Kerry, Been using Madiera for years and never experienced Fish-Eye effect. I have found that the color makes a big difference in how well the CP covers. Most of the time I need two and sometimes three coats to ensure true, or close to true color. However, if I want a "translucent" effect I don't use any CP and the color sometimes remains pretty true with a little blending of the b
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I think my approach is going to be what we did yesterday in class. We found the spine on all 4 sections of the rod. Then all the section spines. Once that was done we found the "straightest axis" and that's where we put our guides. I have been an "On the Spine" builder for over 40 years, but you can teach an old dog new tricks. I look forward to testing the new rods this
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Thanks for the thoughts on standardization. We had the same issues only much more serious in the Computer industry in the early days of the PC. Every company that made peripheral hardware had its software that you had to load before it would work. So if you bought an Epson Printer, you had to load the Epson software for that printer. An HP printer would not work until you loaded their softwar
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All, Many thanks for the replies. As I thought with a lot of what we do in rod building more of a "That looks about right" or TLR as we used to say in the AF. I had a feeling each manufacturer had their own sizing and I do own several calipers and micrometers that I use all the time. But the measurements I was getting were all over the charts and I was just curious as to why. Now I
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I have looked around for years and never really found an answer to this question. If I have a bunch of loose Snake guides how can I pick out the various sizes? In other words which ones are #2, which are #3 etc. They are all pretty close in size to my eye, so probably need some kind of measuring device. Same for strippers. What size is a #10 stripper guide?
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Tom, Thanks, great summary and makes it easy to pass on to my class what we know and what we think.
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Fred used ProCoat. I applied a single coat, pretty heavy, let it soak in then removed the excess. After drying I applied Epoxy and got bad results. Some parts of the wrap were fine, but the rod bled through others. It was better under Epoxy than Varnish. It was hard to tell the difference between the varnish without CP and that with. The lighter colors still had the "splotchy" app
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Well, My students have there guides positioned on the rods now and are starting to do the wrapping. Next big question for them is what to cover the wraps with. I have been doing some testing with CP, Epoxy and Man O War Varnish on Madiera thread. The results have not been very satisfying. I haven't finished a rod in some time but don't remember having this kind of issues in the past. All th
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Dave, I thought that a side by side comparison might prove more beneficial for my students. So I merged the thread and wraps into one image and saved. I have the 5 comparisons available on my Google Drive if anyone is interested or someone can post them here. Not sure how to do that.
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David, I have read that a lot of rod builders develop a sensitivity to epoxy and have been forced into using alternative finishes like Spar Varnish. I know the older bamboo rods were done this way, and when I first started building that was all that was available. So I was wondering if you have tried using Varnish instead of epoxy. I am going to experiment with using Satin Man-O-War var
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Wow, talk about timely. We were discussing this very issue in class last week. Now I have someplace to point my students to where they can see the color changes. I must admit knowing how the color will change without doing a sample is difficult for me. I'm not an artist so can't visualize this stuff too well. Now design a gear assembly in my head, no problem.
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Herb, Yes to the first and yes to the cardboard box. I am seriously considering not providing winding apparatus to my students but instead pointing them to videos on making cardboard box winders. I also have several extra thread bobbins that I can loan to them. Thanks to everyone.
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Tom and all, thanks. I now can go to my students with options and reasons. I am in everyone's debt for the discussion and help with this very complex issue.
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Thanks everyone. I have contacted a few of the suggested vendors and think I can find what I am looking for at one or more of them. This forum is invaluable to me and many thanks to everyone.
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Great ideas and suggestions all. I now have good alternatives and places to shop.
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I was getting ready to start a new rod and checked my supply of cork rings and found I didn't have any on hand. So, as I have done in the past I went to Mudhole and started checking prices. Am I missing something or are they selling individual rings for around $3 each? That's about $45 for a cork handle. Not sure but I think I can buy the whole handle ready to go for less than that made with
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John, I looked at those and yes a really good deal, but for someone who doesn't know if they want to build more than one rod, that's probably more than they want to spend and would leave them with hardware they no longer need or want? But I am thinking the $10 wrapper might be an option for the one time builder, its a step above the cardboard box approach, but won't break the bank either.
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Wow, His first book was the reason I started building rods. I joined a "book of the month" club back in the middle '70s and this was one of the books I received. I was fascinated. I have been fishing since I was 5. My Dad taught all of us how to fish and we loved it. I was in Grad School at the time and reading this book was a source of solace after a day or two of studying. I
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I have been using Apex for years. I use magnets for fly tying, rod building, as tool holders and a bunch of other things. Apex always has what I need.
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I have always used epoxy. It sands well and I have never had any problems. Just about any good epoxy should be fine. My go to is Titebond as many have suggested. But I also have not tried some of the techniques mentioned that I just may have to try.
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Lots of really good advice already, so let me echo a lot of them. I have been building rods since 1976 teaching rod building for about 3 years now. And here's what I tell my students. 1 - Design the rod. First, before you can even start to purchase anything you need to think about what you want to fish for and how you want to fish for them. It makes a difference as you probably know. Seco
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OK, Another question from my students, and I think a good one. For years I built on Fenwick, TFO, and St Croix blanks. I really liked them and built a lot of rods on those blanks, many of which I still have. When my students start looking for a blank these companies don't seem to be available anymore and they ask me what happened to them. Then they ask, if we can't find these then what brand
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WOW. It seems I opened Pandora's box on this issue. I can see there are many, many good theories about why and why not, or maybe better put why not necessary. OK, so if it's not necessary or even desirable to locate fly rod guides on the spine/soft side or whatever we want to call it, where do you put your guides and why? Recall, the reason I posed the question to begin with, was to pass on t
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El, Ok, many thanks. I would say Gary Loomis is a relatively well know designer :-). Thank you for the link, I will most definitely show it to my students.
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I am teaching a class of beginner rod builders. They are Disabled Veterans and members of Project Healing Waters. So all their components are purchased by Project Healing Waters. My question is this. For a beginner rod builder what support would be the best? Yes, I know that's a loaded question and there probably is no best answer, but I only have experience with a few like the low-end Mudho
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Kendall, Agree! I think we will still teach how to find the spine, but present both sides of the argument and let them decide. After all, it is their rod and the decisions they make are what will make it custom and important to them.
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So, The bottom line, for me, is that it's not important to place the guides along any particular axis of the rod. Pick the "best looking" or use some other criteria for placement, but don't worry about the spine. Yes, old ideas do die a lingering death, but I think mainly because there is no definitive data to prove or disprove the concept, so we tend to stick to the known and acc
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Tom, Wow, many thanks for the insight. The article is eye-opening but left a question unanswered. It addressed lift weight, but what most fly fishermen are concerned with is casting strength and distance. Most of the fish we catch are not going to tax our rod-breaking strength, so back to my original question with a new twist. If the actual location of the guides along the spine does not p
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I have been building for a few years and always used the same technique for finding the rod's spine. However, I have been wondering if my method is correct. I have read a lot of ways to spine and watched many YouTube videos, but something doesn't seem right to me. Most of the discussions about spinning the rod say to roll the rod until it jumps/pops etc. Then mark the rod. So here's my que
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Perfect. Found them and you are correct Ray Lee seats are amazing. Looking forward to starting work on this new rod.
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