Past Rod
Building Tips & Tricks
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 Hi you can find a old microwave overn that has seen its days and remove the turntable motor in it and use the motor from the turntable for a rod drying motor the speeds will vary right around 10 rpms, these motors can be accquired normally from your local electronics shop that works on tv's & microwaves
if you need more details please e-mail me at:
crazyhorsecomputers@karnesec.netDavid Cooksey crazyhorsecomputers@karnesec.net 23 Jul at 20:54:05 i used to apply hot melt to tip of my rod and put the tip on while still hot and usually wound up with excess let oozing around the tip and rod . now i heat hot melt glue while still pretty warm it only hurts for a minute or two i roll glue between my fingers until its small enough to fit inside tip i stick the rolled up glue inside the tip start the tip on the rod hit it with alcohol burner for a minute have rod marked by the tip where you want your tip positioned it works great without any glue to clean up makes a good clean job of it.james jancek james17990@cs.com 18 Jul at 09:01:32 i use elastic sewing thread make 3 or 4 wraps and tie it together it holds guide tight and its very easily moved stuff ive been using is called stretchrite.works great.james jancek james17990@cs.com 06 Jul at 09:40:18 When finishing a wrap, it is extremely crucial that enough thread is caught under the wrap to hold the wrap. On the other hand, too much thread pulled under the wrap does not look professional. Typically I try to use around 5 finishing rotations to conceal the finishing thread. However, if the finishing thread is cut too long it will pull through the wrap and then the whole wrap has to be done again (unless you have a very large magnifying glass and a very sharp blade). To combat the trouble of cutting the finishing thread too short or too long, I use wide Glide floss as my pull-through loop. Since the floss is so thin, it makes it possible to use 10 to 15 finishing wraps without loosing any tension on the wrap. When you are ready to finish your wrap, pull the finish loop to the end of the wrap until the finishing thread (already inserted) is locked against the end of the wrap. Then cut the thread just against the floss so about .5 of a millimeter is showing. Pull the finishing loop through and you have a perfect finish. Make sure to pinch the wrap just below the loop so the finishing thread does not continue to pull through, around the wrap.Dan Altman fatty2711@hotmail.com 30 Jun at 16:59:17 I just finished my first rod and the best thing that helped me was the rod stand I built. I took a four foot piece of 1X6 pine. Made a 17in base. For each end I cut 6in pieces and cut the "V" in each. I made another base, 4in this time with another 6in high support. Covered each of the 3 "V"'s with felt. I used basic wood screws. Predrilled and screwed the supports from the bottom. In the middle of the main base I made another base on what wood was left and made a thread bobbin holder with a bolt, spring and washers. I attached this with a wingnut and a bolt to the middle of the main base. It kept good tension on the thread. On the bottom I stuck on to each corner, anti-skidding feet which kept the whole thing in place. This whole thing costed me a little under $20. It worked great and I would recommend anyone starting out, that they try doing this.Matt Campbell hrdtrance@aol.com 24 Jun at 17:41:33 Tip#1- To reduce ice build-up on the tip top guide, use oversized chrome fly rod tip top; no side support braces to hold ice and simple to remove any ice from the tip opening. Tip#2- For better "feel"', fishermen often use electrical tape to hold their reels directly against cork handles of ice fish. rods. However, when the reel is removed, the tape usually damages the cork handle by pulling out bits of cork and a sticky residue of glue is left on the handle. Although a bit ugly, wrap a single layer of wide "cloth" tape (for example, black hockey stick tape) on the cork handle where the reel foot will be, then use electrical tape to wrap and hold the reel to the handle. Leave the hockey tape on the handle as semi-permanent protection. Loss of "feel" is minimal and hands are warmer when gripping reel foot held by plastic tape rather than a metal reel seat. BTW, avoid using Duct tape on cork handles; the residue of glue on cork is very difficult to remove! Tip#3- For light to medium-action panfish ice fishing rods, use lightweight fly rod snake guides instead of regular single-foot guides. Although the action of the rod is slightly stiffer with these guides (which may be desirable for deepwater yellow perch jigging), ice build-up is less and ice removal is easier with snake guides. Tight lines. Bill Wong. Bill Wong bwong@uoguelph.ca 19 Jun at 17:24:37 Looking for the perfect abasive that won't wear out, fragment and end up enbedded in your grip?
Try spark plug porcelain. When crushed, it maintains a very dense composition with extremely sharp fragmented edges. Make sure to wear safety glasses or, even better, a face shield when crushing the insulator. Shards can fly at ballistic speed and inflict some nasty cuts.
I ask some local automotive tune up shops to toss the old plugs in a bucket for me in exchange for an occasional pizza or case of beer on Friday and I end up with more than enough to make all the reamers I could ever need and a few for some friends.
The process isn�t difficult at all. Simply smash the porcelain away from the plug shaft with a hammer while holding the plug under a piece of canvas or just about any durable cloth that will prevent the porcelain flak from flying. Dump all the fragments into a container and get two or three cookie sheets ready to hold the sorted grit. You can use all kinds of sieves or screens to separate the grit by size. Put the grit in the cookie sheets according to size (three sifted sizes is plenty). Take your old rod pieces or used reamer tubes and give them a good dose of epoxy up to the handle area and roll the coated tube in the largest grit. Let the first adhesive set up slightly, then do the same thing in the next smaller grit tray. By time you have adhered the smallest grit to the reamer, the tube should be evenly coated with layers of porcelain grit. The smaller grit fills in the voids between the larger particles of grit and makes the abrasive surface even and durable.
The porcelain does not break up and fall off the reamer like most sand papers and aluminum oxide flake. The porcelain shards stay sharp much longer than most other abrasives, it doesn�t seem to stick to cork and EVA as easily and it�s very easy to see if your grip is fouled with grit before you slide it on. After boring and shaping, I look through the grip ID with a black light in the background to ensure there is no embedded material in the grip. The black light will fluoresce the tiniest particle of the white porcelain. Remember to wear a glove to hold the grip or be very careful not to slip; the porcelain goes through flesh easier than cork.
Give it a try and I think you�ll be amazed how effective the porcelain abrasive is and how clean it leaves the grip ID.
Fear no grip!
Bruce Anderson psychoseas@sbcglobal.net 01 Jun at 04:43:05 by using a windscreen wiper motor and a battery charger 6v,12v you can adjust your drying speeds to suit .when using thin 1st coats ,aroung 18 rpm and then 4 to 6 rpm on finish coats of apoxy. use different size but caps for your driving chucks fitted to the motor thread .regards barry naughton bnaughton@idl.net,au 27 May at 02:40:22 Use various sizes of normal safety pins and use pliers/wire cutters to make temp or permanent line guides. I use them for a temp with tape to see how a perspective fly rod "feels". Would probably be almost as good as regular guides on salt water rods....Bobby Lewis blewis2@compuserve.com 22 Apr at 10:24:25 When building a custom rod, next time get your self a new white cutting board at the discount dept. store and cut 1/2 inch strips with a circular saw (or table saw) and tack these to the inside of the V block jig you use to hold the rod while you wrap the guides. This stuff is very slippery and can be used instead of a complicated roller set up for alot less money..good luck
-Scott AScott sanders@ade.com 07 Apr at 13:01:37 This tip is similar to one posted earlier, which suggested rubber bands. They work fine, but plumber's rubber o-rings work better for me. They slide down the blank better, and seem to hold the guide in place with a more consistant tension. I use thin 1/2 inch o-rings, and loop them two or three times, depending on which guide I'm wrapping.ken baughman thekenbaughman@mac.com 01 Apr at 17:52:57 here's a great tip i just figured out myself lately. i've had problem's with other stickers and decals peeling up on the corners and such. also, it's very hard to find them in different things besides fish and such. i have been building some rods here in team colors and have been searching for some kind of decals. what i found works great and looks awesome, is the small peelable "tattoo's" u see people wearing at games, cheerleaders and such. they are very colorful. easy to apply. just press it on, wet the back and peel off the backing. really looks great and custom. cover with a coat of flex and u added a great addition to a custom rod. hope it helps someone else out there. thanksjeff hare jhare34@cs.com 02 Mar at 19:52:31 Instead of using a drill bit, you can cut brass tubing in various diameters to "punch a hole in the cork ring. All you need is a foot or two of various diameter brass tubing, and wood dowels that will fit into the brass. Cut the brass into 3-4 inch pieces and insert an inch of wood dowel. The wood insert keeps the brass from crushing in the drill chuck. You will need to smooth the edges of the brass that you cut before using them. The brass gives a perfect hole instead of a torn hole, which is what a drill bit is basically doing.(Tearing the cork out of the way.) Try it, I'm almost positive that you will like the process.Joel Howard jch2k3@yahoo.com 01 Mar at 20:22:45 For you beginners or old time hands hears something you might be able to use.I needed a rod drying motor an while out in the garage i found two rotisserie motors from my grills. I made a wooden dowel to fit on the end an then took a piece of foam insulation for water lines an taped that on.Mounted this on my drying rack an it worked like a charm.Hope you can use this,larrylarry zabrocki lzabrocki@hotmail.com 22 Feb at 18:34:33 For you beginners or old time hands hears something you might be able to use.I needed a rod drying motor an while out in the garage i found two rotisserie motors from my grills. I made a wooden dowel to fit on the end an then took a piece of foam insulation for water lines an taped that on.Mounted this on my drying rack an it worked like a charm.Hope you can use this,larrylarry zabrocki lzabrocki@hotmail.com 22 Feb at 18:33:01 I have trouble with the winding of guides using a pair of V's I have started using a fly tying bobin to keep my thread and tension doing it free hand. Some of you other left handed builders may find this handy also.Paul J Ziolkowski pziolkowski@greatbatch.com 19 Feb at 11:55:03 It is essentially very time consuming to ream cork rings, especially for larger rods. If you use the cork reaming tool to complete the entire ring, you are going to ware it out quickley and it takes forever. What I do is use a high speed power drill to get the ring started. Note: It must be high speed. If there is too much tork you will split the ring. I usually build 8' rods and it takes alot of work to ream the rear grip. I use a drill bit which is suitable. For instances, I sometimes go up to a 1/2" when I am doing the first few and progressively work my way down to a smaller bit. Believe me you will save yourself loads of time.Joe bonnette1107@yahoo.com 31 Jan at 09:51:47 If you need a container to mix epoxy or rod finisher, turn a coke or beer can over, and use the indentation on the bottom of the can. It works great.Robert Whiting rcwhiting@aol.com 28 Jan at 09:52:09 I recently built a rod using one of Mudhole's
free black reel seats (one of the specials -
buy a rod and get a free reelseat).
These did not come with any sort of end cap,
so I started looking around for something to
finish off that end of the rod.
I found some great metal button designs in a
JoAnn fabric store - I finally settled on a
brushed aluminum oval with an recessed black
Grizzly bear footprint. The size was exacly
right, and the button was easily affixed with
epoxy.Russ Blixt rblixt@180com.net 24 Jan at 02:28:32 Awhile back I had bought two 9ft. surf rods at a yard sale.Ugly but cleaned up very nicely.They are piece rods.The one came apart real well,but the other did not come apart'it was stuck fast and would not budge.Did not want to do anything to it until I asked for help.
Posted a request for help on the Mud Hole Bulletin Board.Got a reply from kensfish(Ken Preston).That the onley way to get it apart would be to use heat,then by useing heat it would never be right.That was the part I didn't like hearing.
Being a heavy equipment hauler gave me some time to think of maybe another way and this is what I came up with and will pass it along.
First off I took the butt cap off,took a smaller size rod I had laying around and pushed it inside the surf rod to make sure that there was'nt any blockage.The rod bottomed out at the male end of the ferrule.I then measured were the furrule stopped on the second rod,took that measurement and measured down the female end of the stuck ferrule marked it,took a small drill bit about the size of the plastic spray tube of a wd40 can.
After drilling the hole I turned the rod butt end up and put a few dropes of Blaster and let it set over night.I then took the diamiter of the male end,found me a dowel the same size glued a washer the same size of the dowel on ttop of one end.Ok the next day I took the dowel pushed it up the butt end of the rod until it hit the male end of the ferrule took a wooden mallet tapped it lightly and as luck would have it,it came apart.
I was very happy withj the out come.I had also e-mailed Ken Preston and told him what I done and he e-mailed back wanting to use my tip on his workshop.That made me happy too,knowing that maybe someone else can use this to help them.
Good Luck
"Don Newenhouse"
Donald Newenhouse doctordew@peoplepc.com 01 Dec at 21:32:57 I can't take credit for coming up with this, but I forget the guy's name who told me about it. If you ever get a little bit of epoxy on the blank or reelseat or somewhere, you can try this: get a peice of unwanted cork, and simply buff out the smeared epoxy by rubbing it with the cork. It generates some heat and usually will remove the epoxy. Just don't over do it, because I would imagine that if you get it too hot you could probably damage things. But since the cork isn't abrasive, you usually don't have to worry about damaging anything.jeff nail jnail@unitelc.com 20 Oct at 21:37:22 When you grind your smaller guide feet use a pair of forceps(hemostats) to hold the guide. Be sure to hold the guide FRAME though, DO NOT hold it by the guide ring. This can weaken and even crack the ceramic ring. Also be careful not to take too much metal off the feet or you will end up with basically an unusable guide. They are much harder to wrap if too much metal is taken off, so just make a nice steady slope on the guide foot. This allows a nice steady thread transfer from blank to guide.Don Kelly bassmaster1080@hotmail.com 01 Oct at 21:47:51 To prep your guides, get a 1 inch beltsander and put a 240 or finer grit belt on it. This will keep burrs down, take less metal, and polish the feet. The idea of it taking less metal is so that if you slip, half of the guide did not dissapear. The finer the belt the smaller the burrs. To eliminate all burrs, after grinding the feet, turn the sander off and use the belt to smooth the burrs off the edges.
With this system, i get perfectly prepped feet and perfect wraps due to the thread ramps up it so easy.
Brian Brian Patterson Simms142@hotmail.com 27 Sep at 23:01:49 We have all read stories about the rod butt coming loose while spinning in the rod drying machine. I place a piece of masking tape on the chuck prongs that grip the butt and the rod butt itself. Have had no instances of the butt coming off the chuck since this trick has been used.Ray Zarychta rayzct@cox.net 16 Aug at 09:47:43 We have all read stories about the rod butt coming loose while spinning in the rod drying machine. I place a piece of masking tape on the chuck prongs that grip the butt and the rod butt itself. Have had no instances of the butt coming off the chuck since this trick has been used.rayzct@cox.net 16 Aug at 09:47:09 Just a simple but very important reminder. Soft plastics(grubs/worms etc)may be killers on fish, but they are also real killers on rods! I learnt it the hard way so please take note!!
Never leave them together for any period of time as the soft plastics have a chemical reaction with the rod epoxy when they come into contact with each other. Leaving them together for a certain period of time will result in a "gooey" sticky mess that cannot easily be removed or re-epoxied over.
When building rods for such soft plastic lure usage, dispense all together with a hook-keeper so that the lure never gets into contact with the rod epoxy. In addition, remember never to store rods still with the soft plastic lure attached to it.
Depending on the surrounding temperature and conditions, it takes just a day or two for that horrible chemical reaction to happen, and that will surely be a waste of a few hundred dollars worth of rod building components, and not to mention many hours of hard work.
Remember, don't do what I did, you'd be surprise just how fast your masterpiece turns into an ugly mess and no amount of hardwork will be able to restore the damaged part to its original condition, even recoating with epoxy leaves the area sticky and messy!Daniel Chee danielkd13@hotmail.com 05 Jul at 06:58:37 |
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