AFM MHX 6'6" 8-14lb with a TWIST

They say "Start with the end in mind" is to imagine how would your built be when you have completed the rod. Is it going to be what you imagine it to be or it will be another disastrous built?

This is another MHX rod blank project, 6'6" 8-14lb , fast action medium power.
Tastefully selected Andrew's fishing reel seat and MATAGI butt cap.

Preform cork fore grip

Cork rings for rear handle.

Stacked, glued and ready to be shape.

Shaped cork handle pre-fitting

Trying some new weaving pattern. Not that perfect but I guess it should be okay.

Completed. But...

But, I guess not all fisherman liked weaving pattern on their rod and the weaving was removed.

The rod was finished with a simple and clean metallic wrapping at the fore grip.

Simple metallic wrapping to guides

Static load test to spiral guide wrapping for centralization and adjustment.

Final static load test before epoxy.

Epoxy done and cork handle are sealed with cork seal.

Epoxy to guide

For the grand finale, fixing up the butt cap.

Pending curing.

The outcome of the completed rod. I remembered doing a similar built some years ago. 

Hope to see the rod in action soon..

My first boat rod for my dad

Started this rod project a month ago but I just managed to finished 90% of it. I have been tied up with my day job lately..

I purchased this Gorilla Offshore series blank from Mudhole. It's a tubular 6'6" glass blank with a solid glass tip and line weighted at 30~50lb.

Standard EVA fore and rear grip with a size 24 Fuji DPSH  heavy duty graphite reel seat. Finally, I have a rod to try out the dragon scale deco wrapping.

I used mono line for the base wrap and metallic red thread for the finishing wrap.
I am not sure why they always use metallic threads for heavy salt water rods but I just follow the way it is.

I think I still need more practice. The outcome of this dragon scale wrapping seems okay but I think the scale is slightly too big. I think it will look nicer if it is smaller.

I did a double layer wrapping for the guides, 1 base wrap and another top wrapping on the guides. I used metallic gold thread for that. It is not easy to do wrapping on top of another wrap. The base thread must be packed tightly so that no gaps should on the base wrap, in order to have a seamless top wrap over the guides.

My dad's previous boat rod had a normal straight guide placement and it was broken as the blank was damaged by the fishing line. So, I decided to do a spiral guide placement (Acid wrap) for this rod.

Now, I need to epoxy the rod and guide to complete the last 10% of it. I have never done any massive epoxy job before,  I hope it will goes well.

Jigging Rod - Acid Wrap

A friend asked me to help to build him a rod and I said "fine, bring it on"... thinking that it was just another fly rod or bait casting rod. Shouldn't be a problem...

Got the rod blank and all of the components from my friend last week and I got a big surprise there.... it was a jigging rod !!!!!!!!! I suppose building a jigging rod is similar to building any other fishing rod. No fancy stuff , I told my friend... just spiral guide wrapping and epoxy..

I had to check a few jigging rods of the racks of a tackle shop to see the guide spacing , handles and grips and other measurement. And finally, I did the wrapping..

 

It's another spiral wrap to a jigging rod. But some call that Acid Wrap and I have no idea why it was called that, maybe because of the rod company's name... Acid Rod.

Next, epoxy.... a slow process. To get 3 to 4 layers of epoxy to the wrappings will take about 1 week to finish.