# First Build



## AFORWW (May 2, 2018)

Well, here she is. My first attempt at rod building. Let me say, this gave me a greater appreciation for those of you who do this all the time and the skills and patience you have.

It's got some mistakes but not too shabby for never wrapping a thread before. There's some gaps, uneven winding, the guides aren't perfectly straight and I don't care for how I did the butt. But it was a learning experience for sure and I'll fish it till it can't fish no more lol. The colors are my family tartan. I didn't like how bright the color fast threads were so I added some emerald Pearl Ex to the finish to subdue the thread a bit and give it some added depth.

Thank you all who answered my questions, offered me tips, or just posted your knowledge for us to peruse. It's much appreciated.


























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## katjim00 (Jan 8, 2009)

It looks good. Great first build. It's cool why you used the colors you did, never heard that before...very cool. Guides....they give me fits getting them lined up. I can pick up the rod and look 6 times and the guides will look good....7th time they seem out of line. Sometimes you just got to walk away at that point then go back and look.


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## AFORWW (May 2, 2018)

katjim00 said:


> It looks good. Great first build. It's cool why you used the colors you did, never heard that before...very cool. Guides....they give me fits getting them lined up. I can pick up the rod and look 6 times and the guides will look good....7th time they seem out of line. Sometimes you just got to walk away at that point then go back and look.


Thanks. As I get better I'm going to revisit this and try to do a wrap that actually is the exact pattern of the tartan. That's a bunch of fading though and I gotta work out that pattern.

I think I have a crooked eye lol. Look from one end meh. Look from another and one is poking out the side. Move it, and now another looks crooked lol. You're exactly right, I just had to move on.

Can't wait to start on the next one. I do have a question though, I've been looking at patterns and see some that require spaces or "steps" between threads laid down. How do you know how big a step is and how do you measure it? Eye ball it? Calipers?

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## katjim00 (Jan 8, 2009)

Calipers for measuring and marking. I am not that good at wraps. Jim that does the surf rods on here is really good at wraps. I wing it and sometime they look good and sometimes....well not so much


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## MikeK (Dec 11, 2008)

Nice! You're off to a good start.


For aligning the guides try holding the rod with the guides down, and look for equal amount of guide on each side of the blank. This way you line up each guide with the blank, not with each other.


Years ago I met a guy named Joy Dunlap. He did some really neat tartan plaid wraps. If I remember correctly he selected his colors and used regular thread over colorfast thread, and even over-wrapped with white nylon, then put finish on without color preserver to give nice color blends.


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## AFORWW (May 2, 2018)

MikeK said:


> Nice! You're off to a good start.
> 
> For aligning the guides try holding the rod with the guides down, and look for equal amount of guide on each side of the blank. This way you line up each guide with the blank, not with each other.
> 
> Years ago I met a guy named Joy Dunlap. He did some really neat tartan plaid wraps. If I remember correctly he selected his colors and used regular thread over colorfast thread, and even over-wrapped with white nylon, then put finish on without color preserver to give nice color blends.


Hmmm that sounds like an interesting technique for the tartan wrap. I will definitely take that and do some experimenting.

That brings up a good point for any other beginners. That may read this. Practice practice practice. On scrap. Although I don't regret jumping head first by having my first try being on the actual rod, I will definitely be practicing on dowels from here on out before I give a wrap a go on the actual blank.

I'll give your guide trick a try as well. I had an idea (after the fact). What do you think about using a thicker line similar to like 80lb braid or chalk line taped at the center if the reel seat run down to the tip? This should make it real easy to get a center line you can mark for laying out guides as well as the 0 and 180 marks for wraps.

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## jreynolds (Jul 19, 2010)

Looking good sir! The first of many to come Iâ€™m sure.


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## jimj100 (Dec 1, 2012)

Trim bands look great under guide wraps. very nice. 
katjims comments on having a straight guide train is exactly my experience. 100%. blanks aren't even straight, so how are you going to have straight gudies? there are optical illusions going on. 
for the cross wrap diamonds, if you compress the wrap, ie make the cross over points a little bit closer, you will fit more diamonds in and have less open blank.
if u are getting gaps on that last, outer thread, u can always put down a sacrificial thread last, like a D thread, put on color preserer, and take that thread off right before u epoxy. 
Every single rod has imprefections u will always know about...


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## AFORWW (May 2, 2018)

jreynolds said:


> Looking good sir! The first of many to come Iâ€™m sure.


Without a doubt. Already ordering stuff for the next build. 5 year old is very specific about the colors he wants lol.


jimj100 said:


> Trim bands look great under guide wraps. very nice.
> katjims comments on having a straight guide train is exactly my experience. 100%. blanks aren't even straight, so how are you going to have straight gudies? there are optical illusions going on.
> for the cross wrap diamonds, if you compress the wrap, ie make the cross over points a little bit closer, you will fit more diamonds in and have less open blank.
> if u are getting gaps on that last, outer thread, u can always put down a sacrificial thread last, like a D thread, put on color preserer, and take that thread off right before u epoxy.
> Every single rod has imprefections u will always know about...


Well I'm glad y'all mention this or is be chasing down a perfectly straight guide train my whole life lol. Awesome idea about the sacrificial threads! Definitely going to be taking that one into the next build.

In regards to the diamond spacing, the ones I did are 90 degree squares (supposed to be) opposed to diamonds so I measured the diameter of the rod and used that number for the intersection points then on the 180 used half. My question about spacing was between individual threads in the pattern. So let's say as an example, it would be three wraps of blue, a space equal to five "steps" then five wraps of orange. Is each step the width of a single thread?

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## jimj100 (Dec 1, 2012)

AFORWW said:


> Without a doubt. Already ordering stuff for the next build. 5 year old is very specific about the colors he wants lol.Well I'm glad y'all mention this or is be chasing down a perfectly straight guide train my whole life lol. Awesome idea about the sacrificial threads! Definitely going to be taking that one into the next build.
> 
> In regards to the diamond spacing, the ones I did are 90 degree squares (supposed to be) opposed to diamonds so I measured the diameter of the rod and used that number for the intersection points then on the 180 used half. My question about spacing was between individual threads in the pattern. So let's say as an example, it would be three wraps of blue, a space equal to five "steps" then five wraps of orange. Is each step the width of a single thread?
> 
> Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk


i don't know what you mean by space and steps. The diamond is a single cross with threads wrapped outward, right next tto the original cross and then next to each other as you move out. no spaces...


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## AFORWW (May 2, 2018)

jimj100 said:


> i don't know what you mean by space and steps. The diamond is a single cross with threads wrapped outward, right next tto the original cross and then next to each other as you move out. no spaces...


Not my pattern, patterns I've been looking to do in the future. Lol.

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## jimj100 (Dec 1, 2012)

I think u are talking about layouts for things like "Spiders" and St johns crosses. Where you have a cross, and box around the cross, and u wrap the cross out, and the box out plus 1. that type of thing. by steps i think u mean passes. A pass is when u wrap each part of the wrap in order, and are back to the first step, which is usually the center cross. early in a spider wrap, it would be wrap 1 thread of the center cross out (all 4 sides), and 1 thread of the box out (all 4 sides). that's 1 pass. 4 passes later, you wuold be wrapping 1 thread out on the center cros, and 5 threds out on the box out, since u add a thread to the box on each pass. so thre is no fixed numbwer of threads or distance on a pass. it depends on where u are at on the wrap, and what wrap u are doing.


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## AFORWW (May 2, 2018)

jimj100 said:


> I think u are talking about layouts for things like "Spiders" and St johns crosses. Where you have a cross, and box around the cross, and u wrap the cross out, and the box out plus 1. that type of thing. by steps i think u mean passes. A pass is when u wrap each part of the wrap in order, and are back to the first step, which is usually the center cross. early in a spider wrap, it would be wrap 1 thread of the center cross out (all 4 sides), and 1 thread of the box out (all 4 sides). that's 1 pass. 4 passes later, you wuold be wrapping 1 thread out on the center cros, and 5 threds out on the box out, since u add a thread to the box on each pass. so thre is no fixed numbwer of threads or distance on a pass. it depends on where u are at on the wrap, and what wrap u are doing.


Here's a pic. I feel like I'm not doing a good job of describing my question lol. Top right hand graphic. So, I think you are correct that a step is a single pass which confirms my initial assumption that a single step is the width of a single piece of thread lol.









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## DPFISHERMAN (Jun 6, 2011)

Great first build! Keep up the great work...


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## AFORWW (May 2, 2018)

DPFISHERMAN said:


> Great first build! Keep up the great work...


Thanks!

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## fishinguy (Aug 5, 2004)

Looks great, good job.


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## Fishsurfer (Dec 14, 2014)

Wow. Awesome first build, I like the way you went for it. It looks like like a real tool for killing fish (or C&R). Guides look straight from here. I do the top and bottom then look up the rod at an angle outside in the sky or a white wall with light on it. Even if you are a little off it won't matter and I bet it is straighter than the ones at the store.


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## MikeK (Dec 11, 2008)

AFORWW said:


> I had an idea (after the fact). What do you think about using a thicker line similar to like 80lb braid or chalk line taped at the center if the reel seat run down to the tip? This should make it real easy to get a center line you can mark for laying out guides as well as the 0 and 180 marks for wraps.
> 
> Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk


Give it a shot. I've used a piece of wrapping thread taped to the blank to help layout cross points for decorative wraps. For guide alignment we might be talking about two different things. It's easy get the guides aligned during layout for wrapping but obviously during the wrapping they can be bumped out of line or pulled out of line by the thread tension. The final alignment after the guides are wrapped is more difficult but if your thread tension is right you should be able to move guides slightly from side to side. This is where I use the method I described. In our classes, the alignment check/adjustment is the *very last* step before the rod gets finish applied, and the student gets the final say (mostly ) using the sighting method they find easiest.


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