Alex Customs rods, What's coming off the Lathe !

[sabaman1]

Alex how did you manage to put the real seat and grips on with guides on the rod?

[steelfish]

Very nice job!
What kind of rod is that, Alex?
The original picture, it Kinda looks like a surf rod, while the second pic, makes it look like it's a boat rod lol!

its a boat rod, its a custom Seeker E-glass from many years ago, this rod has a sentimental value for the owner and wanted to add a reelseat because the cork that had was really torn, I just installed from the foregrip to the buttcap

[steelfish]

Alex how did you manage to put the real seat and grips on with guides on the rod?

Curious that you ask that, this guy came to me because he asked two different persons that also repair rods and both told him that the "only way" to install new grips and reelseat to that rod was taking all the guides out and work with the naked blank from the scratch, but my friend didnt wanted to have the NAME of his friend destroyed, the rod belonged to a close friend of him which passed away recently, I told him that I had done that job before and I could help him to keep the rod as is but with new grips and RS.

A you can see the grips are not made from EVA or hypalon, so you dont have to deal with fitting and streaching "foamy grips" to a naked blank with the ID bigger than the grip ID, using shrink tube for grips the most difficult part (which is not difficult at all) is to find a reelseat with the ID big enough to pass from the butt of the rod, once you had the reelseat its only matter to work in reverse, install the foregrip, then reelseat, next reargrip and finally the buttcap.

Im actually working doing the same kind of job to a fishing rod I restored for my youngest daughter years ago, when I was starting to work on rods around 7 years ago, Its a cheap solid glass factory rod I rebuilt for her from the 1st guide to the tiptop.  https://alantani.com/index.php/topic,20515.0.html

I choose solid glass for her to withstand the careless management of a 6 years old kiddo at that time, now my princess is 13yo and the reelseat got unglued from many of its parts, she likes her fishing rod a lot and want the same rod repaired eventho I could easily made her a new one with all the things I know now about rod building so, I will rebuild it from the foregrip to the buttcap as well but this time will be better looking than before.
I will show some pics of this when done

[oldmanjoe]

 I will add that if you have to work from the back end , and want to try to save a foam grip and / or real seat here is a tool .    It`s a copper pipe that i cut little slits in the end , like saw teeth .

 I use it like a long hole saw .
Just remove the butt cap ,or if you have a solid foam grip cut 1 inch up and twist it off so you can re glue it later .

[sabaman1]

Alex how did you manage to put the real seat and grips on with guides on the rod?

Curious that you ask that, this guy came to me because he asked two different persons that also repair rods and both told him that the "only way" to install new grips and reelseat to that rod was taking all the guides out and work with the naked blank from the scratch, but my friend didnt wanted to have the NAME of his friend destroyed, the rod belonged to a close friend of him which passed away recently, I told him that I had done that job before and I could help him to keep the rod as is but with new grips and RS.

A you can see the grips are not made from EVA or hypalon, so you dont have to deal with fitting and streaching "foamy grips" to a naked blank with the ID bigger than the grip ID, using shrink tube for grips the most difficult part (which is not difficult at all) is to find a reelseat with the ID big enough to pass from the butt of the rod, once you had the reelseat its only matter to work in reverse, install the foregrip, then reelseat, next reargrip and finally the buttcap.

Im actually working doing the same kind of job to a fishing rod I restored for my youngest daughter years ago, when I was starting to work on rods around 7 years ago, Its a cheap solid glass factory rod I rebuilt for her from the 1st guide to the tiptop.  https://alantani.com/index.php/topic,20515.0.html

I choose solid glass for her to withstand the careless management of a 6 years old kiddo at that time, now my princess is 13yo and the reelseat got unglued from many of its parts, she likes her fishing rod a lot and want the same rod repaired eventho I could easily made her a new one with all the things I know now about rod building so, I will rebuild it from the foregrip to the buttcap as well but this time will be better looking than before.
I will show some pics of this when done

Great work Alex, and also how you taper the butt wrap to transition into to the shrink tape, very clean and smooth job.   

[ExcessiveAngler]

Here's another question, out of curiosity?
I noticed that he only gave you the butt section, to have redone!
Does he still have the other top part section of the rod?  Curious, to as why he only had the butt section done?
It's funny, I used to try to give the builder that fixed my rods just the pieces, that needed to be fixed lol!
I figured, that way, nothing happened to the other half!
Finally, he says to me one time can you give me the other half?
And I said why?  His reply, It would make my life a lot easier, if I had the other half to use on the wrapping machine lol!

[steelfish]

I will add that if you have to work from the back end , and want to try to save a foam grip and / or real seat here is a tool .    It`s a copper pipe that i cut little slits in the end , like saw teeth .

 I use it like a long hole saw .
Just remove the butt cap ,or if you have a solid foam grip cut 1 inch up and twist it off so you can re glue it later .

pretty interesting tool, I've never heard of something similar before, I will have it in mind in case saving the reargrip is necessary

thanks for showing it to us

[steelfish]

Here's another question, out of curiosity?
I noticed that he only gave you the butt section, to have redone!
Does he still have the other top part section of the rod?  Curious, to as why he only had the butt section done?
It's funny, I used to try to give the builder that fixed my rods just the pieces, that needed to be fixed lol!
I figured, that way, nothing happened to the other half!
Finally, he says to me one time can you give me the other half?
And I said why?  His reply, It would make my life a lot easier, if I had the other half to use on the wrapping machine lol!

the one I repaired was a 6.6ft ONE Piece boat rod   

but I do understand what your Rod builder friend told you about that having the 2 sections is better, the wrapper and drier normally need a complete rod to use them

[steelfish]

last from the lathe, a 5'2" tuna custom rod, old calstar 120lb custom rod, it was really beat up, I took almost everything out from the rod and left only the reelseat and buttcap, basically a new custom rod with more vivid colors

[Shark Hunter]

Wow!

[JasonGotaProblem]

That's awesome. I would have been disappointed if we didn't get a before pic. "Tight lines" is generally a figure of speech, but you clearly take it literally.

[steelfish]

That's awesome. I would have been disappointed if we didn't get a before pic. "Tight lines" is generally a figure of speech, but you clearly take it literally.

thanks amigo Jason,
here are some more "Before" pics for you, looks like it was fished hard.

[boon]

Awesome work. The wraps, the colours, the graphics... all top shelf.

[sabaman1]

Very nice work Alex, your rod building skills are remarkable! Paint and thread color is outstanding also.

[steelfish]

Very nice work Alex, your rod building skills are remarkable! Paint and thread color is outstanding also.

thanks 

Awesome work. The wraps, the colours, the graphics... all top shelf.

thanks amigo, I really appreciate it   

the owner still havent seen how it looks