Fixing up the reel seat and split handle cork grip

I managed to lath the fore and rear grip in the evening after I got home from work. Got it epoxied on the rod.
At first, I wanted to do a round fore grip just like the Megabass Pagani bamboo casting rod, but it's kinda difficult to get a perfectly round shape and furthermore, it was just too time consuming.

Guessed I just have to go with the common shape fore grip.

 

Bamboo BC rod trigger reel seat..

As expected, Mudhole never disappoint me. The reel seat arrived at my door step today.

I have to add a graphite sleeves to extend the bamboo rod for the butt section. It look something like this.

Completed my bamboo baitcasting rod blank..

A quick update..

Finished the bamboo blank last week. Binded and glued.
I skipped the final heat treatment process on the planned strips as I figured that I have done 3 heat treatment process on the rough bamboo strips was sufficient...
So, I applied a few coat of finishes on the blank...

I WAS WRONG... dead wrong!!!

I found out that the final heat treatment cannot be skip.. The glued bamboo blank was not flexing and it stay in shape after I bent it. DAMN!!!  Basically, I bend the tip and it stay bend...!!

I had to remove the finishing coat with steel wool and redo the heat treatment on the blank. I had to be very careful not to over do this as I do not want the glue to be debonded due too extreme high temperature..

After a several heat treatment process.. the bamboo blank seems to be stiffer and more reactive to the flexing. Finally I can finish off the bamboo blank with a few coats of Gorilla glue..

Just placed orders for the hardwares... Hope to see those at my door steps by next week.

BC Boo - Planing time

I realized that the overall length of my leftover bamboo strips was less than 6'-0" and I had to modified the bait casting rod tapers which I got over the internet. I have the make adjustment and reduce the depth of the planing form.

It's all part of the plan....

I sharpen the plan and readjusted the plane shoe for minimum cutting. I don't want too many glue line when I put the strips together.

After planing all the 6 pieces of bamboo strips.. yes, I did not have any spares this time. I bind it up to check on the thickness and checked for gaps before I removed it for glueing..

 

It looks okay now.. I hope it will be OKAY after glueing it up...

Not another bamboo fly rod....

Since I am into building bait casting rods now... how about making myself a bamboo bait casting rod???
I read up some info on bamboo bait casting rods in the internet and not many people have attempt making bamboo bait casting rods or rather not having their work documented in the internet.

Surprisingly, when I googled "bamboo baitcasting rod", there are a few bamboo rod makers who sell bamboo bait casting rod. Modern bamboo rod makers like Ron Kusse was in front of the list, there was a few advertisement for selling vintage bamboo bait casting rods, a few taper for bait casting rods and that was about all I found..

To start with, it took awhile for me to search for a few decent looking bamboo strips which I tucked in one corner of my porch. The most time consuming part was actually straightening the bamboo strips.. and there was a reason why these bamboo strips was tucked a side.

Anyway, my ventures of the bamboo bait casting rod begins...

Skipping the most boring part and straight away to the beveller..

Completed my rough bamboo strip for planing.

Building BaitCasting Rods

Finally I am done.. finished... completed 3 BC rods. It took me plus minus a month to assemble the 3 rods. A month is not the actually time spent building up the rods but just a time frame of completion.

The processes of the building a fly rod and building a BC rod are quite similar... taking out the bamboo blank making. For fly rods, I shaped cork grips and I shaped EVA foam for BC rods. No difference in guides wrapping.

Here are some of the photos of the 2nd and 3rd BC rod I assembled.

The Orange StiQ

The above is the a mock up arrangement before I epoxied the reel seat and grips. I used Minima Reel Seat from Pac Bay. The design is almost the same as Carrot Stik. I like the reel seat design.

I added a silver ring to the grip and shorten the locking thread to make it more compact.

 

Spiral guides layout. Initially I did the straight or inline guide for this rod but when I loaded the rod, the line touches the rod. So, I have to do all the guides wrappings again.

The completed "Orange StiQ"


MHX Rod

This is the last of my BC rod blanks. A 6'6" Charcoal black blank weighted for 10~17lb lines.
Similarly to my other BC rod, I chose to have spiral guides. Looks much better than common factory made BC rods from the shelves.

As you can see, I always keep my rods simple. No fancy weaving above the grips and what nots...it's because 1st,  I like it clean and simple and secondly, I do not know how to weave those god damned weaving and I don't intend to learn for the time being.

I have yet to get  the chance to test all 3 BC rods that I have built. By December, I hope I will hook up a few big snakeheads and jungle perch and really see the effect of the spiral guides and the performance of these BC rods.

Lawn casting #6

Managed to find some time to lawn cast #6. Moderate slow action and cast out a WF3 with little effort.
Well balance on my Orvis CFO II.

Wait till you see this......

Balance the rod on the hook keeper.