Thanks to my friend who donated his broken Golden Mean rod to me after it broke the 2nd time. I fixed the broken front piece for him but that merely extended 8 months of its' life.
I had the guides removed from the broken rod and kept it for his future project ans I was left with the rod blank and the handle.
The EVA handle was not all the perfect as my friend really bashed or in other words, fully utilized this rod. Then again, it was still usable.
I cut off the old blank, removed the butt cap and inserted a new blank. The only blank that can fit in was the 1 piece MHX 6' 2-6lb blank.
Ta..da..... just turned a 2pc 4-10lb rod into a 1pc 2-6lb UL rod.
Black Fuji KR concept guides with 1st coat of epoxy on the thread.
Then the finishing coat.
The overall look of this partly "recycle" rod.
This is another fun project which I had in mind for a long long time and I just have to do it before this idea got buried by some other ideas.
I have been collecting some champagne corks for awhile and thanks to my air stewardess sis-in-law, I have a full bags of it in my workshop.
The champagne cork goes well with the burled wood insert reel seat that I managed to get my hands on a few weeks back.
No additional finishes was done to the champagne cork. I just bore the hole for it to be inserted to the blank.
Rattan wrapping to the exposed section of the split butt and also at the fore grip area.
By the way, the brand of this blank that I used for this project is Viper Fatale 601. It's a 6 footer ultralight 1-6lb.
I used ALPS zirconium ring spinning guides for the rod. Wrapping the guides with brown color non CP thread.
Spinning guides lined up to the smallest #4 guide.
Full view of the handle.
Overall view of the blank
and the rod is quite well balance too.
This built is from a 6' 2-6lb MHX blank with Fuji KR guide concept and MATAGI components.
VSS reel seat with full cork fittings.
Fuji KR Guides
Cork fore grip with aluminum winding check.
Pre test fitting...
Thread colour scheme following the decal
Starting on micro guides...
Done with the guide wrapping
Epoxy done...
Cork sealant to handle
MATAGI...
The overall view of this rod
Building another MATAGI fiberglass XUL blank. 6' 2-4lb noodle action with lots of fun hooking up palm size fish.
No cork component this time round. Just simple skeleton reel seat and a EVA butt piece. I used an aluminium insert for the reel seat.
Fuji K-guides KR concept.
MATAGI butt cap
MATAGI Rod decal.
Metallic white thread wrapping to K-guide with silver trimming.
Another angle of the guides .
The full handle view.
Simple, white and clean...
I wonder how it looks with black frame guides... :)
I have built a few UL rods recently and most of it are in 1 section. This time a 2 piece UL rod. Building a 1 piece rod is no difference from a 2 piece rod, just have to make sure the spine is aligned to each other.
Found some loose pieces of Pacbay skeleton spinning reel seat laying around in my rod parts drawer and I decided to use it. The locking hood and threaded barrel are from Fuji. Carbon tube insert was used for the mix and match skeleton reel seat.
After getting this fix, then I realised it looked like the reel seat used for Daiwa Aird. Just that they did not use carbon tube insert.
The completed handle.
Fuji KR guide system with size #4.5 guides at the top.
Black thread wrapping to the guide with 1 coating of epoxy.
Now the fun part. Metallic marbling effect was done to the 2nd coating of epoxy.
Have to do it really thin as I want to minimise the weight added to the rod especially the tip area.
Marbling effect also applies the the wrapping at the winding checks.
The completed MHX- KR Concept Guide system
