2 hours ago, MickD said:

   

I think the third guide of the NRX is side loaded.  If it were not the line would go through at 0, or 180 degrees.  In fact it looks like the first three guides are side loaded.  And it will work just fine.

Mick, the rod showing side loading is not one of mine and not the GLoomis NRX. I would not build a rod that looks like that one! I simply posted it as an example of how a spiral wrap should NOT look- so we agree on that one!

 

 

 

Forty years ago, I was living in Redondo Beach, very close to the Redondo Beach harbor, and I was regularly fishing the party boats there. I built myself an entire set of matching saltwater rods using Sabre and Truline blanks. My favorite one of them was an 8' Truline jig stick with a Fuji SIC guide train and cork tape wrapped butt. I mostly used an ABU Garcia Ambassadeur 9000 two speed reel that would sling a single hook Tady a country mile.

 

I learned to wrap from a friend that showed me how to put the spool of thread in a tea cup and then use an encyclopedia to tension the thread. I would sit on the floor of our apartment and had a block of wood with a v-notch to keep the tip in place and hold the other end of the rod in my hands. I wrapped a total of eight rods like this, including two roller guide tuna rods. This was fine for wrapping with "D" size thread, but I wrapped a couple freshwater rods using "A" size thread and it wasn't nearly so easy.  I built myself an . . . apparatus. . . for drying the Flex-Coat using an old BBQ rotisserie motor, however I didn't feel like I was very good at using a minimal amount of Flex-Coat compared to what I could buy on a factory built rod so I didn't build any more freshwater rods after that.

 

A couple years ago, I listed the two Truline rods for sale at midnight. By 6 am the following morning, I had six people offering to come get them ASAP.

 

 

14 hours ago, FloridaFishinFool said:

Mick, the rod showing side loading is not one of mine and not the GLoomis NRX. I would not build a rod that looks like that one! I simply posted it as an example of how a spiral wrap should NOT look- so we agree on that one!

 

 

 

Sorry I missed the fact that it was not yours, but you have to admit, easy to do in that long posting.  I still maintain that the simple spiral, functionally, works just fine.  And there is nothing wrong with "simple."