My homemade rod building station thingy

[Harebear]

First I want to thank everyone who replied to my many posts. Couldn't have done it without you. One of the biggest problems I had wrapping guides was that it was tough to line up the guide with the thread spool. It seemed much easier to do teh wraps when the thread came straight off the spool instead of at an angle. SO I went to Lowe's and got a sliding keyboard tray support and mounted it to my board, then mounted the thread spools to that. seems to work great to move the spools instead of the rod. Anyway, I posted a pic of my homemade thing below. Thanks again for all the help.
Harebear

[Photojoe4]

Man, that's fantastic! I might suggest that you make the rod supports movable, so that you get good support for working on different sections of the rod. Next, you just need to make yourself a cork clamp so you can start making your own grips as well

Regards,
Joe Martin
Salem, OR

[clyde holmes]

Bear, Pretty ingenious. Now when are we gonna see the rod we helped build / LOL

[Fly_Line]

Pretty nice!
I would make the rod supports movable also plus 1 more, it comes in handy at times.
Also what I did is took some ?" elastic and 2 thumb tacks. Put a tack through the elastic on one end and stick in support below the "V". Next loop elastic over the rod and back down and tack into the other side of support but not to tight. This way the rod will only come off if you want it to and you can still spin it and not damage the blank.
just my 1? ?

[billknepp]

I found it much easier to make a sliding carriage for the thread tension system..
Makes it much easier when working near the ends of the sections..
especially the tip end of the tip section...
Did this by adding a center rail between the uprights, as well as a third independant sliding rod support.
It's much simpler than it sounds...Nice setup....
And it does look as though yours also has some slide capability in the tension system!?!?
Via the rails used in mounting to your base...
Great idea....

[GBurgFisher]

Mind if I ask how high your rod supports are off the base? I am in the process of making something similar, and am not sure how much room I will need underneath for it to be work-able... Thank you for posting a picture of this, it has been very helpful as I have been thinking about building my own.

[Harebear]

the supports are 5 inches tall with a half inch "V" Actually I had to cut a V a little deeper to allow for the felt, but definitely 5 inches tall. My thread spools are 3 inches tall. The sliding bar I got at lowes for $6.

[REW]

I like your use of a drawer guide to make the Thread spools movable. Currently the spools on mine are not movable, but made a slide with a eye screw to position the thread as needed. Thanks for the additional idea.

R.E.W.

[Harebear]

The nice thing was that the drawer slide needed no modification at all. I used the existing holes for mounting everything.

[Dave_Fulton]

Also what I did is took some ?" elastic and 2 thumb tacks. Put a tack through the elastic on one end and stick in support below the "V". Next loop elastic over the rod and back down and tack into the other side of support but not to tight. This way the rod will only come off if you want it to and you can still spin it and not damage the blank.
just my 1? ?

As an alternative, to the elastic and thumb tacks, I would suggest using velcro strips.

Dave Fulton