some wood to turn for inserts and was pleasantly suprised. About the third place I came to showed me an extensive variety of bueatiful wood. Aparently some of the natives in the South-east are pulling trees out of the jungle that they can't even identify. I got 14 different woods in 2X4X1.5 (actual size) for about $30 dls. Some are more common like ebony, mesquite, iron-wood and oak others are really strange looking. Can't wait to get started.

I also went to a place that sells metals for machininsts and saw some nylon rods. The man said it is used to make make bushings and gears. It is supposed to be machinable (lathe worthy) I was wondering if this could be used to make butt caps and plugs for custom aluminum and wood butt caps and hosels.

They are sold in rods about 18" long and come it 1/2" to 6" diameters. Colors: black, white. The one inch OD costs about $12dls.

Stephen, I am on the look out for quality woods for reel seats also. I've found some on @#$%& from time to time that is fairly priced. If you would like,,go to @#$%& (home page) and type in maple burl, or walnut burl, or zicote burl and see what comes up,,just for fun.

Once you try Eisenbrand you will have all you want. They also have photos of how all the different woods look on their site.

www.eisenbran.com

Stephen, I will respond to the nylon rod part of your post. As a home shop machinist I frequently use nylon bar and plate for various projects. It is machinable but very stringy and you will spend some time cutting the strings away from your lathe chuck. It can be turned on a metal lathe and also shaped with standard wood turning tools. It probably too tough to work with on a rod building lathe. The neat thing about nylon is that it can be dyed with common Rit dye that is used for dyeing clothes. I have made a couple of hosel rings with white (natural) nylon and then dyed them the color I wanted. If you get the primary colors (blue, yellow and red) you can create any color of the rainbow. Make sure that you have the finish on the nylon that you want before using the dye as the dye does not penetrate very deep into the nylon, but it does penetrate. I generally mix the dye per the instructions on the bottle, but you can experiment for various shades. I bring the water/dye mix to a low boil in a small cooking pot and then put the nylon part in and stir frequently to keep the nylon part from remaining in contact with the bottom of the pot. The longer the part is in the dye, the more intense the color. After finishing with the dye it may be put in a jar and put away to be used another time. I have found that the boiling of the nylon part does not change its dimensional value. Like I said, nylon is not the friendliest of materials to machine, but it can make some very exotic looking parts at a fairly low cost. One last warning, be very careful with the dye as it can permanantly change the color of some things you may not have wanted to change.

Dave,

Where do you get your nylon rod from? locally or do you have to order it. Mexico, would be a bit far for me to go:^)

Thanks,
Eric

Eric, There is a plastics shop local to me that I get most of my nylon from. You can also check out McMaster-Carr (they have a massive web site) for all types of materials and industrial equipment.