I ended up trying wet layup without the wax paper and I was worried over nothing, no problem there. I almost had a catastrophic failure on the seat hood recess - I pulled the seat (it was waxed very well) out after only an hour or so and the fabric followed it! I got it back in though and I'm very happy with how it turned out. The tenon left by my hole saw worked perfectly to support the se
Forum: rodboard

Bret I don't think that'd be enough budget for me to do it, granted I haven't finished my first rod just yet but I'm figuring a quality blank and seat will be in the 100-150 range without going too crazy, guides and grips could easily be 100, fly line & backing another 100 on the low end, that leaves $150 for your time /labor and a reel (at the $500 target).
Forum: rodboard

I haven't been yet but am going in a few weeks, from everything I've read the Kenai needs a little bigger gear than the others, but there's even a difference in upper and lower Kenai. Lower is where the strongest kings will be, again from what I've been reading though! I'm taking baitcasters and a 9wt. I just scored a 12wt so if it's here in time I may take it too to say I did Speaking if, I
Forum: rodboard

Good idea Spencer, do you use a single piece of wax paper or strips? I just realized I have almost messed up on my casting grip, it may be chalked up as a lesson learned. I got to looking at it and where I thinned it down in the middle I ALMOST went too far, for about an inch if that I will have to ream out all of the foam, the blank is onlyn2 thousandths smaller than the foam
Forum: rodboard

I feel pretty good about these, the tan fighting butt is from one of my first pours of foam, then I decided to try black rit dye and I think it worked great! I'm going to slim down the fly grip a little then try my hand at the carbon fiber. I'm thinking of trying a dry layup, wet with resin without heat shrink. I know that would work with fiberglass but I haven't used CF before, am I asking for t
Forum: rodboard

I actually have a drawer full of corks in our little wine rack /sideboard. My wife will think I've overindulged when I sort through them with the calipers though!
Forum: rodboard

Thanks guys! I don't have cork rings so I'll go with the foam core I have. I debated firing up my metal lathe and turning a piece of aluminum but the foam is a little easier to deal with :-)
Forum: rodboard

I'm finally working on putting together a couple rods for a trip to Alaska and have a question- what's the preferred way to build up an arbor for the butt caps? I got these fancy caps from batson and the ID is just shy of 20mm. I suppose I should've ordered some 20mm graphite arbors but I only have the for my 16mm reel seats. My first thought is to make arbors from the 6-lb polyurethane foam I'm
Forum: rodboard

I'm following along, I'm building a 9' 9wt, one of my first 2 rods (the other is a salmon casting rod) and after a lot of reading I decided on ceramic insert guides. I ordered pacbay fx series running guides, titanium frame with zirconium inserts, size 7 with double foot 16 & 12 of the same brand & material to start. We'll see how it turns out!
Forum: rodboard

I saw the same, looked like he was back up and running. I placed a $100 order over the weekend, have a feeling I should go ahead and start the process with PayPal though. What a crying shame. Anybody have any helpful info?
Forum: rodboard