Looking for some advice on custom rod building. I have no supplies or anything but have a good idea on how it is done. Wondeing if anyone out there could tell me what I need for supplies. I am really excited about possibly doing this but I need someone to put me in the right direction. Thnaks a bundle, Derek

P.S. Sorry for posting so many messages on this board. Haven't been able to get out in this weather, this is all I have!!!

Forgot to mention one more thing. I checked out a kit at anglersworkshop.com. It looks like a nice kit but I want to get some opinions before I jump in on this. Thanks again, Derek.

I wrote an article on building your own custom rod, which might help you out. Go to my Fishing Page, then to the articles page and email me if you have any questions. The link is www.rgsiroisco.com/fishingpage.htm

Tight lines.

Derek, I started building my own rods for several reasons, but the main reason was because Im a fairly meticulous person and while the custom rods I had made for me were nice, each one of them had something about them that I would have done differently. I was fortunate enough to have a few friends who built their own rods. I built my first custom rod at a friends house, under his instruction. In any case, I would suggest you invest in an instructional book, either Advanced Custom Rodbuilding by Dale Clemens or the Flexcoat book which I havent read but understand is much more simple. You dont need a lot of fancy equipment to build rods, but a rod lathe will make your life a lot easier. There are a few choices in rod lathes 1. Clemens Custom Tackle makes the best lathe available. Its solid machined aluminum with quality components. I have a 12 ft bed with three rod supports and a 4 spool thread carriage which cost me about 750 bucks. This is a lot of money, but factor in the money you'll save on rods and the fact that you'll own it for life and never have to replace it. 2. Another lathe is the one offered by Pacific Bay, which is also aluminum but of lesser quality. This lathe sells for about 300 dollars give or take. 3. Flex coat makes a wooden wrapping jig that is not motorized which sells for about 70 bucks.
If you're interested in a sabre blank, I would suggest you buy it from Mike Thomas at Cape Cod Tackle. He used to sell a kit which included guides, cork tape, reel seat, etc which was great for starting out. He would probably still put all the stuff together for you if you wanted.
Once you finish wrapping, you'll need to coat the wraps and a drying motor makes that job a lot easier. I would suggest the Flex coat 6 or 18 rpm drying motor with one rod support which will run you about 85 dollars. Without a drying motor, you'll have to go and turn the rod constantly for hours and still run the risk of sags and drips in your finish. I would also suggest you use U-40 Duragloss rod finish rather than flex coat because it is much more user friendly and creates less bubbles.
A great blank for your first effort is the 7 ft sabre medium blank, which sells for less than 30 dollars. Its a great boat rod/schoolie surf rod and if you mess up, you're only out a few bucks rather than screwing up a Ron Arra.
My final advice would be that if you're interested, do it right and get the Clemens rod lathe. You wont regret it and once you get the hang of it, you can sell a few rods to some friends and pay the thing off in no time. Theres a rod builder's guild message board with some great tips and you can post some questions there too.
Check out
www.clemenstackle.com
www.mudhole.com
www.rodguild.com (message board)

Definitely purchase Advanced Custom Rodbuilding and you can pick up a couple other rod building type books that will help such as Flex Coat's. Highly recommended just like Damon states. I have these books as well as some others. Mike T is writing an article now on rod building and whereas I have much of the text, he has yet to take the photos. One big recommendation for the first time builder (I've only built 4 so far so I'm no expert <img src="/Images/biggrin.gif"><!--e7-->) is to have the handle measured for you and even installed. The 1088 Sabre "KIT" I got from Mike had everything as far as cork tape, trigger seat, guides, but cap etc and I picked up thread and epoxies as well. I think he still marks off the guide position on the blank for you if you need it. He does not have the kits listed anymore but I'm sure he has everything you'd need.

I know it seems like I plug Mike and his shop alot but he, his wife and his dad make that place the best shop I frequent...

Thanks for the the help guys. I appreciate it. I do have a few more questions though. I noticed that many of the Sabre blanks are one pieced. Is it possible to cut this blank in half somewhere and insert a ferrule. I am also mixed up on what size guides to use, how many, and how far to separate them from each other. I know it depends on size and stiffness of the rod, but how do I figure this out. Thnaks again, Derek.

First of all, I can't explain how great it is to catch a fish on a rod you made. I don't know if you flyfish or make your own plugs but it is like catching a fish on a homemade plug only multiply that by 100!

So many people get into building rods to save money but then they pay a whole lot of money for the equipment. That just never made sense to me. If you are adept to wood working or construction, you could make your own. It is a long plank of board with 3 or more holders. The ones I am familiar with have 3 stations with 4 holders. 2 stations have a single holder and the middle station has 2 holders with spool tension devices in the middle. All you really need is a table saw and a drill. You might not have a table saw but I'm sure a neighbor or a friend has one. You probably want a width of 8 inches or so because that is more stable(as the car commercials go and what women tell me, 'wider is better')<img src="/Images/Happy_Face.gif"><!--e1-->. HA HA! The length is totally up to you and you want the actual board to be about an inch thick. Just cut out the three stations and run a dato lengthwise down the middle of each. The side with the dato is the bottom. The uprights need to be about 8 inches with a 3 inch, centered, deep, v-notch cut into it. Center and mount the upright to the tops of the stations using L brackets to assure that they are 90 degrees or close to it. For the middle station, mount two on the ends. This is where the wrapping will be done and if you have two stations sort of close together, the less flexing you will get and thus better wraps. On the underside, make a recessed holes(number of holes depends on how many spools of thread you want to put on there). Put a bolt through from the underneath and put a nut on the topside. Put your spool of thread on and put another nut on top of it. Theres your line tension adjuster. Put a few of these bolts on there so you don't have to take one spool off to put another spool on. Now, you know those tacks that are bent and have points on both sides? Put one or two of them in topside of the board(your thread will go through this tack. That way, you are putting tension on the side of the spool of thread and not pulling it off the top) Now cut a long piece of board using the same type of wood as you did for the stations. Along the center, put a strip of wood no higher or wider as the dato you made in the bottoms of the station. Put your stations on the track and voila! A rod making bench! Now instead of those notches, you could have wheels. Notches are just easier.

For a motor, use a rotissery off the grill(if you have a grill). It goes a little faster than a store bought motor but as long as it isn't so fast that it is throwing the epoxy off the rod, it should be fine. Make a station and temporarily mount the motor to it and rig the rod onto it.
Sure it looks a little crude but who cares? You ever see the jigs Norm Abrams makes and uses? They look like total pieces of junk and look at the beautiful stuff he makes with them.

Of course you could go to the store and buy one of these rod benches but then again, you could go to the store and buy the rod too. Just an interesting winter project. I mean how many rods can you make in the winter? It gets pretty monotonous after a while. Those aren't really instructions, just an idea of how to do it. If you were going to undertake this craft, I would consult a rod bench, maybe even take a few pictures and a few measurements. Now I'm SURE someone is going to have a problem with this post and I'm sure I will be told I am all wrong by someone. But that's okay. I'm sure I made a few errors and left something out and that is why I said that these aren't instructions.

Patrick is correct about landing a nice fish on a rod that you've built yourself. Now I must take a detour here...

PATRICK, IF YOU CAN BUILD YOUR OWN ROD, DO AN INEXPENSIVE 9' CONVENTIONAL STICK LIKE A 1088!!! MATCH IT UP WITH A NICE&lt; INEXPENSIVE REEL AND GO EELIN'

That was in reference to a Patrick post on "Success" and was not in caps to DISPLAY ANGER but for EMPHASIS. Patrick build a conventioanl eelin' rod. Get the right outfit, build it yourself and you could be in for under a hundred bucks...

Derek, my first two rods and one I assisted my friend Greg on were all made with bent coat hangers acting as the rod wrapper. Thread was guided by running through a book with a reel on top for added tension. Examples of that are in that Dale Clemens book. It was not the best way or anywhere near as convenient as a real wrapper but it works. Since then, I was given a homemade wrapper which basically used 2 long strips of aluminum rail, 4 wooden 12" posts which mounted skate board wheels on each post to spin freely (still using the book for thread tension but I'll change that soon)...

Good Luck

Thnaks for all the help. I looked in to Angler's workshop and saw a custom power wrapper in there. It's 260.00 dollars and has foot peddal control. Is this worth it and is anglers workshop a good place to purchase some of my stuff? thanks again, Derek.

I have no money left &lt;sigh&gt;. I just bought a watch. I was looking at the Casio Forrester because of the tides and stuff but I didn't see anything about water resistance. I am usually chest deep on the reef and that is very important. I went with the Timex Reef Gear watch. It looks pretty good. It has big numbers and it is water resistant to a depth that I rarely go.

Of course I could build a rod. I just don't have the time or the equipment to do it. That description is from the rod bench I used in school. Well there's had wheels but I don't need wheels. When I get some money, I think Mike sells kits right? That's the only place I can find Sabre rods.

As far as the 1088 kit goes, I think you are around $100 with the kit and additional supplies needed to do it - don't remember exactly as I picked it up last year. But you can wrap the rods on plain old wire hangers - no cost there. The only tricky thing to build a rod on the cheap would have to be the dryer motor. You need something to get the rpms down real slow, 6-18 rpm being the ideal range, and let it run for many hours to dry sufficiently...

How does the wire hanger idea work? Do you just hang the hangers up and put the blank through the bottoms? I've never heard of that. Please explain.

To anyone that is going to build a rod, buy the Dale Clemmens book; Advanced Custom Rod Building!! It's a must! (Patrick, see if the public library has it <img src="/Images/Tounge_Wink_Face.gif"><!--e5-->)

Picture looks like crap but it does work and it doesn't cost ya...
Here you go, a 60 second, quick instruction picture for bending the hanger into shape <img src="/Images/biggrin.gif"><!--e7-->. The base would wrap around a table and keep the base sprung enough to hold well. Build 4 or 5 of these hangers to the same shape, put some slick tape around the hook (not silicone) to help the blank twist easily and you're all set...
<img src="http://striped-bass.com/Images/hanger.jpg" border="0">

Hey that's pretty cool. Screw building a bench, make the wire thing. That is pretty easy to store and portable. Only problem is continuity. How can I make everyone the same. I guess I could make minor adjustments until I got them all to support the rod.

I'll check out the book. I haven't been in the library in such a long time because all the rowdy people in there. When I was doing a report, some guy took all my notecards and threw them down the hallway! He was just reading a book too. He could have gone to the loungechairs but he had to have a desk. God, was I mad. Sorry I just had to vent.

No prob. Sure he didn't stuff you in a locker?

Man, I can just picture that scene, too. Somehow, I think we're only getting half the story here, but I have a mental picture of the rest of it.

You can only picture part of the library thing? All the little cuddy desks were full so I put my stuff down, went to get a book or print something off the computers and I came back to find my stuff spread out along the hallway.