aligning guides
 

i have my guides on and one foot on each one wraped, i will be wraping the other feet tonight. the guides look pretty straight but not exact, do i need to make them exact at this point or can i finish the other feet and still make final adjustments then.
thanks for any help.:cool:

I like to get them on pretty close before wrapping the second foot. That way you have just minor tweaking after both feet are wrapped. This can save problems if you need to do a LOT of adjusting or make a mistake... So align them as best as you can before wrapping the second foot and save yourself some time &^ aggravation down the road... Just my opnion :D

thanks john, with seven guides and a tip i'll be tweaking away tonight.:smash:

dc - it's best to get them close to being straight down the blank. then, you can wrap over the guides and check again after all are on the blank. even with thread on the guides' feet, you can still move them slightly. once epoxied, the guides are locked, so make a final check before then as well. so, yes, you can wrap the other side of the feet and still move them.

seawolf, can i run a line from first guide to the tip just to help see a center line. with seven guides plus tip it's a long way to look down the guide rings to find exact center.

If you can't move the guide to adjust after wrapping both feet , you wrapped it too tight.

thanks saltheart, i did not know you could wrap guide feet too tight, so far so good.:D

I'll second what saltheart said. wrap both feet, then tweek. try putting a nice white sheet of paper on a wall some where an point the rod at it, then look down the guides. one other thing thats a big help is find an old reel [crap] an cut the arm off at the base of the reel, leaveing u the foot an arm only, put this in the reel seat then look down your guides.

i'll try the white paper idea tonight, thanks capesams.

On double foot guides I cut thin strips of masking tape and tape both feet down in position. I then wrap both feet, removing the tape as the thread approaches it and only adjust after both feet are wrapped. I also put my glasses on now because I'm blind and make sure I adjust each guide after it's wrapped, not smart to wrap them all before adjusting, you'd be surprised how far off you can wonder. I think do them all again at the end.

^
 

I always run a string down the rod to make sure that they are stright. It helps me alot. Good luck:cool:

dc, i would do liked cape says and put the rod up to your eye and look down the blank w/ the guides on it w/ a light colored wall as a background to see if the guides are on straight. and yes, you can wrap the guides on too tight. a good way to pop a rod.

I agree with Cape, Wolf, GS, Salty ;) - that's how I do it too. But I tape both feet like mentioned above, wrap the first foot on each guide, adjust them and start wrapping the second foot, pulling off the tape when I get there. It only adds 10 minutes to align the guides twice while making the rod. Does make things easy in my opinion...

it went well with the guides, i found two that were not sitting flat on the underwrap. took-em off adjusted the legs rewrapped adjusted as i went. looks much better then before, going to finish off the handle where the cork tape and the seat meet and the upper grip where the shrink tube meet. i"ll take some pic's when i'm finished, cant thank you guys enough. :D