basscatcher8

I'm building on a St Croix SCIII 6'3" XF right now that feels like it will be about perfect. I'm using it for vertical jigging though. I'm also building on a Rainshadow Revelation blank with about the same stats that feels pretty comparable.

What kinda chuck is that holding the cork ring for the drill bit? I was messing around yesterday and I have that 3 jaw chuck for the mandrel shut it won't open wide enough for the cork rings.

That makes perfect sense. I actually ordered a 3/8 mandrel last night when I ordered more cork. I am going to rig up and give this a shot. think I will be looking for some half inch all thread and try to use that as well. Thank you for your help sir! I'm definitely still learning but I find something new with every rod.

I'm using them as is with the quarter inch bore and then reaming them for the rod when done on the lathe. Reading around it sounds like maybe I should ream it before going on the lathe.

Well the Rainshadow blank is gonna catch a ton of fish I think....mostly cause its being a pain to build. Got the butt piece done on the lathe last night went to ream it and fit it on the blank. And even though I thought I was going slow the reamer walked side ways at some point and when I put it on the blank it looked horrible sooooo back to the drawing board on that one. Gonna keep going on the St. Croix while im waiting on more cork to work on the Rainshadow.

Got the first handle glued up on the blank. This is my st Croix blank. Not the reel I'll be using but for mock up. My lathe parts arrived today so hopefully I'll get the other handle done soon and on the batson.

This is why I build as much of my own stuff as I can. Beats hunting down what you want or being stuck with what the big companies want you to use, also beats waiting on the UPS guy to show up. It makes it easier cause when I do need something its simple like a live bait hook or something and Walmart always has that as well as a full stock of Gammy hooks so I can get those easy. Now I'm building rods cause I'm tired of chasing down what I want across the internet or BPS stores.

Your posts and a couple of the other guys here are what got me pretty much rebuilding my shop to get better at this. I've only ever done jigs and powder coating for years till I decided to buy a rod kit earlier this year. Now I've about got myself setup to do about everything. I have to admit its pretty cool to build a spinnerbait rod then fire up the lead pot and make a bunch of spinnerbaits to throw with that rod lol.

Well I'm having an issue cutting tennons to fit in the butt caps and I found the mandrel is bent so that was probably part of the problem. But the old lathe may have bent it lol

Got one handle turned and had an issue with the other and had to redo. The lathe I've been using is older than me and not very accurate. So I sucked it up and went and bought a new one yesterday. And of course I get home and my Chuck won't fit the taper is to big. Ordered an adapter and on hold. Hoping to get the other handle that is done mounted on the blank this week.

Awesome thank you. The few handles I've done so far have all been spinning rod handles with the small part up front and back and then the spit grip piece at the butt so just using the sheet rock sanding stuff worked great for that but this is definitely different.

Do you just square up the tool rest with the cork and hold it against that to keep the file straight?

And I will be stopping at menards on my lunch break. thank you sir.

I got one of the handles turned Tuesday night and had a couple issues. Hoping to get back over tonight and turn the other one. The hardest part for me is turning it down level all the way across. I take most of my material off with the sheet rock sanding material so it took awhile to keep take it down a big check both ends to see how close they were then go again.

All my parts and pieces arrived yesterday to begin a build that I have been planning for awhile now. I'm building two rods for vertical jigging sauger on the river in the winter time. I'm building one on a St. Croix SCIII 6'3 Medium XF and the other on a Rainshadow Revelation 6'2" Medium Fast blank. I haven't built on a bunch of different brand blanks so I figured this was the best to compare and get to know a couple different brands. The main goal with this blank is to be light but also balance out to have a real light tip so it sits well in your hands when out all day.. I am going to use one of the Tennessee style grips with the slide rings that I saw recently used on here. It will hold an ultra light reel and I'm building it just big enough to hold the reel and that's it. I have ATC guides for both rods. Should turn out awesome. I began clamping up the reel seats and butt ends last night. I'll post here with updates as it goes along.

I've been checking this all day waiting for the update lol

I haven't built enough to be able to do a hi mod blank but I just ordered the supplys for two vertical jigging rods one st.croix blank and one Rainshadow Revelation to test the difference between a couple brands. All the other rods i've built so far have been for moving baits so I didn't feel the need to use the hi-mod. I need to build a few bass jig rods for next year that will for sure be hi mod blanks.

Thats my goal with my sauger rod to cut down weight every where and see how it does. Those fish like to just mouth your bait in the river and you barely feel it so the more you can feel the better lol.

I sat down and played around with the epoxy paste tonight. Was getting the basic shape down but getting it to smooth out seemed about impossible. Think I'll give using the finish a try and build it up in multiple steps like you guys have done.

I've seen a few that looked clear and I'm assuming that was using thread finish. I saw one where the builder used some paint in the finish to match the blank and put it over a epoxy paste. I haven't seen one wrapped yet. Its definitely interesting stuff. I'm going to put something together to practice a few times on a couple techniques. I have some of the heavy coat finish left and have a lot of the light coat finish so I can experiment a bit.

Good Idea. I got one of those cheapo reamers from mudhole where all the sanding material came off anyway I can put something on there to mimic a reel seat.

Time to go find a cheap blank and reel seat to practice on thank you DVT!

Anybody got a good tutorial on doing an epoxy ramp on a rod? I've done some searches and other than a couple really old posts on another site and a phantom post on this site which is a link on Google that goes no where I cannot find much. I like how some of them look and would like to learn how to do it.

I just saw a lake erie walleye guide saying shes cancelling a trip today due to more wind.

great thats exactly what i was looking for. Thank you!