First build; mentality

[cityevader]

Since I'm not sure until I try a build if I'll enjoy the process or not, I'm waffling back and forth on the rod.

 

I have a rod i dislike and don't care if it's rebuilt poorly. Clearly good for practice and deciding if I even want to pursue building, but my mind will be inclined towards the negative during the process. (Although it might cast better with proper guides).

 

Or get a higher end blank, with added pressure to make it right, but with a much higher likelihood of loving it as if I birthed it.

 

Oh....I dunno...

[197esmer]

It never hurts to practice on a rebuild or repair. You may decide it’s not a hobby for you or  you may become addicted.

[LowEnd]

Rather than strip and re do a rod ( it’s 2x’s the work and 1/2 the fun) look into a kit from mud hole. If you need to do on the cheap, look for clearance blanks and get your parts.

[cityevader]

Good point on stripping work.

 

...I forgot about a rod I rather enjoy; liking the existing handle and reel position with 5 guides +tip to strip. Only the guides would need updating... Hmm.

 

 

[cityevader]

After further thought, a new rod would be mostly overlapping-use to the current lineup. Additionally, instead of a full build, I'd prefer to start with just guides and a wee bit of decoration without messing with the handle end.

Aaaand here sits a rod I like, with horrible guidetrain, so it looks like my decision is clearer now.

Thank you for listening.

[Bait Tailer]

I wouldn’t think twice about rebuilding the rod you like and think you can improve. Just be careful removing guides.  A lot of building is learning basic repetitive technique and fundamentals for guide layouts, static load, ergonomics etc...  Youll get to know what you like don’t like and get familiar with the functional concepts, so when you want to invest in and build your baby you’ll know what you want and how to do it.
 

To be honest, this is coming from a guy who rebuilt the same Tica rod 3 times. It’s cheap but has too much mojo and perfect action for some of the shore jigging I do. It started just replacing a broken reel seat and crap COF guides with NGC layout, then Kr, and now it’s a light conventional rod.  If you look closely you can see the old layouts but I don’t mind.

[cityevader]

Yeah, I like the rod, but COF with about a 3" stripper guide and half dozen total on a 10' is just silly.

[spoonplugger1]

Basic rod building is not rocket science, patience and attention to details as you go along will ensure you get a nice rod.

My first rod, decades ago was a G Loomis IMX, top of the line at the time. It's been modified some three times as my knowledge improved, but there was never a time it wasn't just as good a rod as what came from the G Loomis rack.

[cityevader]

I don't think it will be difficult at all, except for all the intricate patterns I want to try.

My biggest hurdle is that I am time-poor, and have a very dusty working environment (balsa airplane hobby).

[cityevader]

Of the three rods I had in mind to strip, I went with the one that had the most to gain with just new guides, an 8' Ugly Stik Bigwater 1-3oz.

It hardly took an hour to strip and clean it...after a week of ordering stuff from Mudhole, still nothing but order pending. Sigh.

I forgot to take a "before" pic but here's one after stripping the lower two guides, with string pulled through it.

[ZAFisher]

Oh look Spider-Man was here.

[cityevader]

Surprised my guides came in today, man are they tiny! 5mm running guides.

 

Now that the rod is stripped the tip measures 3mm....but I don't see any tip tops from Mudhole at 5mm ring with 3mm tube size. The fiberglass tip looks like it's a "cross wrap" over solid. Would it be unwise to sand .2mm off the diameter to achieve 2.8mm?

[Wfmdfm1]

Rod tips are strange. They are measured in 64th of an inch for the tube size. So  a size 3 tube is 3/64 of an inch. But the size of the ring is in mm. Strange how they combined the two.

 

[vinnyb]

14 hours ago, cityevader said:

Surprised my guides came in today, man are they tiny! 5mm running guides.

 

Now that the rod is stripped the tip measures 3mm....but I don't see any tip tops from Mudhole at 5mm ring with 3mm tube size. The fiberglass tip looks like it's a "cross wrap" over solid. Would it be unwise to sand .2mm off the diameter to achieve 2.8mm?

Grab a cheap plastic tip gage from mudhole. Then you can know for sure what size tube you need. 

[spoonplugger1]

Drill bits are in 64ths of an inch, if it's sloppy it's a half size.