Guide selection /placement tools

[R-U- Wet Yet]

As a new starter I was wondering if anyone out there has any advice on guide placement and guide selection... Does anyone use the Morton guide graph?... is it worth the dollars?... Up til now I have simply been placing my rod in a rod holder at about 50 degree's angle..with reel attached and tip glued on... I tie a weight onto the tip then run the line off the reel thru the guides... then move them until the line follows the blank profile... seems to be working ok..but it's bloody time consuming and I'm not sure that I've got the variables ironed out...ie...degree of rod holder..and amount of weight placed on rod tip... how much deflection is enough...I have found that by placing the weight out in front of the rod instead of hanging it straight down makes considerable difference to the rod deflection... I try and imagine holding the rod with a fish on and that's the angles I've been using...

I am only building baitcasters at this stage... and mostly only fast action blanks... 6 - 10 kg range but I am wondering if I am doing things right?
For instance..if I was building on an extra fast blank... would higher guides say..some spinning guides be more appropriate than the normal casting guides...they would keep the line higher off the blanks..right??... less guides??...

Should I take up cross stitch or mac-krarm-a'e..macramaye...mackrama... bugger it ..you get what I mean... instead of rod building ??....maybe a return to school to learn to spell first...

[nigelr]

G'day RU.
I'm not familiar with the Morton graph guide you speak of, but the methodology you are currently using sounds fine, have the rods you have made to date worked well?
Check out this site, www.rodbuilding.org
Do a search in the forums, or check the articles in the library.
Good source of information, Fuji has a spin on guide placement on their site, there are plenty of different opinions and tecniques out on the net, enjoy!
Cheers.

[R-U- Wet Yet]

Thanks nigelr... I found a piece on that site last night which says to increase the deflection/load as you work down the rod.... tried that today and makes a big difference... yeah the rods I've made so far all cast fairly well... I just haven't played around with different guides yet to see what difference that makes as well... I'e seen the Morton guide graph on Mudhole.... just curious if it works ok or do you still have to do the static deflection test anyway..