Hey, I have a few questions about spiral wrapping a rod.

First off, I was wondering if spiral wrapping a crankin rod would be a good move? If it would work, how many guides would you suggest me to use in the process? What sized guides, and also, I was wondering if there are any step by step instructions, or atleast a guide on how to do it. I ordered a 7 ft blank and I need as much information as possible. Thanks for the help everybody, I really do appreciate it  

Matt Strykul

You should visit www.rodbuilding.org and search "simple spiral" it will give you hours worth of reading on this topic. But yes, a cranking rod is a great candidate for a spiral wrap.

For now, that's the best suggestion I have. I'm going to write something up, probably in article form after the fork trip since it gets asked quite often and is a long winded thing to type out. I'll have photos for the layout, set up and ID of guide types, etc.

Guide selection- It's hard to say much without knowing what blank you got and even then it's a crap-shoot since all blanks are different. Your questions are too broad for specific answers.

As a point of reference, I built a 7' mh, mod-fast St.Croix blank a month or two ago and used 8 guides plus a bumper, for a total of 9. For the sake of ease, you could almost certainly use an Alconite set up of (all BLAG's) #10, (#8 BLAG bumper) 7, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 and a 6 BFAT tip top. but order 2 extra #6 BLAG's just in case. But you would have to verify and validate that through static testing. That's about $20 retail. Or if you like the look of the double footed guides, you could use a #10 or #12 BLNAG for the butt guide.

Edit to add:  I sent some additional info in a PM.