Wrap it Up!

First time rod builder blues turn into smiles. After getting the little ones to bed, I pulled out my H & H rod kit and my v-notch cardboard box and materials and get busy. Having read somewhere that someone used their thread bobbin to wrap guides sure made sense to me seeing that I haven't yet bought a fancy tensioner and thought the bobbin route was a "scientific" step up from the book and bowl of pennies approach. So I immediately throw myself into a tailspin of frustration, because I go automatically into the flytying mode and attempt to wrap the bobbin around the rod shaft. .....duhhhh.....that don't work....Oh yeah, let the bobbin create tension while spinning the blank. Plop! it falls off two or three times and I re-think the book and bowl method. OK- that works! Just add or delete another book instead of the bowl of coins and at three lite books, I think I've got it. The stripper guide wrapped up decently on the first try the next guide had a couple of false starts but I got the feel of getting the tag to bind under the first wraps and away I go. Only a couple of overwraps to undo and a little coaxing now and then to flush the wraps together and things are going smoothly. I only wrapped two guides and the ferrule last nite as I kept getting interupted by my dog barking at something outdoors. Turned out to be a couple of Foxes scouting out the chicken coop. Took the maglite and shotgun but did not get a clean shot at one of my other fly tying resources. I have chickens, guineas and ducks for eggs and feathers and marauding foxes provide fur for bucktails when they make a nuisance of themselves by raiding the henhouse. But back to guide wrapping....I come back in and get the blank back down so it was safe while I was outside and as things go from time to time the rod tip flicks and I hear a snick sound. Yep, one of the smallest guides slipped out from under the tape and flicked into the carpet somewhere but had bounced off of something first to make the snick noise. Twenty minutes later and using the Maglite to search and my million power spotlight to hunt(and blind myself) for that tiny wire and moving the nearest furniture and giving my self a pat down and finally looking down the heat register-nope not down there, I'm about to give up when it shows up right next to the couch leg like a hidden bug. WHEW! Time to call it a night. But the wraps and ferrule look good and uniform and I'm pleased with the progress. That wrapping thread sure is thin though. I'm aready thinking ahead to my next rod build and maybe adding some gold thread highlights on the outside of the black thread or maybe get some of those Illusion Cobalt Blue Stainless or Gold Titanium Chrome guides for a bit of splash on a charcoal IM6 blank from H & H. Hmmm......choices, choices.
Steve

[This message has been edited by featherchucker (edited 08 November 2005).]

The large magnet also comes in handy when you drop an opened box of 100 size 26 hooks on the carpet!

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Trouts don't live in ugly places

A LARGE MAGNET.........gee, what a novel idea! lol! I couldn't believe how elusive that little black snake guide on gray green berber carpet in bad lighting was! I would have needed the 50 pound roller magnets that roofers use after re-shingling a house at the rate I was going.

Good thing I don't own any hooks smaller than size 12's yet!

I'm happy to hear you're jumping in and having fun building your first rod. There are so many good tips in FAOL we can choose whichever ones that work best for us.

I wrote about using the V's in the cardboard box and using a thread bobbin. But I punched a whole in the back bottom where the thread and bobbin are resting on the table and push the thread end through the hole. I've never had a problem that way and the tension is pretty much right on. Not too tight, not too loose. Wraps real pretty. JGW