Continuation of Bamboo #6

Finally... my long awaited reel seat has arrived last week and I have officially completed my #6.

It's an up locking burled wood mortised with black color hardware to match the color of the guides.

Intended to be a 3wt and it felt like a 3wt but I need to test it out to confirm it....just in case.

Experimenting with spiral guide

I have done some reading on building casting rod and the deflection of each rods are different based on the stiffness of the blanks. Since the fiberglass blank is on the soft side, it would be safer to fix spiral guides on it so that the line would not touch the blank when bending.

I placed the guide on the inner side of the spine as if I am doing the spinning rod and slowly adjusting the lower guide to the other side of the blank, so that the line from the reel will gradually turn following the guides.

I wrapped the guide foot with masking tapes and securing it with some cotton thread before the rod was subjected to a static loading test.

It worked as what was stated in the internet. Great bending action without line touching the blank.

Next, I have to remove all the cotton thread and do some readjustment to the guides before wrapping it........

Pilot project - LAMIGLAS - Skeet Reese series

While waiting for the reel seat for my #6 bamboo rod, I decide to kick off my pilot project - fiberglass casting rod.  I purchased this blank from Mudhole.. yup the biggest fishing rod components supplier in the State.
This 7' long fiberglass rod blank has a line weight of 8~20lb and got a 'BIG' butt.. 0.775" in diameter, that is almost 19.7mm. I ordered all the components for this rod as well.

I shorten this blank slightly. Took away 3" to make the butt slightly smaller.
I have just fitted the cork grips and the reel seat on the blank. Yet to glue it up. Still got so much more to do..

and SuCH...........

Today I have decide to make my blog title longer......."and SucH"
What the heck is that??? Well, I am doing something more than just bamboo rods...

I make bamboo fly rods and I building fiberglass fly rods as well.. but now, there is something new...
YES... new...  Casting rod.. I have never build one of those. The weaving looks complicated and I am not going to do that.

I am thinking just to build a decent looking casting rod. My pilot project would be a Lamiglas fiberglass casting rod.

Interesting..........................

DIY Cork grip

I have got some balance cork rings from Marcia over eBay sometime back. His products are priced reasonable. I got most of the cork rings from him.
I manage to lathed a cork grip in the evening..

Modified full wells grip..

Fly Guides to bamboo #6

Just dug out a few packs of black colored  fly guides from my drawer this morning as I was searching for some for this rod. I can't remember when I got it but it was there for quite awhile. Dust was already accumulated on its' packing. It's BSNG fly guides which I got from Mudhole many many months ago.

Well, got those and started wrapping. I used Gudebrod Classic Twist Black/Yellow for wrapping and tipped it with black thread. Don't know they named it black/yellow... but it sure don't looked black/yellow to me. Looks more like black/green.

Applied a coat of color preserver on top of the wrapping.

The last time I forget to applied color preserver of the classic twist Black/Yellow, it turned black/brown when I coated it with epoxy.

I finished the guides for the top section and I couldn't find a black tip top for it. ....


Damn.............. I think I need to buy a few of those soon.

Bamboo No 6

Completed my bamboo rod blank No 6 after working on it for a few weekends. Glad it came out okay but I ain't happy with the workmanship. I think I must have being lacking practising.. Gaps between the strips and bad ... bad ... big visible glue lines..!!!!!!!!!!! I thought I have sharpen the plane but I did not shapen my skill... 

I guess I can't do anything much on the glue lines. I just filled it up with some epoxy.

Other than that, the blank seems to be in good shape.

Another integrated bamboo ferrule construction.



 

The length of this blank is 6'10"