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.