Turning junk into gold

Started by thorhammer, June 27, 2017, 02:30:42 PM

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thorhammer

Our man Flipflop recently started a thread that has turned into a great ride-along, where he sourced a flea market find reel for about $14, serviced, bought a rod, and and is now handcrafting his poppers to do it ole skool like his grandfather. We've communicated quite a bit off-line as I have a keen interest in his project. It's  what I was doing in 1995 fishing for stripers in NC: finding Mitchell 488's, honey Lami's and Fenwicks, pouring my own spoons and bucktails (and harvesting the bucktail itself) and carving poppers. I started rod wrapping to replace a couple of broken eyes, and needed to do all of these things on a shoestring budget and with materials at hand or at hardware store (HS, Batman, NO AMAZON PRIME AND EBAY AND PAYPAL BACK THEN!!!!)

Out of that discussion Flop asked me to do basically do a tutorial on how to take a yard sale special rod and make something usable out of it using materials found laying around Joe Fisherman's garage.

Now, Jon Vadney and I talked about this when I was out at Alan's. A full refurb, like I just did for Biggie, is WAY more effort than building with all new components where you design the rod and order parts that fit together as you wish.

However, my satisfaction in this hobby is taking a piece of crap and turning out something functional and unique from it. WAY too much stuff is out there in general that can be repurposed with a little effort.

So, this thread may run on for some weeks as I go through this full process. I will start by describing how I arrive at "value"...one man's junk is another man's treasure. Let's get started.....

thorhammer

First, we need raw materials. I frequent pawn shops, craigslist, flea markets etc. Sometimes, zero. Sometimes, a pristine Newell 5 series for $20 or $5 4/0. Now, this is a lot easier if you already have a lot of puzzle pieces around, same as with reel parts. If you are just hunting one set-up, you may need  to place that order to rodbuilding supply for some things. Much as with reels, I will frequently a rod for peanuts if I see some good bones to be harvested. With a little practice and basic materials this can be turned around.

So while I was getting blown out at the beach this weekend, I hunted around such places and ended up with these for a total of $245:

Two Outer Banks Outfitters live bait rods, basically Custom Penn Powersticks. They are out of business so they only turn up in the used segment occasionally. I bought a matched stand of these in 2004 and use them trolling with 310's and 320's. These two are actionally equivalent to Penn PC3811 and PC3821. Nothing needed to fish. $75 new

One PC3811, my preferred kingfish rod. I have a stand with GS's on them, so this will get an orphan 535 I picked up in the big estate sale haul last year. Nothing need to fish. $65 new.

One Okuma Cedros 80-200 jig stick with Alps seat: cosmetically a 9 besides the buggered up butt cap, which had electrical tape on it. I will restore back to gimbal that's under there. $165 new, ready to fish otherwise. It will get the blue Avet JX Big Tim turned me onto a ways back. 

thorhammer

Note that the Alps reel seat alone is about $40.

Next: a 6'6" Silstar live bait rod with good backbone (not the Wallyworld tourist special they make now), cost me $10. Dirty but gimbaled with good grips and guides all intact. Ready to fish as is. This probably be the subject of our project, mainly because I can produce a nice, very utilitarian stick for less than $20 with stiff laying around that can use anything from a 209 to 4/0 and be balance. Really a sweetspot niche for the high percentage of fisherman.


Next: Two trainwrecks, but one has brass gimbal and Aftco roller that can be harvested for other projects (had Daiwa 50 on it). The other has heavy gimbal and heavy chrome / brass hoods with a good solid glas backbone. Guides are trash. Had 3/0 on it, dirty but Great freespool. It's in the Simple Green already.

thorhammer

LASTLY  ;D ;D ;D ;D  SCORE!!!!!!!!!!!

A VGC Magnaflex IGFA 50lb, aluminum Varmac combo butt, all Aftco rollers finish 9/10, and leather fore that looks like it never saw a drop of water. $250 at least in components alone if I was to go try to build equivalent new, plus a great piece of Florida fishing history. I immediately parked the 9/0 with my most unique amber swirl handle on it for some 1970's big game throwback action.

thorhammer

Plus, a nice 112H and a crusty Daiwa 50, which will clean up into a nice fishing piece. For some reason long ago I picked up a Smooth Drag kit for this reel, long before I ever had one, patiently waiting its turn at home in the parts boxes. i buy jigmaster drag sets half dozen at a time so will have that also for the 3/0. When done these will be worth about $40 each or so, new would be $200 2017 dollars and I don't know of a 2017 reel built like the Daiwa available for a hundred bucks anymore.

At least all the red grease in the 3/0 kept it well protected...

So, for $245 I have what would cost well over $800 new. I estimate I will have an additional $40 or less, with drags and a few rod parts, to get it all up to snuff. So, if you deduct the value of the reels after service , I will end up with four live bait rods, a jig stick, and three offshore rods for $200. Not a bad ROI.

Remember the purpose here is to see how much valuer you can create by your own sweat equity and a few basic tools / materials.

A sneak peak...by adding in some past steals, I will deliver a functional grouper rig out of this for less than $20!!!

If I chose to, I could easily sell parts of the haul after tune-up to break even and have a couple rigs in hand with no cash out.

mo65

   I love makin' something from nothing...let the games begin! 8)
~YOU CAN TUNA GEETAR...BUT YOU CAN'T TUNA FEESH~


biggiesmalls

Can't wait to see this thread take off. Did you pick up this stuff down by Wilmy?

oldmanjoe

 :)  Be careful what you ask for...    2 years ago i had 1 fishing pole , now well over 60 poles .     Reels about 80 .   
One night while going down the road with my kayak on the roof ,i passed a garbage can 1 mile later i turned around .   Did i see what i though i saw or what ?  After the turn around came up to a gold mine 19 poles most had reels on them.   3 were surf rods with stuck joints  .    Boat ramps and piers are my other gold mines.   joe
Grandpa`s words of wisdom......Joey that thing between your shoulders is not a hat rack.....    use it.....
A mind is like a parachute, it only work`s  when it is open.......
The power of Observation   , It`s all about the Details ..
 Forget about all the reasons why something may not work. You only need to find one good reason why it will.   Alto Mare

boon

My best score was probably 2x Shimano Baitrunner 8000OC's on rods, spooled with braid, for ~44USD.

The reels need servicing and a couple of bearings each but pretty good all in all.