Rod Building

[Ronnie Z]

you did pick a good blank to start with,now putting it together is something else,go for it

[TampaJim]

IMO, spend just a tad bit more money and buy a St Croix SCIII 4-piece. It IS a better blank than the GL3, especially in lower line classes AND you will VERY much appreciate the four-piece design over the two-piece option.

BTW, if you really have to stay under $200 and you don't mind an offshore blank ... look at TFO's Professional Series.

[No-tye-much]

Take your time on the wrapping. Make sure it is as close to perfect as you think you can get before you apply the epoxy. Easy to back up before the epoxy. Practicing on a dowel could help. Also, taper the guide feet well. Before long you could be building rods with better workmanship than you can buy.

[Greybeard]

Good lighting is a must if you're going to do good (or even decent) work.

Greybeard

[herefishy]

A couple of rods I did, I was having trouble getting the thread to "jump" up onto the guide foot, then finally figured out that you need to taper the foot horizontally as well as vertically, that is you want the foot to come to a point, but you also want the area over the point to be quite thin.

[bbrothe1]

The GL3 rod is a great rod to start with, it was my first build. I wrapped and unwrapped the guides a few times until I had something I was satisfied with. You will end up with a functional fishing rod that fishes well. The GL3 is a good value in my opinion.

Bill

[ET custom flyrods]

I'm just going to answer your question first , then add some food for thought. The question was : "is it worth it to build your own rod".

Depends on your definition of worth. If it's the satisfaction of building the rod your way, rather than just buying a store bought rod....then I'd say absolutley

If your looking to save money and do it fast I'd say .......buy the store bought rod.

Realisticly ......people who build custom rods are not usually trying to save a lot of money. They build for satisfaction, and for the most part try to build a better rod than you can buy off the shelf. Another note of interest is that people get hung up on so called name brand blanks and a lot of times overlook private label ones. It always amazes me that they always seem to limit their search without looking at all the options........Ed

[hackleman57]

CDPaul, the Rainshadow RX7 is our staple blank and we like it more than the GL3. It's less expensive, too. Give us a buzz at H&H and we'll set you up! Thanks for the kudos from others. And, by the way, there are many good blanks out there and most of them are worth checking out, building and fishing.

Ron (give us a call)

[stonefly]

When you are done shaping the top of the guide feet make sure that you give the bottom a pass or two. Remove all burrs until the bottom is smooth. You don't want to engrave the blank with every cast, as over time it's possible to break the blank and you don't want to break the bank buying another blank. Sorry about the poetry