Determining the spine?

[Rockeey]

I just received my first rod blank via fed ex today. This is a 5wt 9ft 3 piece rod. I have followed the instructions that are provided in the flex coat book that I purchased with this rod. Things do not seam quite as obvious as I had hoped. I think that I have found the spine on each section of rod, and marked each section with a china pencil. I am not positive that I have found the spine. I am hoping that there may be some secret that someone would share, please ??

[flyfisherjoe]

Here's my opinion:
1.) Go ahead and find the spline as best you can and mark it.
2.) Put pieces together. Rod should be straight.
3.) Hold the rod out straight and rotate it to the point that the rod sags the most.
4.) Mark the top of the blank and put the guides on this marked side.
This mark should agree with your spline finding, if not forget the original spline markings and use this instead.

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Joe

Rockeey,

Find the spline as best you can from the instructions description: carefully follow all other instructions. Assemble your finished rod and have a ball.

I just completed my first build. I'm a 30 year cop, so I want answers! Know what I found; after printing out the complete Al Campbell series here and just about all other websites on rodbuilding and Art Scheck's book and L. A. Garcia's video, they all have one thing in common....on splining, every opinion is different!!!!!

Took my little 7.5 3wt out in the yard, lined up with SA WF4F and it double hauls, single hauls, tracks overhead, sidearm and rollcasts like a champ!

But, do print-out Al Campbell's complete series right here on FAOL, put it in a binder and you have a difinitive rodbuilding manual at your disposal.

The bottom line: my 2" worth of printed out material goes in the "cold case file" and I'm making a parts list for my next a-la-carte build!

Have fun, it ain't rocket science.

Regards, Jim

[featherchucker]

Hey, R, I just built my first rod this month. It is a 2 pc, 8 ft, 4 wt from Hook and Hackle with the Batson charcoal IM6 blank. I first lined it with SA WF 4 F line and it felt a tad loose, whippy, boingy, or noodly which ever describes an underlined rod best. Then I just got last week off of ebay a Pflueger Medalist 1494 DA reel that came with good WF 5 F line and backing on it and it is a perfect match for my new rod. I love it! Black on black on black with walnut reel seat and a full wells grip and the Medalist is the dog's danglies!- as those Brits love to say about something being really cool.

But anyways, in spining the rod I too was kind of thinking - what's up with all the opinions on this????
So I let the rod tell me where the spine is and more specifically where the belly is to be and where the backbone will be. The belly side got the guides and the backbone is on top. This gives me more bend when playing fish and more power when casting line forward.

When I bent each section and rolled it with my finger on the middle bending the rod, it would naturally roll to the weakest or bendiest side facing up. These are the sides I wanted the guides to go on. After a few tries, I could find the spine with my eyes closed just trusting the fingers and feel of the rod. Good luck, I'm ready to build another and may just step down to a 3 wt in 8 feet for my go-to panfish rod.

Here's an idea too when you get to this stage if you did not buy a rod drying motor to spin your rod while drying the flex coat. I took a Black and Decker varialble speed (0-800rpm) corded drill and taped a piece of foam to my reel but and stuck it into a film cannister that had a drywall screw through the bottom of and chucked it into the drill. The I taped the drill trigger to spin at the slowest rate possible and set up the rod in the Vee-Notched box with cloth pads and another pad to support the rod tip near the last guide and THEN with everything lined up and the Flex Coat mixed, just plugged it in. The drill ran flawlessly for 7 hours! perfectly smooth guide wrap coatings! I was thrilled for the first time rod to come out as nice as it did. Good luck, don't forget to pre-warm your glues in their closed containers in hot water to assist mixing them-it helps.

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I fish, therefore I swam.


[This message has been edited by featherchucker (edited 23 November 2005).]

[Rockeey]

Thanks, I was worried that I was missing something. I will go with my instincts and ?use the force?. I actually have the stuff such as a drying motor and rod wrapper. My folks bought me this stuff a few years back and I am only now starting this project. I think I have every thing I need, except know-how looks like I found a great place to find that as well. Thanks again.

[Rockeey]

I built one of those fancy spine finders this week end, and it works really well. I broke the butt section in two however. I am guessing that when I sanded the butt section in preparation for gluing the grip on, I sanded a little too much and created a weak spot on the blank. Has anyone done this before, just curious if that is the problem, would hate to make the same mistake twice!

Rockeey;
I've found the butt sections on 4 pc. rods very stiff and hard to spline so I don't bother. You say it broke in 2. I take it that it was close to the grip or reel seat. Can you see if there is a thin wall section where it broke as it may be a factory defect.

[Rockeey]

Mr. Hise
I looked and it seems that one side of the blank wall is thicker than the other side; I assume the thicker side would be the spine? It was a fairly clean break and nothing looks odd to my uneducated eye. I did notice that the break was above the sanded area, so that eliminates the over sanding theory. I spoke with the manufacture this afternoon and they are sending a replacement. They said they had not heard of their blank breaking in the described manner.

I am taking it that the spine is not as important at the butt, and critical at the tip section?

Rockeey;
I thought so and thanks to a manufactrers integrity problem solved!!
Unfortunatly J.C. is right (hate it when that happens!!). Anyone need a once used Cabela's "Spine Finder, cheap?!

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I feel more like I do now than I did when I got here!

Cactus

Rockeey;
please, my name is Jack!

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I feel more like I do now than I did when I got here!

Cactus