Homemade rod sleeves

[pjstevko]

I've been having trouble finding rod sleeves big enough for the guides on my rail rods and jig stick so I decided to make my own.  I ordered a 50' roll of orange expandable wire protection and some heat shrink, all other tools needed I had on hand. 

I used a hot knife to cut the sleeving and to prevent fraying. Next I measured the off the desired length i wanted for each rod and added 3 inches to the bottom to account for the finishing fold.
I folded the top end and put it in a short piece of heat shrink to close the top off. The bottom end got a triple fold to hide the cut end and then I sewed a piece of waxed thread around the bottom opening to prevent unraveling.

The opening at the bottom is larger than I'd like but overall I'm very happy with how they turned out!

Pj

[Bill B]

Looks good brother!  How much protection do you think it will provide?  Bill

[pjstevko]

Bill it'll do a good enough job for storage in the garage and travel in the rod pod.

[Brewcrafter]

PJ - Good job!  I went with a "patriotic" theme on all of mine, I like it that they stand out and help prevent confusion.  You can get some pretty unique color schemes.  I like the stitching job you did for the base.  For mine I folded it over a couple of times and then, using what I had at hand (OK, it was a beer bottle) I used that as a form to "bell mouth" the bottom end and hit it with my heat gun and it kind of gave it a "set" but I like your approach much nicer.  Also, something else I did (after confusion several years ago) all of my sleeves are somewhat "custom"; proper length and diameter for a particular rod.  When the rods are battle ready the sleeves are rolled up and live inside the (empty) reel bag in the stateroom, but when time came to break down I was fumbling to figure out which sleeve/which rod.  So I use a hobby paint pen (testors) to make a notation on the black shrink wrap tip "Viper" "Pacificstick" etc.  Also makes it easier when they are all in the overhead rack in my garage to tell "what is what" and keeps the dust off.  Again, I really like your stitching for the base - looks more durable and neater.  Thanks for sharing!

[Bill B]

From the picture it looks like the tubing is 2" in diameter.  Correct? 

Bill

[reelynew]

Nice work!

[steelfish]

cool.

I was thinking few months ago to get me a roll of that electric wire protection and do the same but havent ordered yet.
yours look pretty good

[foakes]

Very clever and well done, PJ!

Best, Fred

[pjstevko]

From the picture it looks like the tubing is 2" in diameter.  Correct? 

Bill

Yes 2" but probably could have gone with 1 1/2" and still been OK

[Bill B]

Thanks PJ.