Just some rod building questions

[Patrick]

Well, my social anxiety disorder is fading and I actually have motivation and wanting to have a job. I think I'll have one soon. Anyways, I'm planning on building the Sabre 1088 and a Lamiglas MB1083M. Just a few questions.

Allright, when I built my Uglystik, we used EVA foam grips. Honestly, I have small hands so EVA isn't really an option. Plus I don't like how they get dirty. I want to go with Corktape. The real question I have about it is this. Is it one continuous piece? The way we did the EVAs was to soak it in hot water, slide them on the blank from the top, see where the tension starts, slide the grip back up and then put epoxy on the rod and then twist and slide the grip into place. What I'm seeing though is when I put the reel seat on, I'm going to get epoxy on the corktape if its a single piece. I like the look of the plate style reel seat but I don't like how they function. Anyways. I'd like to do the whole deal with the small EVA foam grip on the front and back of the reel seat. Will the corktape clean up if I get epoxy on it? And any advice on spacing and sized of the guides?

On the Sabre, I'll go with the trigger grip and double footed Fuji sics.
On the Lamiglas, I'm going with a normal reel seat and probably single footed guides. I'm going to be using braids on both. I don't know if Fuji has single footed sics. I just figure the rod is so whippy that single footed guides would be better.

Allright, my next question has to do with Clemens Rod Wrapper. First, can I use any drying motor with the wrapper that was featured before? Also, what do you use for thread tension? Also, should I go with two or three of the actual wrappers? I'm going to be getting my money soon when I finish painting for the parents.

Oh yeah, for color, I figure since I'm going with the Abu 6501 C3, Gunmetal underwraps with black overwraps on the Sabre. Then for the Lamiglas, I'm not sure. A Shimano Stradic 4000 is going on there. The blank is honey colored so we'll just have to see what looks good. Everything has to match! lol
Whew, lots of questions.

Thanks

[mikecc]

First the cork tape is sold by the foot. A typical rod in the size your talking takes about 8-9'of c/t and it is 1 length figure how long you want the butt apply the c/t and you must tape off the reel seat (graphite type)where it meets the c/t so there is no leakage. Keep some accetone available just in case you spill some epoxy.you can wipe it up with this.
I will send you the artical i did with lots of pictures.
It is a big file and will not fit on a 1.44 disk.send or post your email.

Clemins wrapper can use any dry motor. You must mount it to the proper hight of the rollors I Sugest if doing so that you spread some wax paper on the rails just incase you drip any epoxy

I would not use fuji Sic guides. I think they are a waste of money. I would go with Fuji hardloy Guides and an SiC top.

Look at the Batson blanks they are exact to the Saber but with Flat black finish also a little less money.

On the C-3 Rod mix some gold trim bands in it will match the reel better.

email if any questions.

mike@capecodtackle.com

[Saltheart]

Patrick , if I had decided on a C3 reel , I'd buy the anti backlash and take the anti backlash device off. Its then a C3. Right now they have a 2 for 1 deal! Its available as a 6601AB which is the lefty. And it has a center thumb button like a Morrum which is nice. Anyway , getting 2 reels for the price of one is a good deal and the reels cast the same as a C3 if you don't use the antibacklash feature.

[JohnR]

You don't even need to remove the AB feature (what Microsoft calls a BUG), just don't run the line through it...
BTW - what do you need a Clemens wrapper for?? Use that kind of money to get the rest of your gear in place... All these fellows that have the Clemens wrapper are either building rods for profit or have most of their fishing needs fulfilled and are adding top notch equipment to do more top notch work because they want to , not because they need to.

[Patrick]

Well I might get the AB then. From my understanding, it's a switch on switch off deal. Hey 2 for the price of one, I might get one and try to sell the other on E-bay or to a tackle shop or I might just use the second one for parts. I don't have any conventional rods yet. The first one will be the Sabre. I also have that 7 foot Fenwick Seahawk blank upstairs that I'm going to make into a party boat conventional and slap my penn long beach on there. That's for another day.

Now, before I get to asking more questions, I'll answer the rest of yours.

John, the reason why I wanted the Clemens Lathe is because I believe that the better the materials you use, the better the end product will be. That's just something that I have learned. I might just go with a cheaper one though. I feel as though I'm in that middle bracket of not just a couple rods and I'm done and not a pro-builder that needs to turn a rod out a week. Just a guy that once he gets some spare change can pick up a blank and add to his arsenal or repair his arsenal and maybe even make a christmas present for a friend.

Now, onto Mike's post. I will be using Powerpro with both these rods. You are sure I can just go with Hard-a-loys with a SiC tip?

Now about this Batson blank, do you sell them? I don't know if you realized this, but I was planning on buying the blanks, thread, cork tape and some of the tools from your shop. You have been most kind to answering my questions. I'm not sure of the guide sizes yet or the size of the reel seat but I'll probably come back to you for that as well.

For the corktape, I'm gonna go with the small EVA grips on either side of the reel seat. Then for the end, I'm going to go with a wrap finish into a 6 inch Chevron wrap and then wrapped to end the chevron. The Chevron will be 5 threads wide, two black, one gold and two black. Underneath will be the Gunmetal. The guide wraps will have Gunmetal underwraps with black wraps for the guides and a 3 thread wide wrap in the middle of the guide in gold.

The experience I've had with reel seats is we put masking tape underneath in three rows so it would fit the inside diameter of the reel seat. Then we covered from the edge of the left tape wrap to the edge of the right tape wrap, including the blank inbetween (this will be cork tape though instead of blank.) I suppose this will be very much the same. The question I have though is, when I put the EVA ends for the reel seat, won't that smear epoxy on the cork tape? Will the acetone take that up?

My email is Stripersonlinerules@hotmail.com


Thank You

[Got Stripers]

I agree with John, the Clemens wrapper is an expense that only someone building commercially should have to spend. Or someone with money to burn and looking for more expensive toys. I certainly don't think you need a top quality wrapper in order to build a top quality rod. Nothing could be farther from the truth or the dozens of rods I've built over the years wouldn't have been mistaken for top end custom built rods.

[img="http://www.rgsiroisco.com/fisherman.gif"]
Tight lines.

[Slipknot]

G.S , maybe you could post some pics of your thread work I'd love to see some of it or are there pics on your fishing page?

[Patrick]

I have seen some of GS's work from afar. If you want to see some thread art, check out what Billy40 (He hangs out on Noreast.com SOL.com and a rod making site to name a few) has done. He has done some incredible stuff. I have saved a few of his pics but I don't believe it would be right for me to load his work on this site without his permission. I'm not looking for anything that hard, just a simple chevron.

[DamonM]

Looks like the Clemens rod lathe is the latest piece of status symbol fishing equipment. As someone stated earlier, I would put the money toward fishing tackle and go fish. I have yet to catch anything with my Clemens. IMHO, you're better off buying a couple of custom rods and resisting the rod building craze for a while.