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Confused about spining after reading a book

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doyle007

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I pose this question to Al Goldberg since I have just re-read his article on building rods, but by all means, anyone that can explain this please reply.

 

Ok, like I said, I read Al's article about building rods. In the second section, I see this:

" As you push down on the blank, the blank will begin to rotate. When the blank comes to rest the spine will be on the outside of the curve. . ."

 

At last night's ASWF meeting, I checked out the book called "The Custom Graphite Fly Rod" by Skip Morris. At the start of the second chapter, he says to place the butt of the rod on a hard horizontal surface, press down, and the rod will rotate to show the spine. Now here's where I think that I am reading the opposite of what Al says. Skip says that once the rod has the downward pressure applied, "the spine will be along the top side of the section and the soft side will be opposite that, along the underside that faces the table and the floor."

 

To me, Skip is saying the exact opposite of what Al is saying. Am I missing something? I'm about to build myself a flyrod, and I want to make sure that I get everything in the right place. Based on a lot of the posts that I've read on this site, I was going to follow Al's advice, and mark the outside of the curve as the spine, and place my guides along the outside curve. What's a brother to do?

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Outside of the curve. If you want to read a "better" book about Rod Building, either get Advanced Custom Rodbuilding, or Tom Kirkman's book. My preference is ACRB, becaus ethere is a LOT of info on there on making tools, custom handles, reel seats, etc. Some of the info is outdated though.

"the internet is the greatest platform for people who don't know anything, to tell people how much they don't know, to people who don't know anything and believe everything they read."
-Billy 40:16

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What billy said!

 

Think of the spine as the 'relaxed curve' find the position where the rod does not rotate when it is flexed. That's spining the rod.

 

For a fly rod---casting is the most important IMHO so you want the guides on the opposite side of that relaxed curve.

 

Think of your backcast.

 

I built two fly rods last summer. They were not as hard as I thought they'd be.

 

Use a thin coat of epoxy though on your first coat. Real thin.

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Take blank, poke ceiling so it bends, lay into it, it will snap into position. Mark blank with a piece of tape, a dab of white-out, anything. Repeat a couple times to make sure that it does the same thing every time. That's how your rod wants to bend, make sure the guides line up.

Your boy is going to be a big flop in Washington, and I can't wait till it happens.-Rocky Rhodes
Mccain is weak, lame and a poor choice for President-JimP
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Keep in mind that the spine is not a physical thing. It is an effect created by about 7 different manufacturing anomalies. Therefore, what we're marking is not a structural spine or axis, but simply a reference to a particular position. Make sense?

 

Rich Forhan uses the inside of the curve to reference the same position that most of us do when marking the outside of the curve. He calls is ISCAR (inside stressed curve at rest). This is the opposite of OSCAR (outside of stressed curve at rest) but both relate to the same position of the blank when it's loaded in a spine finder.

 

Additionally, there is no wrong position in which to orient the spine. Where you orient it, however, will create certain subtle differences in how your blank or rod performs.

 

As far as stability goes, keep in mind that spine orientation does not affect rod stability (twist) under load. Guide position wholly determines rod stability. Rods with guides on the bottom are inherently stable. Rods with guides on the top are inherently unstable, regardless of where the spine is located.

 

.......

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thanks guys for all of your help.

 

i will start the rod hopefully this weekend, or as soon as the guys at mudhole get me my upgraded components. you see, my mom got me a 9' 6wt flyrod building kit from H&H for christmas, and I was just starting to mess with it, when saw a presentation by Ed Mitchell the other night. he showed pictures of his saltwater 6 wt, which had a fighting butt and a full wells grip. i decided to build my rod more along those lines. i also stepped up and got the single foot loop guides instead of the snake guides. it should be good.

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