Toby...
Not an expert on this by any means, but willing to pass along any help I can.
First of all, I love these spiral rods. The rod control you get fighting a fish is so much better than a standard conventional wrapped rod. Sprial wrapping eliminates any rod twist or rolling when the rod is flexed under load. This has worked very well for me in the canal.
Billy is right be saying that test casting is very important. Once you get the rod setup, and the guides in place to where you think a good starting point is, it's time to cast.
I did a lot of reading and research like yourself before I wrapped my first spiral. The method I liked the best was Ralph Quinn's.
For me, the best results I have gotten from a casting rod have been with the "straight line" method. If you going to be using the rod as a trolling rod or standup rod, some of the other methods work much better.
I like to spiral to the left. Feels more balanced to me when the reel handle is on one side, and the sprial is on the other. It also makes a world of difference if your not using a level wind and you have to thumb the line back on the spool. You'll find that with a little practice you just have to push the line to the right, and it will automaticly wind itself back to the left.
I do offset my first guide to the left. As Mike said earlier, placing the right hand edge of the guide to the center of the spool will eliminate any line pile up when using a level wind reel. You can actually go just a little bit more to the left than center and not run into line pile up. Test casting will let you know how far left you can go with the first guide, and it will be ease to tell where that point of "too-far" is. The line will go from level on the spool to a nice high spot on the left side once you go too far.
I make my transitions in four guides with the fifth guide being the first one on the 180. A lot of guys like to make the transition in three guides with the fourth being on the 180, I have that is just a little too quick for a 9' or 10' surf rod. It decreased my casting distance. You want to set you rod up so that your first 180 guide is in place before the lock up point on the blank. If your wrapping a soft glass rod this dosen't apply, but with your blank it will. Put your blank under load, mark the spot on the blank where it locks up. Then just make sure your first 180 guide is below this mark.
Then set up the blank guide spacings as you normally would. Put your stripper on it's mark on top, twist it left to about 40 degrees, set your 180 guides to the bottom of the blank, then take the remaining guides and space them as even as you can spiraled around the blank. Put your reel on the rod and run a line through the guides and out the tip. Then work the guides around (both spiraled and up and down on the blank) to get the best possible straight line from reel to the first 180.
Once you think everything looks good, time to go cast.
Don't be afraid to move things around and work the guides up and down the blank. You might have to even add another guide to make the transition smoother. I do like to push my first guide out quite far. It alows me to rotate that fisrt guide more to the left, and makes for a smoother transition. Have also found that using a high framed guide as a stripper will let me push it out even farther. But test casting will show you what works well and what does not for your blank.
Well thats the quick version, let me know if you have any questions that i might have missed.
I do like these spirals very much, have wrapped everything from a small sweet water rod to my Amtak 1209. Going to wrap an 11' surf rod here soon.
Besides, you just got to love when the older guys come up to you and say.. "hey there son, do you know all the eyes on that there rod are crooked??"
Good luck Toby