David -

With the experiences and skills you have described, I have no doubt that you could, given some indepth study of what it takes to build a rod, build out a fine bamboo rod your first time up.

Follow the link to a great place to start.

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/begin/graphite/

Also, there are some websites devoted to bamboo rod building which have a wealth of information specific to bamboo. They would provide a lot of interesting, but not crucial, information about bamboo rod building.

There are a number of people on the Bulletin Board who will coach you along the way. And there are some folks here on the Bulletin Board who can build a blank, or you can buy one from at least one of the sponsors. My guess is that you will have to pay $300 and up for a good quality bamboo blank, and you will probably put another $100-150 into components and something more into equipment and supplies.

John

P.S. My high level of confidence in what you can do starting with bamboo comes from comparing your experience and skills to my own, which are very limited, and inferior, to put it nicely. And yet, with little practice, I did turn out a couple very respectable rods.