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Thanks for the tip. I've used the color preserver trick but never super glue. Nail knots can get annoying sometimes as they have a bad habit of popping loose. Sometimes I just put the tag ends of the trim wrap under the main wrap. It's much more secure, but also more time consuming and complex. Also, ugly is definitely the word for the giant size 25 carbon fiber butt guide on my steez. I don't yet have the gumption to cut those off and put titanium fujis, thought I did replace the recoils on my NRX with titanium SIC and I like the rod way more.

I have a Steez spinning rod with the AGS guides. They're cool, but I see no advantage to them. Actually they are way bigger than they need to be and I bet I could save weight by having titanium guides in what I think are the right sizes. The newer version of the Steez does have smaller guides. I'm sure the AGS guides are also easier to break, but I've had no problems. Short answer: I think it is a waste of time and money to look for a set of take off AGS guides (you can't buy them new). I don't use winding checks unless I have to. I just put some thread down next to the grip, usually a 1/4 inch or so with some kind of trim in the middle or at the end.

That's a fine looking rod. Is that finish epoxy over the composite cork or something else?

I'm talking about covering the threads with something like a fuji KDPS. You can't cover all the threads without a split grip on an uplocking spinning seat. Casting or any other downlocking it just slides above the reel seat and works fine. Basically I dislike exposed reel seat thread and design all handles to avoid them. For an example of what I like, look at the reel seats on the high end loomis spinning rods (GLX and above).

I like full cork on casting rods and split on spinning rods. The reason is that on spinning rods I use an uplocking seat with a hidden thread cover. Can't do that without a split grip, though I think it was fenwick that had like an inch of split grip so you could unscrew it enough to take off the reel. If not for this functional benefit of split handles on spinning rods I would be all full cork.

Yep, best boat ever. I can fish bass, walleye, musky, crappie, big water or small water. Plenty of room to fish with my kids, and actually fishes 3 adults fine. Merc V8 is magical compared to the suzuki 140 my last boat had. You can never have too much storage, but I haven't managed to fill it all yet.

My Pro V bass with 200 pro xs came with a tempest 21p, motor mounted in the middle hole. Runs 57ish at around 5700 rpm. I'd rather have 54 with twin talons like A-Jay. I'm guessing your throttle isn't calibrated to give full throttle. No way you have 9 mph in drag. Would expect RPMs closer to 6000 with the 19p prop.

I think you are spot on with the guides. I've been curious about that blank as well, thinking of ordering it for an ultralight spinning rod. Let us know what you think when you get it.

Yep, the spool shaft. Doesn't need to be exact, is doesn't affect the outcome very much. I usually put 12 inches, but I like a longer handle. And yes, scraping the whole blank was a pain, but I didn't want to put the new guides in the same place as the old, and once you take guides off there is no way to hide where to guides used to be on a painted blank.

Two dozen of each should be good, unless he enjoys fishing heavy jigheads in shallow rocks and loses all of them on snags. Pike will bite off a few, but hopefully by June the little slimer pike and the smallmouth will inhabit different places.

We all had to learn some way. Better to learn from our mistakes so you can make different mistakes and learn other stuff. I recently made a rod that I thought really sucked. Stripped everything and did it again with different components. Much better this time. Got to learn how to scrape and refinish a rod blank in the process.

Not to be a jerk, but it is very likely you did something to break the rod. When a rod has a manufacturing defect, it breaks when you bend the rod to test it, or with the first couple casts or first couple fish. High sticking on previous fish? Grabbing the rod anywhere above the first guide? Hit the blank with a worm weight? Yes, some rods break easier than others, but if it breaks after the first trip it is something the fisherman did. From that perspective, the warranty is amazing, and of course Abu knows that and you paid for it when you bought the rod.

You're kinda in left field. Too many guides if you are putting all the runners 4 inches apart. The last runner might be 4 inches from the tip, or even a little less, but they can be 6 or 7 inches apart further from the tip depending on how fast the fast the blank is. For a 7 foot rod you're going to end up with 8 guides total, maybe 9 if the blank is really fast as guides will be closer together near the tip. Also not understanding using the spool diameter to place the choker guide. Spool diameter makes no difference for that with the KR system. Just use the KR GPS on anglersresource.com to place the first 4 guides, then go from 6 or 7 inches between guides to 3.5 to 4 inches from the last guide to the tip. Then static load to position more precisely.

Out of curiosity, are the Kistler blanks made in Japan or just made out of Japanese graphite in some other place? I actually don't care either way, but someone might.

Kistler blanks are no longer made in the USA.

Glue the arbor or arbors into the insert. Ream the insert. Ream any cork separately. Then glue it all up.

Flex coat light. Two thin coats. The only size 16 reel seat that is comfortable is Fuji IPS, mostly because it is larger than a typical size 16.

Yes, I think it would work just fine.

Don't buy crappy reamers, you'll regret it. I like Batson dream reamers, mudhole ones are probably similar.

Purpose made leader material is generally more stiff, and with that I think comes more abrasion resistance. You want more limp line for full spool uses, but with a leader more stiffness is easier to tolerate and is sometimes better. Is it amazing and magically the greatest thing ever? No, but I like it better. I use fly fishing tippet, both mono and fluoro. It works well and comes on nice little spools. You can get it from 1 lb to at least 50 lb test.

If you do hidden thread there is basically no weight difference between a carbon fiber/trim ring cover or a cork cover. Also, if you make it uplocking, you need exactly one cork ring for the "foregrip". Agree with MickD that split reel seats are really uncomfortable, but it really depends on how you hold the rod. If weight is a big concern with your rod building, make sure to get a good scale and weigh every component that you use. If you weigh things yourself you will likely be surprised about which things way more and less.

I should explain CCS a little better. It measures intrinsic power by figuring the amount of weight it takes to bend the rod a distance equal to 33% of the length. For example on a 7 foot rod, it is the weight to pull the tip 28 inches from the horizontal. Yes, 33% is arbitrary. Yes, rods with the same IP and different action angles feel different. However, it is objective a way as is possible to measure blanks. Also, the blanks above have action angles from 73 to 78, so they are all on the fast to extra fast range, and thus power measurements can be compared pretty well. Otherwise you are stuck with advice like "St. Croix blanks tend to be more powerful than their rating" which is true sometimes, but clearly not true above, at least in relation to point blank, or even what NFC call a 2 power.

I see you are on the rod building site now, which is great. Best place you can get info. Guess I will continue here because I started here. I know CCS has been talking about, but wanted to give you some info in one place. "Medium light" doesn't mean anything, every blank maker is different. I looked up some good options, in order of power, strongest to weakest: PB701MLF 530, PB701LXF 430, NFC xray 732 422, SCV 70 ML 375, Batson eternity 72MLF 343, NFC 703 343. These are all CCS numbers which is the number of grams required to bend a rod 33% of its length. As you can see the point blank "light" is more powerful than all the other "medium lights." Also, note that the NFC 2 power rod is more powerful than the NFC 3 power rod. Having said all this, were I building the rod, I would probably give the PB701LXF a try.

Hate to throw a wrench in your plans after you bought the guides, but 4 runners may not be enough. I usually have 8 total guides on a 7 ft spinning rod. You may even need 9 depending on how fast the action on the blank is. This is more advanced stuff, but since you are jumping into the deep end with high quality parts, you might as well build the best rod you can. The smaller the length of the blank that bends under moderate pressure (how fast the action is) the more guides you will need to get a good line path. If you don't put enough, your line will have flat spots and not follow the curve of the rod. The two line technique on anglers resource will help you visualize this.

Yep, I think I would go with 20, 10, 5.5M and 4 runners. NFC xray SJ703 is 1.4 oz. St. Croix SCV7ML (have to get it from rod geeks) is 1.5 oz. Either would make an awesome medium light spinning rod.