Anglers' Workshop just dropped a box off with rod building parts. Wife just got back from a business trip last night, so being the good husband I set up a hand wrapping station on the dining room kitchen to be close to the family.
Project is my grandfather's old surf rod. Stripped to the white blank (leaving the Varmac reel seat and cork) wrapping it in black and silver metallic and will be the new home of a polished silver 704Z drilled out for surf fishing.
This is where the project started
(http://alantani.com/gallery/23/16623_14_01_18_8_16_59.jpeg)
(http://alantani.com/gallery/23/16623_14_01_18_8_23_09.jpeg)
Here's step one
(http://alantani.com/gallery/23/16623_14_01_18_8_15_27.jpeg)
(http://alantani.com/gallery/23/16623_14_01_18_8_16_01.jpeg)
(http://alantani.com/gallery/23/16623_14_01_18_8_16_27.jpeg)
Next step for this end is to apply the epoxy, then a cobia decal between the red bands.
After that I will move on to spacing and wrapping the guides.
Due to the discoloration of the rod blank over time, I was still able to see the original guide placement even after cleaning then rod (being careful not to damage the blank more than my grandfather and time already did).
I placed the stripper guide first and went a little heavy handed with the wraps, since it is placed close to the end of the top section of the rod.
(http://alantani.com/gallery/23/16623_15_01_18_6_24_19.jpeg)
Then I moved on to the tip-top and first guide... low and behold that 100yd spool of metallic black ran out (save 10 ft or so) guess i'll have to finish the other guides next weekend
(http://alantani.com/gallery/23/16623_15_01_18_6_24_50.jpeg)
Thanks to John (Thorhammer) for the motivation and inspiration on this project.
Nick
Valrico, FL
Very cool Nick.
I set up to tie flies in the back porch when the grandsons are here.
I'm fixing to get several of my grandkids started fly tying over the next week or so. Can't wait. Beats the hell out of iPhones.
Now the truth comes out, it wasn't the cold and probably lousey fishing, that keep you from coming to the pier. It was another project. :)
I am just a Florida wimp and cannot come out of the house when it is less than 65 degrees out
Looks like a good project to start off '18.
Frank
Setting up a job on the dining room table,...ouch that would not meet with approval in this house with a loving wife of 44 years. :-[
I told Thea I made this post. She rolled her eyes at me pretty hard. I got about 10 minutes in and then put it away, to save my hide.
She sleeps in, so I can always work on it when she's sleeping.
Nick
My wife always knows the color of the rod I'm working on just by the thread I track up from the cellar. 30 years ago I decided to make a rod for myself, lol, enjoy! This can be an addicting habit.
Dave
Pics! I used to wrap in my lap in living room. Thread catching in vacuum sent me back to the shop.
Quote from: cwillis85 on January 14, 2018, 02:39:56 AM
Now the truth comes out, it wasn't the cold and probably lousey fishing, that keep you from coming to the pier. It was another project. :)
I am just a Florida wimp and cannot come out of the house when it is less than 65 degrees out
I probably would still have gone fishing if Thea hadn't just got home Friday night
Quote from: thorhammer on January 14, 2018, 12:52:28 PM
Pics! I used to wrap in my lap in living room. Thread catching in vacuum sent me back to the shop.
How did you wrap a rod in your lap? Without some crazy contraption that seems impossible
Made a 2' tall tee out of planks. Cut a v notch and screwed drawer rollers to it. Set thread in a box at my feet and hand tensioned and wound. Basically same thing I do now just vee's are on bench top. Thread sits in a little tray. That's why I'm slow lol. I did much more elaborate wrapping then.
Everything wrapped.
Learned a good lesson that maybe should have been common sense. Size A should be used for under wraps with size D over it. I had an issue with the black digging into the silver allowing the silver to show through. Next time it will be easier.
(http://alantani.com/gallery/23/16623_20_01_18_11_43_05.jpeg)
Epoxy is drying on the bottom half of the rod now. Next is the top half
Nick
Quote from: ReelFishingProblems on January 14, 2018, 01:28:05 PM
Quote from: thorhammer on January 14, 2018, 12:52:28 PM
Pics! I used to wrap in my lap in living room. Thread catching in vacuum sent me back to the shop.
How did you wrap a rod in your lap? Without some crazy contraption that seems impossible
I also wrap rods in my lap. I have never wrapped/built rods in any other way. I started about 43 years ago, but I have built/repaired only about 40-50 rods, and most of those in the first 10-15 years.
Since I started out tying flies, I used a tying bobbin for rod wrapping. For increased tension, I threw a couple loops over one leg of the tying bobbin. I turn the rod in my fingers, keeping the bobbin in the palm of my right hand. My first attempt was refinishing and rebuilding an occupied-Japan cane fly rod that an uncle had brought back and given to my dad. I caught my first fly-fish steelhead (about 7 pounds) on that rod at the mouth of the Trinity, where it joins the Klamath.
I bought a used rod wrapping wooden jig about 12 years ago, but have yet to use it.
Quote from: ReelFishingProblems on January 20, 2018, 06:46:16 PM
Everything wrapped.
Learned a good lesson that maybe should have been common sense. Size A should be used for under wraps with size D over it. I had an issue with the black digging into the silver allowing the silver to show through. Next time it will be easier.
Nick
You can also wrap in the opposite direction while doing the over-wraps. Some people may have trouble adapting to the switch. Or you could apply a thin coat of rod varnish and wait till it is totally dry before starting the over-wrap.
Jim we'd love to see that fly rod if you have it!
Jim,
I second wanting to see that rod!
Thanks for the tip on reverse wrapping. I'll have to try it out on the next project (hopefully starting soon, either a 10-20 inshore rod or a Sabre SM50)
I put a cobia decal on this rod. Set on top of epoxy with a second coat over the top. Not sure why, but it looks a little cheap to me. Maybe the choice of backdrop color, maybe the placement. Will have to keep messing around and looking at examples
(http://alantani.com/gallery/23/16623_21_01_18_3_12_08.jpeg)
I cut the fish out but that brings its own issues with the fins lifting after add epoxy... I'm sending you an inshore blank with your yak rod don't forget.
I used small curved scissors to cut the fish out too. One fin is slightly raised creating a raised part of epoxy. The contrast between the decal and the black underneath is almost too extreme.
I don't know what to say John, thanks you. I guess I know which project is next
Quote from: thorhammer on January 21, 2018, 05:07:04 PM
Jim we'd love to see that fly rod if you have it!
When I rebuilt the rod, I totally brought it up to date, for a wrapped 1970's rod. It originally had that black lacquer painted on, and snake guides. I stripped it to the bare cane and varnished the cane before wrapping. As I recall, I may have even had to build up the area under the reel seat. The only original material left is the cane, oh and that distinctive wooden case that those Occupied Japan rods came in.
I'll try to find the case and rod in my garage. You know the saying, out of sight, out of mind. Well, I haven't seen the case since '95.....
Quote from: ReelFishingProblems on January 13, 2018, 10:03:35 PM
...... so being the good husband I set up a hand wrapping station on the dining room kitchen to be close to the family.
haha that was nice, I actually do the same but on the living room, but I didnt set up a hand wrapping station, I just take my mobile-wrapping station to watch boring-love story movies with my wife while Im working at rods at the same time, when I finish a section and wanted to stop then I just put all the accesories inside the portatile rod wrapping box and store it on my cabinet.
I dont wrap on my lap but on a small foldable table from costco and I seat on the living room coach
http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=18922.0
I took this rod out for the second time (first time I didn't really use devote as much attention as needed) this time I exclusively used it from the sunshine skyway fishing pier (Tampa Bay). With a 4 oz drop weight and a single drop loop using a gamakatsu 4/0 hook and frozen ladyfish chunks, I was able to launch stuff like I was using a trebuchet! The sound of mono flying through the guides was music to my ears. Got into a pile of grunts (no, not an infantry squad) and came home with dinner. Tonight will be my first attempt at the Florida classic dish, grits and grunts.
Now let's see if this pair can happen on an inshore gag grouper.
Yummy, I love me some fried Grunts, a pot of cheese grits and a slice of alligator pear. ;D
Sorry birthday dinner and beers didn't permit me to join last night. This morning rendered an undersized Spanish mackerel and a little jack, I work next Saturday till noon and the girls are going to Disney or something so I may take the kayak to work and head out from there. Thinking of trying my old stomping ground off cypress point.
Something about southern food is always so satisfying.
First attempt at grits and grunts, grits were a little more on the polenta side, but still tasted great with blackened grunt!
Quote from: conchydong on March 18, 2018, 02:40:07 PM
Yummy, I love me some fried Grunts, a pot of cheese grits and a slice of alligator pear. ;D
I am very embarrassed to say it, I had to look up what an alligator pear was. Makes perfect sense though.
It would have gone perfectly with this dish!
Good work. I have no idea what an alligator pear is, but grunts are undersung...they eat the same stuff off the reef snappers and porgies do...if some marketing exec rebranded them as sherbet-throated blue-line chere-chere (chere-chere is in the genus), they'd be on NYC menus at monkfish process...
"Blackened Blue-line chere-chere, served over gouda polenta with an alligator-pear demi glace -34." yep.
Got to be at least as good as the Patagonian toothfish on a bed of rice.
:)Nice job on the stick . We need to meet some time . Do you have everything you need turn/dry rods ? joe
John,
You might be on to something there. Like Mr. Hall eluded to, it just takes a little rebranding. I actually read a recipe that said grunts are not good tasting so you should substitute it for snapper or on the west coast, rockfish.
I love rockfish too, but it's pretty much what I consider the equivalent of grunts.
Nick
Quote from: oldmanjoe on March 20, 2018, 03:05:21 AM
:)Nice job on the stick . We need to meet some time . Do you have everything you need turn/dry rods ? joe
As Chris (cwillis) noticed immediately two Sunday's ago, the cobia decal is not centered. But it launches like a cannon and it was my grandpa's (he had a daiwa sealine 50H on it and used it for sturgeon on the Columbia River launching from Hood River Oregon) I'm glad to have rebuilt it, it's now one of my favorite things.
I have a rod drying, I have a CRB 9RPM rod dryer. Nothing fancy but works well.
We definitely need to meet up. Every time I go fishing I drive down Bloomingdale and wonder if you would have wanted to come fishing. It would be as simple as pulling down your road and throwing your stuff in the truck!
I'll shoot you a PM with my contact info.
Nick