Gundalba

Been a while... How is the beaches now a days? Are they all closed up or any spots open?

It's been a while... a busy one... but finally got it worked out and done a test on couple of schoolies as well... Ripping a beam that will be the section for the slide to rest upon. Disassembling the drill w/ bad battery... Test fitting the drill & mounts... Final wrap & catches...

It's great and am pretty happy with it. I matched the rod with Abu Morrum SX3600C-MAG which is a lil' gem on casting small hardbaits and metals.. Works way better than other baitcaster I have(Daiwa Lexa 300HD) ... Tried 20# braid which casts ok but thinking about trying 8-10# mono...

Glad to hear that you are happy with test. I learned it hard way - Tried to twist the through wire off from a plug and broke the wire off instead.

Building a conventional with 10' and find it is a great rod for lighter stuff like minnow. Tried some tins, bucktails to 1.5 Oz which casted pretty good. It could been nicer as a surf rod if it was tad bit stiffer a foot above and below the joints but still casts pretty good enough. It proly will work well for the boat fishing as is. Definitely great for Macs, perches and schoolies that are here at West Coast.

Denatured alcohol works fine... Least more of proper type to use. Save Iso for medical needs.

If you got a few bucks and bit of time to spare, most definitely. I even used it to successfully repair a pencil that had a sizeable chunk lost on its side by banging it on a rock. Just make sure to contact surface is clean for good adhesion.

Indeed, none other than The Jigman. You sounds like well ahead of me as always. Knowing the general density of the casting resin, I figured it would work well for darters, poppers, bottleneck, etc. Though what I was more interested in was building minnows with it. Tried some hand carving on them but time and consistency was a bit of an issue. Thus looking into the silicon mold and resin method. Still mulling over couple of concerns, making the density as low as those LC, Daiwa SP like counterparts and placing weight transfer system somehow....

Urethane probably worked well but epoxy, I believe, is what factory uses now a days. I think I posted this picture here 10+ yrs ago but couldn't find the thread so here it goes. Instruction on how to apply that is easy to do at home.

If the job is on the guides only, easy enough... Epoxy refinish and reel seat can be more involved, I've learned. Good luck!

It is epoxy in putty form and to me it is proved over the years. It hardens stronger than most wood I know but very easy to sand. One stick will last a long time and only cost about $5 if I remember right. Give it a try, I think you will like it. P.S. It would be a tail loop that will give most strength against pulling but try molding a small cylinder around a piece of through wire and let it harden, they try pull it off.

I am free hand builder as well mainly because that's how I was taught by Mike Fixter. I occasionally use a few profile template when I want to build a few very specific profiled plugs but in most cases my building is in a state of constant trial. One reason is the wood itself tends to vary a bit in its density even if its a very consistent grained species like AYC. Finding the right balance of profile, weight distribution, etc. in such medium is the part that keeps it interesting to me. Though, I see your point of experimenting in a more controlled way and for that same thought, I've been looking in some other direction as well. This German(?) guy on youtube building plugs using Polyurethane Casting Resin and silicon mold which would give you much more such control than the natural wood. He would mix in micro glass bubbles to control its buoyancy and silicon mold would provide you a repeatable profile in a precision that can not be matched by a duplicator. Just something to consider/think about. Cheers, Troy

I've tried liquid type epoxy too and did not like the lack of control on runny epoxy. Specially when the void is sizeable like darter loop area or hole for chin weight, etc, etc. So tried putty type wood repair epoxy which worked out great for me. I would kneed it to make a desired shape to fill the area I am working on, slide it in then push the through wire into the position. Clay like consistency gives me gives me good work time and control plus its weight and sanderbility makes it a very versatile filler. It is now one of my essential medium on my plug building.

Thanks for sharing but can't help being curious... any issue on using double-sided tape? Don't even need to be full surface coverage, just a few spots to hold them together...

I was rebuilding a Batson rod I built about 15 years ago and before it's completion, started on a new Black Hole blank as I wanted a different light surf rod for this winter. Both rods are done with static load tests as well as a few test castings which is all good except now got two surf rods to wrap plus one that's been waiting on couple of guides repair for some time now. I built myself a low budget rod wrapper with parts mostly taken from broken things I had around when I first built the Batson I am rebuilding now. This served the purpose back then... Though it did not have a thread carriage and thread tension was from a broken stepper motor friction which was somewhat limited resulting a slow progress with more difficulties in building overall. So I got side tracked (as usual) and decided to rebuild this old rod wrapper to make the wrapping a bit easier. Well here is the carriage part with couple of rebuilt rod supports made with inline rollers I picked up from a garage sales few years ago for this. I am going to use the old variable speed drill with dead battery and VCR tape head in above picture to make the variable speed wrapper head and probably build another rod support with inline wheels. If I don't get distracted on something else that is. Except a few washers, nuts and couple of ceramic magnets (on left green thread bobbin) I bought, rest of parts are from my garage parts bins. Yeah you guessed right, I think I do have a mild to moderate case of hoarding... Did some hand test wrapping on it and very happy with how the sliding carriage and magnetic thread tensioner works, wheels are much more stable and smooth (each wheels got two quality English bearings in them. Overkill for sure) as well.