Fuji Alconite Guides & MHX

It's either American Tackle guides or Fuji Alconite...
I guess this should be okay...

Fixing up the reel seat and EVA form split-grip handle

Slow... but managed to fixed up the reel seat and EVA form split-grip handle.

 

Next, guide placement..

New BC MHX 8-14lb

While waiting for my tonkin bamboo blank from China and my Matagi reel seat from Japan, I have to put that cork handle aside.... at least for a couple of months.

To keep myself occupied, I am building another casting rod. It's a MHX IM6 1 piece blank , lighter poundage than before. Although it is a 8-14lb blank but it seems quite stiff to me. Fast action rod.

Testing the FUJI ACM reel seat on the blank

Carbon fiber effect at the exposed reel seat.

Just finished shaping the EVA split grip handle and here are the tools I used.

Reel seat and split grip handle pending installation.

 Rear EVA grip

EVA form split-grip fighting butt with butt cap

Sanding cork handle to shape

Since the cork handle is not straight, sanding it with my lathing drill set is virtually impossible. I have to do manual sanding. It took me about 30 minutes to sand it into shape.

It's done for now until my flat face trigger reel seat arrived..  which I do not know when.
Here are the photos of the cork handle for my bamboo casting rod.

Top view:

Round at the front part where the reel seat will be connected and flat at the back portion.


Side view:

 

Straight at the front part and bend downward at the back portion.

Gluing up my offset cork grip

After the glued plug dried, I have to bore holes according to the arrangement of the cork rings from straight and slowly offsetting it.

The arrangement of the cork rings is offset by half an inche and it is not so obvious in the photo.

I hope it the offset can be seen clearly after I have sand down the cork rings.

Patching up bored cork rings

I stopped by the hardware shop the other day to get a hole puncher for the job. A few cork rings was "sacrificed" for project.

Using the hole puncher, I punched holes on the cork rings to make the cork plugs to seal up the bore. Here's how the process look like..

Some cork plugs made by the hole puncher.

I used TB III to glue the cork plug to the ring. A dab of TBIII at the hole and push the cork plug in.

My patched cork rings are ready for its' next process.

Next rod - rear cork grip project

I am in the midst of looking for some cork rings to make off set cork grip for my next bamboo casting rod.
The rear grip is slightly off set and pointing downwards so that it would not hit the arm while casting, something like the Megabass Pagani bamboo rod.

I need some cork rings which doesn't have any bore in the center. I have to bore the hole myself in order to form the offset.

Found a few sellers in eBay that sells good quality corks, but it's a bit pricey. I still have some bored cork rings which I bought for my fly rod project. I think I will try to plug the bores...

Epoxy coating, drying and finishing

Got all the guides wrapped up. No fancy spiral guides, just  normal straight line guide placement.

I started with a thin coat of epoxy before put it to a rod turner or dryer for another coat of epoxy.

And the last coat of epoxy.

There.... done with the epoxy.

The graphite butt section was wrapped with rattan as it looks odd.

This was before.

...................and AFTER..

and I am done with this one.

My 1st bamboo casting rod....

Tops and guides

After having the grip and reel seat fixed, just to see the guide placement I put up all the guides with masking tape.
I am using Fuji Halide guides for economical reason.

Then I did a trial wrap with Gudebrod nylon threads - Med Brown color. I don't plan to use any color preserver on the thread as I wanted it to be darker.

 

Well, the thread color looks matched bamboo rod and it should look nicer when darken.

And this is how it looks like with a light coat of epoxy.

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.