Good Deal For You RodBuilders

[lowwall]

Hook and Hackle has a Great deal on Loomis blanks with components. I Just bought a 4wght 9 Ft with all the Hardware for $114, $4 to ship to NH.

http://www.mailordercentral.com/hookhack/products.asp?dept=747

[Steve H.]

Wow, that is a great deal. I've always wanted a 9' 4-wt for pond fishing. And the GL3 is an nice blank. (The 7-wt would be great too!!)

[s2ary]

Nice there is a light weight tuna stick there for $139

[petegas]

still a great company, even after the sale and move from plattsburg

[Rick]

I am interested in buying one of these and building it myself..what kind of tools would I need....are they difficult?

[s2ary]

Time consuming, it depends on how much work you need to do to fit the handle, but a good spinner takes like 40hrs for a moderatly complex rod. If you get into chris crossing thread colors that time could double.

I also know spinning machines that will push out a nice rod in a weekend.

[lowwall]

I picked one of these up for $100 on ebay. The Chuck/ Motor stand was damaged. I fixed it with Epoxy and Brass Plate. Good as New!
Can Wrap a Rod in 2 Hours !
It is overkill for what i use it for but the price was right.

http://americantackle.us/docs/wrapper.htm

If I were to go manual I would pick up a couple of the stands for this wrapper, mount them on boards. Then pick up a rotisereie Motor to use as a dryer and make a stand for it. Would be a Nice system that stores easily. Mine Has a Huge Aluminum track that is a bit of a Pain to store. I ended up building a Whole rod building area in my shop for it.

You can build a wraper for pretty cheap if you look around at the comercial ones. Don't expect to save that much money building rods, just another way to pass the winter!

[Rick]

Hmm..you guys must have assumed I had some idea how this was done...lol.

I couldn't tell the difference of a wrapper from a spinner....guess I'll get a book...probably help me undersatnd a lil better.

[Gerry]

Rick,
Click through the link that Mike listed in his original post. Then on the Hook and Hackle website look at the navigation in the left column for Instructional Books and Videos. There is your answer to "How-to".
The first rod I wrapped, I bought the kit from Hook and Hackle - since then I have bought about 6 more blanks from them (along with some on ebay, other websites, etc.) I bought their VHS tape for about $20 and it was all I needed to build up a rod.
Until you wrap at least 2 rods, I don't think you need a "wrapper" I still don't have one. I am a chap b*****d and just cut a V-notch in a couple boxes and turn the rod by hand. A few years ago my wife bought me one of those rotating fly-driers they use for saltwater flies that have epoxy on the head. At that time I don't think I had ever tied a saltwater fly, but she didn't know the difference, so when the guy at the fly shop recommended it to her she bought it for me for Christmas. In any case, it rotates slowly and I was able to make a holder for the rod blank out of duct-tape and a wooden pencil (pencil fits in the female ferrule and duct tapes acts as a shim around the pencil to make it fit in the center hole of the foam ring on the fly drier) and it works fine for keeping the expoxied wraps from dripping. (Actually, I did one better, I found a friend who got into rod building and he does a terrific job, so I tie him some flies now and then and he epoxies the guides on my rods.)

I hope that helps.
Gerry

[lowwall]

This is " The Rod Building Site"

http://www.rodbuildingforum.com/

Look through here and you can see how complicted you can make things. I like my rods simple and am not into all the fancy grips and decrotative stuff. Do like nice Burl cork though. Haven't tried turning my own grips yet but that is comming. Gues I will need a lathe for that and a dust collection system and a......................

The posibilites are endless!

[Rick]

Excellent...thanks for the tips guys...