binding on the spine

[axelsnappa]

Hi guys,
I have severel goods rods, built on good blanks, live fibres, loomis, synders etc. Due to lack of time, motivation etc ... they have fallen into disrepair. I am currently working my way through the rods, rebuilding, repairing as required. I abmit, some could be replaced, cheaper than the repair, but i cannot bring myself to throw away a rod which has taken some memorable fish etc... blah... blah... blah (iam sure everyone understands).
My question is this, once i find the spine, what is the best way to ensure i bind the new guides in the right position. I have tried the old string line fron the reel seat to the tip, but they still come out wonky (particularly on lighter blanks).
The old eyeball trick also seems to be not working .... even when the cheese and kisses does the eyeballing!!!!!
Do any of you guys have some tips which could help a try hard rod builder?
Happy binding
Axel

[Noelm]

not too sure what you mean, if you have the reel seat and the tip on, it is only eyesight and good binding that keeps them in line, do one foot of the guide, sight it and you can still move it a tad to line up, then bind second foot, and there she goes!

[DR]

most have their own little ways, but a simple one is..

A. put butt on floor, put thumb under tip & a finger about 1/2 way down the blank. load blank using fingers. you will feel it click into place. some blanks have 2 bones, use the stronger one..i have always glued tip in place next..
i usually then glue tip on with 5 min araldite & aligning with backbone.
some put a piece of masking tape around the butt & mark with a pencil where the backbone is.
let glue set

B. with tip in place you can now fit the butt, bung on the bottom grip, reel seat & fore grip. once they are all where they should be & glue is still wet you can align the reel seat.
i line the centre of the reel seat hood up with the centre of the tip. if you have put tip on correctly it should be close to perfect.

C. slap on the guides on the spine or as close as you can with the eye. bind them, then turn blank over so the guides are under the rod . with the blank split the tip eye in half & adjust each guide so that it is split as well, when you look down the blank it should look a bit like my scribble maked C.

here is a quick scribble... i hope this can be understood..

[Coastie]

When I have found the spine I use a white chinagraph pencil or builders chalk to run a light line down the spine. It stays there for the remainder of the binding and can then be removed at the end. Easy to see with a white line down the spine about 2mm wide.

[sleepygreg]

just remember it isnt an exact science......once you start wra[pping a rod the backbone can change....have run accross rods with several backbones....especially blanks using howald process.....eg ugly sticks......pick the strongest one and stick to it.....at least you are doing something better than the process worker at the bowl of rice a day factory.

[cammac]

I guess getting the tip and the winch seat on the spine is the hardest part. do the tip first with 5 min epoxy and do the winch with 24 hr epoxy so you can fiddle around and get it lined up well with the tip. marking the butt and the tip where the backbone is is a good idea. then work your way down the rod from the tip adjusting the guides as you go by looking down the rod from the winch to tip. and then when finished look down the rod again and make further adjustments if necessary. as someone else said its not necessary to get it perfect but a straight line of guides is nice !! more critical on overheads where the torque has more effect with the guides on top.