No turning motor

How difficult is it to build a rod without a turning motor. Do you have to just do epoxy on one eye at a time? Anybody here built without one?

I had a co-worker who built one out of a tape player and a crutch tip. I have seen bar-b-que rotiseries at garage sales for a dollar, look around at goodwill I'm sure you can find somthing to make one out of.

I havent built a rod yet but I am gathering equipment and have been thinking about building a turning motor I think it would be a lot harder to get a good looking finish with out one.

hope these ideas help.

Eric

It can be done, it's just a little time consuming.

Take a cardboard box, cut a V shaped notch in two sides, use this as your rod stand. Coat the wraps and place in the rod stand. Every 2-3 minutes give the rod a quarter turn, repeat until dry.

Some wrap finishes like flex coat will take 4-6 hours to harden. Some like perma-bond U-40 will set up in about 10 minutes, but require several coats. Some spar varnishes will dry completly in 5 minutes.

Having said all that, it's actually pretty easy to jury rig a rod turner. Most thrift stores have rack of used electronics for cheap. Lots of electic devices use low RPM motors. My first one was built using the rotiserre motor from my BBQ grill. I whittled a wood dowel to fit the motor and used a generous amount of masking tape to butt joint the dowel to my rod handle. Set the whole contraption in the cardboard box and let it spin.

One helpfull hint. Don't ruin your wraps by touching them to see if the finish has set. Instead squirt a little wrap finish onto a post-it note and use that as a test sample. Don't touch the rod, touch the post-it. If you do get some finger prints on the rod wraps you can often remove them with a little haet from a hair dryer.

I don't have much to contribute directly to your question. I did, at one point, draw up some plans for a water powered turner that you can make with a some soup can lids (don't ask...really, really boring meeting). If its a financial thing, i.e. you don't want to buy a turner, this has got to be the cheapest thing to do if its necessary. Again, I don't know if you can do it without one, but if you want me to try and explain my initial plans I would be more than happy. I would love for someone to see if it works. Never needed a turner, so I never tried it myself.

I've done a few by hand, and have a double dryer as well. I feel I get good results either way. The custom builders I know seem to be divided on how they do it. You don't have to have a dryer, but it will take a little longer. Just don't put on too much, and keep with it until it is done. No doubt about it though, you can get just as good of a final finish turning it by hand as you can with a dryer. Don't feel you have to have one to build a rod.

I've been building rods for 30 years without a rod turner, but I use Permagloss or varnish, not epoxy. I even turn my grips by hand (on the rod). It takes a little longer, but makes less mess and there's less equipment involved. I use the cup and book method or a fly tying bobbin for wrapping guides, too. Unless you plan to make a lot of rods, you may be happier doing it by hand. Some very famous rod makers used very little equipment.
-CC

While you can get away without one, I think that it's only a small investment and can make things a lot easier. As far as building your own, I don't think it's worth the trouble and you'll save little, if any, money. You might even spend more. You can get one for as little as $27.

I built mine using a cheap rotisserie motor. I'll have to post a pic of it when I get a chance. I built a simple box out of cheap wood, and used the mounting hardware that came with the motor. Mine kinda swings both ways. I use it as a curing motor for my flies and also for turning rods.

i got my rod turner for about 50 bucks

for the time and effort it saved me, it was very much worth it.
in the overall cost of building rods, another 50 bucks is just a drop in the bucket.

it can be done without it, but like mentioned, requires a good bit of time dedicated and turning the rod every so often based on the finish used.

the turner really helps for me b/c I can come in, load the rod, apply the finish and forget about it for a few hours. Go wrap another rod, or turn some cork, get somethign to eat, or go to sleep, and not have to worry about it.

I've done both
Turning by hand is not such a big chore.
I dry mine on the tops of a couple of straight-back chairs

I started with the cup, books and coat hanger method also. Thread and finish the only investment for wrapping. I graduated to a pair of homemade v blocks but kept the cup and books. I added a way to hold tension on the thread if I wanted to stop for a while and when I applied finish, I did the butt in one throw then the tip. For drying, quarter turns every few mintues for half an hour then every 15 minutes thereafter for two hours. Usually all this took place after supper and before bed. I've actually fished the rod by 9am the following morning.

Anyone that knows me here knows that I take a minimalist approach to a lot of things and being encumbered by a contraption with a motor just doesn't fit in with my way of doing things. Also, I'm a cheapskate. :))

I did go to a lot of trouble once upon a time to make a cork grip lathe and though it worked well, once I read an article on how it was done pre-industrial revolution, I immediately adopted that procedure for making cork grips. I guess what I'm trying to say is, that if you're going for speeed, put a motor on everything you do, if you're going for the pleasure of craftmanship, do as much as you can by hand.

To answer your question John, building a rod without a turning motor is no problem. You can do the wraps on the butt easily without worrying about the epoxy setting up,(if that's what you're using and wondering about) ...the mids or mids and tips, well, once you get the hang of it you'll be able to do them without your epoxy setting up too. I stick with two piece rods and can do the tip with one mix of a high build finish. Low build in two mixes and a day between coats or one mix of low build if I want a really thin,light weight finish. Also, I'd guess everyone building rods here started without a motorized setup. Hope some of this helps you John.

Cheers,

MontanaMoose

If you are going to use PermaGloss, then I wouldn't be too concerned about you not getting a motor. Any type of "traditional" two part epoxy requires more time and IMO you would be wise to purchase a motor. One screw up with even an inexpensive blank, guides, etc. and you will more than spend the money that the motor would have cost you.

Thanks everybody for the input. I'm kinda like MontanaMoose.I like the slow craftsman approach to most of my projects. Think I'll go that route to start with. God Bless!

It's a good way to start John and if you need any kind of help with anything I spoke of, shoot me a pm and I'll take you through step by step. Good luck !

Cheers,

MontanaMoose

Just noticed that Hook & Hackle has rod turning motors for about $12...