Did I do that? - Chronicles of a neophite

[Owen]

Well after months of vacillating, I had finally decided on the components that would become "the secret weapon".

The following is a true story. Only the names have been changed, to protect the inept.


Sunday - 02:30 Zulu

Ok, so all the bits are here and I'm pretty much out of excuses. Besides, the pressures now on to not only demonstrate to the deckie why I actually "need" another rod, but to come up with a tangible demonstration of why I would spend double what I would normally pay for a rod only for the honour of assembling it all myself. Especially after the "IKEA incident".

The recipe is as follows.

Samurai Nv7 blank.
Fuji SiC guides
Fuji pistol grip seat
Cork grips
Butt cap still to be decided, but I bought a simple rubber unit.

Plan is for a spiral wrap guide setup married to a Shimano CTE400 reel.
Not 100% sure the reel isn't too big, but if it is I'll build a bigger rod ::)


Step 1 - The grips

Whilst I wanted cork grips for "TSW" I can't say I was in love with the units that arrived. They screamed boring and lacked anything that remotely said "custom".
Never being one to heed the adage of "never let your ambitions get ahead of your ability", I decided they would be the first to get the custom touch.

After carefully sanding the internal diameter so that they fitted with sufficient clearance to allow the araldite to take properly I decided to have a go at fixing the ordinary appearance of these particular grips.

I'm fortunate to have a "crafty" deckie, so at hand was a wide selection of leather dies in various colours. Would it work on cork?? No idea --- suck it and see.

First step is to find a plastic container to put the dyes in.
Like all blokes, I went straight to the kitchen drawers and grabbed a selection of tupperware before the little survival voice said "no good can come of this"
So armed with the lid off an aerogard tin I sallied forth.

I applied a little of a few colours to the area that would be covered by the butt cap and noted that the dye soaked right through the cork, but did dull quite a bit compared to the wet look.

After sanding the grips to the correct size to align with the reel seat I applied a few colours by mounting the grip on a piece of dowel and rotating it with a battery drill to get an even, streak free coverage.

I first applied mahogany, then a couple of areas of yellow and red. The latter didn't take too well on the already stained cork, so I re-sanded a couple of areas and tried again.

It was about now I remarked to myself that "this dye evaporates at an alarming rate" as I looked down and pondered my spotted feet.
Who's bloody bright idea was it to put a pinhole in aerosol tin lids?
Thank god, the outdoor dining setting is mahogany coloured. Alas the timber deck is more like teak :end:


Will the leather dye last? No idea, but figure I have bugger all to lose.
After a bit more scrounging around I found some paraffin wax in Sandra's craft room, so it was duly melted and applied to the grips to help seal in the colour and maintain a non slip finish.
Note to self - don't use good cooking pots for future melting of wax. Even when double boiled, the wax gives off vapours which stick quite well to pots.

How does that Mentals song go?

Whoa Whoa --- the sh!t keeps getting deeper.


Now.... what colour should the guide wraps be?

If a go red & white, maybe down the track I can come up with a Dragon's logo weave.........

to be continued......

[Bearclaw]

Owen, just wondering what style of spiral wrap will you be doing as there is multiple styles around, Robert's, bumper system etc etc.

[Owen]

Myles,
Don't know the names of the various methods. The theory sounds valid, so I thought I'd try it. I'm hoping the performance will compensate for the aesthetics.
From what I've read the two trains of thought seem to be to have the first guide either in line with the reel (call it 0 degrees) or at some point between 45 & 90 degrees.
I planned to afix the guides with rubber bands or something and try some casting before deciding.
I'd love some further info or personal experience with any method if you have it though.

[roz]

With all my interest and involvement in rod building etc etc, I've never seen a spiral wrap.

What do they look like, and what are the benefits?

roz

[Owen]

Roz,
It's just the placement of the guides.
The name is a little misleading I think as it suggests thread work.
Basically you take a bait caster and put the reel on the back of the spine as usual, but you spiral the first few guides from the "back" to the underside as you would on a spinning rod.
The theory is that you can use less guides because you aren't trying to stop the line rubbing on the blank and also that the rod won't "tip" when you are fighting a fish and it pulls sideways.
Shimano now sells them. Look a bit funny.
The one on the left
http://www.shimanofish.com.au/catalog/fish/products/group_detail_popup_large_img.jsp?CONTENT<>cnt_id=10134198673279495&FOLDER<>folder_id=2534374302050809&ASSORTMENT<>ast_id=1408474395181655&bmUID=1170747230449
I think you said once you have a book called "advanced custom rod building" by Dale Clemens ??

Have a gander at page 197

[roz]

Yep I do, and I will.

I certainly don't mind asking questions though.

thanks r.

[grave41]

Hi I have a custom spiral wrap with gold cermets from the states. Execellant bass stick. The first runner is in line with the reel and the next 2 spiral around within 200 mm to the opposite side.Using this system you use less runners and the rod sits natuarally in your hand with out twisting when loaded up.Everyone who has a play with this rod wont give unless force is applied, especially my 12 year old son Reuben. Hope this helps a little.Roz if your passing Browns Plains in Brisbane drop in for a look its awesome.I intend to build all my rods like this in the future.Hope this helps. Will try and get some pics up. Graham

[Owen]

Part 2:

With the grips,reel seat & tip glued on it's time to attack the guide placement.
I've read heaps on spiral wraps and like everything there are dozens of "right" ways of doing it. I decided on the "simple" or bumper method, whereby you have your "stripper guide at zero degrees, then a small "bumper" guide at 90 degrees, with all the rest at 180 degrees.

I set the rod up as usual for a baitcaster & did a static load and set my guide placement.
Then I flipped them all over bar the stripper guide and loaded her up again.
I found I needed to move a couple of guides slightly before I was happy.

I have a couple of questions though.

Although the line follows the blank well under load, the third guide from the reel is basically doing nothing (the line doesn't really touch it).
The bumper guide is only barely impeding a straight line through and the stripper guide also is barely doing anything.
I have a moderate amount of bend in the blank at this point.
Viewed from the rear, with 12 o'clock being vertical, the line would pass the stripper at 3 o'clock, the bumper at 9 o'clock and the third guide at 1 o'clock, before all the rest at 6 o'clock.

The blank is a samurai NV7.
I will be running 20lb braid and 40lb leaders, so I have kept the guide size up a bit to pass the knots.
I will be running a shimano CTE400 and fuji SiC guides

My final specs are (from tip)

Tip - 0mm - #8
1st guide - 100mm - #8
2nd guide - 100mm - #8
3rd guide - 135mm - #8
4th guide - 150mm - #10
5th Guide - 180mm - #10
6th Guide - 220mm - #10
bumper - 140mm - #8 (needs to be as small as possible)
stripper - 170mm - #12
reel - 370mm to centre

Most of the posts I read said the bumper should be midway between the stripper and the next guide, but it just didn't seem right.


any comments from those who have built similar rods?

I'm nearing the point of no return :-/ ;D ;D

[Tony_l]

Hi Owen,

I was wondering which way you would go with this.

I rolled an NV5 for my son (12) last year for chasing Barra ect. Casts like no tomorrow, handled his pb Barra of 86cm. The rod is fitted with and abu 5600c4 and 30lb BB.

The trick is to ensure that the guides roll away from your winding hand, ie right handle reel bumper is on the left.

From my readiing the stripper guide is placed where you would expect a baitcaster on to go. The second guide is the same positioning as you would place but I didn't place it at 6 oclock, more like 6:45. The bumper was at 9:45. I found that the look flowed doing this. After that its all up to you. Oh the bumper obviously goes between the stripper and the second guide.

I changed guide styles on the rod. The stripper, bumper and second guides were standard casting guides, the rest were high rise guides.

Be warned you will get some strange looks whilst using this rod. But you can say goodbye to rod's trying to twist themselves whilst landing large fish.


I have included some photos, including the feather inlay I did on this one (sorry can't help it).

I have a pdf slideshow somewhere, if I find it I will pm it to you, it might help.


Good Luck

[Bearclaw]

Owen, remember the bumper guide has only one purpose and that is to prevent the line from rubbing on the blank. There has been a lot of development of this simple method over the last couple of years, keeping the bumper guide as small as possible and low as possible, has given the greatest success. As you can see, the line needs to pass close to the blank as possible to create less contact between the guide ring and keep the line going in the straightess path. Using a low profile single leg Fuji guide, I use a single foot BLAG 7 or 8 this keeps the weight down and line remaining in the straightess path. Now here is some thought, I saw a rod built using a ceramic ring that slipped over the blank and located in the position of the bumper, the purpose remember is to keep the line from rubbing on the blank not contain it in this method.

I usually set my barra sticks up 12, 10, 10, 10, 8, 8, 8, 8, (8 tip top) if using a narrow spooled reel, if using a wider spool reel eg. 200 series I would go maybe 16, 12, 10, 10, 8, 8, 8, 8, (tiptop 8). This all depends on the blanks action, length and guides you use.

[Owen]

Well I'm just gutted :'( :'(
After finishing my rod I left it to dry for 5 days whilst I was away in Brisbane & Sydney on business.
On my return I lifted it out of the drying rotator to have a look.
I sat my hand on the back of the rod tip and gave it a flex and.... it broke!!!!!!!!!!
All I can put it down to is that whilst I was wrapping it I walked through the house with and and hit a slow turning ceiling fan. It seemed to be no more than a nudge that pushed the rod out of the way, so I didn't think any damage had been done. Certainly none was apparent. I hadn't used my thumb when I flexed it and I had certainly flexed it much more with line when I was testing guide placement, so the knock must have damaged it.
It broke about 70mm from the tip, so I suppose I can take off some guides and still use it, but it won't be the same.

Anyway, here are some pics of the progress before it turned to poo.
It was only ever going to be looked at as a first attempt because I made a few mistakes, but I can't help feeling cheated not to have caught a fish on it.

oh well. ces't le vis. I think that translates to "life sucks.. then you die" ;D

[Owen]

Well the rod's all finished.
Pretty happy with it overall and definately learned a lot. I'm going to re-do the epoxy though. Got too heavy with it and the results look cheap.
I've had a week off, so it's had about 50 hours at Awoonga.
I'd like to say I bagged a metrey on it to test it, but alas a catfish is all that succumbed.
Using it was a joy though. Never had a graphite rod or a decent baitcaster before, so it's changed my outlook on dam fishing. I've never been real keen as my boat is not set up for it & my gear wasn't condusive to a relaxing day casting.

The spiral wrap was no impediment to casting distance.

Here are some pics of the finished rig.
Fitted with a calcutta 300 conquest, 20lb fins & a 40lb leader. Some will say the line is too small for awoonga, but it's a moot point till I can get the bastards on the end of it ;D

[finga]

Great job Owen.
Bit of a shame about the break though.
I bet making the rod yourself will make any fish caught 10 times more satisfying then if you used a mass produced rod.