Snap!

[tacklejunkie]

Sick I can mob over to San Dimas for the blank to feel the action! Thanks man. Love it.

I'm thinking I might just drill motor my cork like you guys say now. I plan on using very minimal amounts of cork on the handles anyways. I like minimal components but extra strong guides and guide thread flex coating. Happy with bare finish rods. I notice the rainshadows even have warranty. How can you go wrong with a warranty on a custom rod you made?

Then I could just hand wrap and get a few different speed drying motors.


I sold my cumara so that's like a wrapper right there. Sell another rod or two and I can buy materials and a blank for my first home spun rod.

sheesh feel like I should make a custom trout swimbait to fish on it. lol

[pwynn]

c&m is only open the first and 3rd saturday of the month. their website is www.acidrod.com they are really cool people. All I am building is batson stuff these days. I have been getting 5 wt fly rod blanks and making trout trolling rods.

[pwynn]

Sick I can mob over to San Dimas for the blank to feel the action! Thanks man. Love it.

I'm thinking I might just drill motor my cork like you guys say now. I plan on using very minimal amounts of cork on the handles anyways. I like minimal components but extra strong guides and guide thread flex coating. Happy with bare finish rods. I notice the rainshadows even have warranty. How can you go wrong with a warranty on a custom rod you made?

Then I could just hand wrap and get a few different speed drying motors.


I sold my cumara so that's like a wrapper right there. Sell another rod or two and I can buy materials and a blank for my first home spun rod.

sheesh feel like I should make a custom trout swimbait to fish on it. lol

just remember the warranty is only on the blank you will have to wrap a new rod.

[pwynn]

I sold my cumara so that's like a wrapper right there. Sell another rod or two and I can buy materials and a blank for my first home spun rod.

dont buy a expensive power wrapper before you know it is something you want to do. you can build a hand warpper for a couple bucks. being you are wrapping graphite and freshwater rods to boot. you can wrap by hand really easily. pac bay makes guides and reel seats called minima check them out they will cut down the weight. EVA is cheap, you can feel the bite just as well as cork, and it shapes just like cork. you can check out all the different crap and acidrod.com or jannsnetcraft.com or mudhole.com. You can end up spending far more to build your own if you go with all the high end stuff.

[tacklejunkie]

Doh too bad they only open two days a month. Would have went down there and checked them out today maybe.

Yeah been looking at Acid Rods for the last few years. Finally decided to take the plunge.

[dockboy]

Acids are cool, a bit difficult to work around the 1st 2 guides. IMO micros only have an application when acid wrapped where line slap is eliminated. A micro-guide acid wrap will weight weigh next to nothing and do the job just as well as regular sized guides in freshwater. Without the acid wrap, micros are pretty senseless.

[pwynn]

c&m's website is www.acidrod.com you can order from there. as for a drying motor just get a rotissery* motor at walmart for 25 bucks. pm me an i will tell you how to build one on the cheap.

[calico killer kevin]

As stated before, C&M is pretty much where I purchase all my stuff from. Great people. I believe their storefront is actually open every weekday with additional weekends every now and again. Always best to call ahead. Really helpful people there, even Mark.

Power wrappers definitely aren't necessary, especially if you're minimalistic. Even the guys who wrap tons of rods don't use their power wrappers all that much. Guide wraps are usually always done by hand. Personally, I'm building pretty primitively. I made a couple V-stands out of leftover wood, and that's what Im using to hand wrap. My drying motor is a slow rotisserie motor that I chuck the rod to. Wish it was a little faster, but works well for me.

I'm actually re-building on my first ISWB945 right now. Since you fish a lot more big baits than I do, I'd recommend that you wrap a lighter rod first to get in sync, then go ahead and build your swimbait rod. My second was TONS better than my first.

On another note, I've been wrapping all of my rods with the Revolver spiral lately. Talk to Mark at C&M. He is the spiral master.

To shape EVA is really easy. It's soft stuff, so it shapes very easily. If you need to really work it down, you can start with fiberglass mesh screening. That stuff will eat it up quickly. Then, I go to 60 grit, 120 grit, 300, then 600 and finish off with towel and acetone or denatured alcohol. Smooth, slick, and shiny. I always ream first, then shape. I prefer the harder, more dent-resistant EVA myself.

[dockboy]

Good stuff. The hardest part for me starting was the finish. Don't get discouraged if you don't get perfect results on your finish right away. I have my first 3 sticks that have the elongated football shape to their guide wrap finish, because I was applying too much for too long. It depends on the finish your use, Flexcoat Lite and Threead Master are more viscous and will react differently than thicker formulas. If you have old blanks you can practice wrap and finish on before you start your first rod, thats a bonus!

[tacklejunkie]

Yeah I'll just go out and get a walmart rod and test a few guide wraps before I get started on the swimmy rod.
Gotta start somewhere... need a swimmy rod first and foremost.. so may as well jump on it.
Will definitely ruin a practice walmart rod first though lol. Thanks for the tip.

I'll call C&M when I've got the money together.
I was thinking that about making a wrapper. Looks too simple.