spoonplugger1

No, the weight difference would be little, sensitivity difference unnoticable. Six 3 mm guides weight the same as one 6 mm guide, change them all the something lighter and your getting somewhere.

I haven't thought them underpowered. Call Mudhole for recommendations if you want to be assured.

Rod wrapping epoxy isn't cheap if your only repairing one rod and the viscosity may not allow it to go into the crack, just cap it off, and the new epoxy won't hold well on cured epoxy, it most be roughed up with fine sandpaper to hold. That said epoxy has no shelf life. It's up to you how you go.

I agree the shooter blanks are awesome.

Fill the crack with clear nail polish. Point of toothpick works great.

The bigger diameter rods are stiffer with the same amount or less material, they have the potential of being far lighter for the same power. You double the diameter you get a nine times stiffer rod. That's why the external sleeve is the only way to go.

Somewhere along the line, since built your rod saw some rough treatment. Always take a Q-tip with you, any broken ceramic rings you may not notice will snag the cotton tips.

Use your home ruler, it's metric on one side, the guide frame ID is the measured part so the ceramic is slightly larger.

You obviously have the cork or wood centered reelseat, the more the other design. is something I'll more then real vent and used on the Edge casting rods. The older Loomis' were built with Pac Bay components every guide from back than were clunky by today's standards. If you want the guides in the same place go Mininas, little cleanup and cheap. The Fuji route will involve much money cleaning up than guide costs all higher. Lastly, the old matt finish is very tender, even alcohol removes it.

It's simple math, if you start with a 7 ft. rod and the lockup happens at 20% of rod length than you shorten the butt, the lockup point doesn't change, but the length did, it moved from 16.8 inches for 84 inches to 16.8 inches for 81 inches or 20.74%. Hence slower, it will also be a bit weaker powered in the butt. Same from tip, the stiffer tip moves lockup down the blank, the tip will not throw the light lures it did before, and the butt power will not change.

Scaleface has a good idea, if you are worried about the holes, touch them up with a toothpick dipped in some clear nail polish.

You can use your box of drill bits to size your tip tops. A lot of sets also come with a plastic gauge with holes in it sized to the drill set for measuring rod tips. St. Croix's blank catalog has all the tip sizes.

Nice blanks, fish well, but like any other manufacturer there are hits and misses in the line up. Try fly fishing forums in the region, species, whatever to get the job done as far as more specifics if you need them. Liked the 8 and 10 wts., not as much the 5 and 6 wts.

Your fishing tip down, and will have quite a resitance trying to raise the rod tip back up, you may have to use force to keep it down. The decision is yours, now all the info is out there.

I have, great blanks for the money.

Guide repairs were $10 - 12 fifteen years ago, you use the same amount of epoxy for one guide or a whole rod. The supplies certainly are not the same price as 15 years ago.

Remember to use a good dust mask with power tools, graphite dust is nasty stuff to breathe in.

I believe the Rod Geek S glass blanks are the same blanks as St. Croix sold, just made in Mexico now. MHX also makes S glass blanks.

All the metallic that we wrap rods with are more than strong enough for the job. The holding power is thread break strength times the amount of wraps on the guide. I don't see how it would matter what kind of guide you wrap it with, single foot spinning guides have longer, stronger feet that a casting guide. When we were testing rods to failure years ago a MH bass rod never exceeded 3.2 lbs of guide tension on any rod tested before failure.

Glenn, If you don't know what you want, your a poor candidate for a custom rod. That"s what separates the custom rods from an off the shelf rod, you have a need not being met by production rods.

After you get your replacement, send them the pic again and mention what a crap job their finishers do. My 11 year old grandson just finished his first rod, it was worlds better than that collection of football wraps.

Having a dryer doesn't improve the quality of your finish job, that's done by you when you apply it, but it is more convenient. I've built rods while underway on a ship and have them turn out well. Spend the money for nice to haves after your sure you're addicted like the majority of us. Set the rod back in the box, whatever, and watch a movie, read a book, whatever and just give it a 180 turn at an interval that doesn't allow the finish to droop excessively. The finish is self leveling and will return to the right level on it's own if you let it. If you think you have to much finish on a wrap, you can dry the brush, or other applicator and remove some, or just let it set a while in one spot till you see a droop form on the bottom of the wrap and remove the droop, than start rod rotations, none of this is rocket science, it's much more oriented toward attention to detail, fit, and finish like woodworking and other endeavors. Your excess finish will tell you when to stop rotating and when you can rotate the rod less often without drooping.

If you built a spiral wrapped rod you'd never have torque on you from that 500 lb grouper, no matter the blank spine position, that includes any other type rod. Comes in handy when you're fishing by yourself and the rod never fights you.

Any good shop can make a kit, that's just putting the components together with the blank, the downside is you usually get the wrong reel seat, and a guide set that comes on a display card like the lures have, and half the guides will be the wrong size. An inexpensive, but nice technique specific blank would be the Rainshadow SB822.5 dropshot blank, I've never seen them over $50.

It will work, my first rod was built with a V'd cardboard box and a dictionary as a tensioner while the thread set in one of grandad's shot glasses. Dried the finish by setting in an all wood rocking chair, setting the rod across the arms and rotating 180 every minute or so for the first hour, extending rollover as finish set.