Rod Building 101
SVTU May 28, 2008

John M. Lachin

Rod building is certainly not hard. Its fun and can save lots of $$. To do it you need some basic
supplies and then a worktable of some kind. Rather than have a sequence of classes to actually
execute the steps, we will have a single session where we will describe and demonstrate the
steps and attendees can take notes. This handout gives an outline of the presentation and a
description of the steps.

WHAT TO BRING

Paper and pencil.
A built rod, any rod, fly or spinning.
A cardboard box with notches to support a rod section.
Thread with a bobbin and a book (to try wrapping a guide).
Some scissors or a razor blade.

OUTLINE

The basic steps to be covered are:

1. Purchasing the materials.
2. Determining the spine for each rod section and the assembled rod to determine the
alignment of the rod sections (critical to guide placement).
3. Reaming the cork handle, building bushings onto the butt to fit the reel seat diameter,
assembling (gluing) the reel seat, handle and winding check.
4. Guide placement and alignment on the assembled blank, best done using the full rod on
a long table.
5. Wrapping each guide, apply color preserver to the threads.
6. Applying "flex coat" and rotating the rod until dry.
The following describes the materials needed and then the specific steps.

GENERAL SUPPLIES

I will divide the supplies into general, rod-components and rod-building supplies. For those who
plan to build many rods, you might want to invest in a rod wrapping stand and a motor to rotate
the rod for coating the guides and drying the epoxy. For those who don't, all you really need is a
saw horse, some boards, some small cardboard boxes, some books and a variable speed drill.
You still need a table regardless. Here's the rest of the list.

• Epoxy glue for the reel seat and cork
• 1/4" masking tape to build bushings (wrap onto the blank to increase diameter to match
that of the cork handle and reel seat), and to temporarily place attach guides. ½ “ tape
would also do.
• Electrical tape or wide masking tape and a sheet of coarse sand paper to ream the cork.
• Either an old blank (or the new blank) or a dowel (1/8 to 3/8” depending on the blank butt
diameter.
• Long nose pliers.
• Cigarette lighter
• Razor blade or xacto knife.
• Variable speed drill or drying motor

The above come from the hardware store (other than the motor).

ROD COMPONENTS

The rod components and rod-building materials are bought from a supplier. You might try Mud
Hole Tackle, Anglers Workshop, Shoff tackle, Cabela's, many others. These all have cheap
blanks. I have gotten some real bargins from the first two that sometimes buy up discontinued
models and sell at a deep discount.

• The rod blank. There is a wide variety of materials, lengths, line weights and actions.
Even inexpensive graphite blanks generally work well. You will need the diameter of the
butt section and the tip in order to purchase other matching parts. If you’re buying a rod
building kit that includes everything, then you don’t have to worry about this.
• Reel seat. Top of the line are the nickel-silver with an exotic wood insert. Simple aluminum
also works well. Reel seats can be uplocking or downlocking. Some can be hooded,
meaning that the assembly is recessed into the bottom of the cork handle. My favorite
was the uplocking hooded Powell reel seat that was available on the market in the 90s. If
you’re not buying a kit, make sure that the inner diameter of the reel seat is larger than
the outer diameter of the rod blank.
• Cork handle. The full “wells” looks like an elongated hourglass. Its standard on higher
weights, >= 7. I like a reverse half wells for rods < 7 wt., , i.e. the wells shape on the
bottom and tapered on the top. Either can be reamed to hood a reel seat. Cigar grips are
tapered top and bottom and can’t hood most seats. Get a reel seat with a fighting butt for
7 wt and higher.
• Tip top, guide set, hook keep (if desired) and winding check (a rubber or metal oval to
seal the opening of the cork handle at the top around the blank). Guide sets are sold by
the rod length, tip tops to match the tip diameter of the blank. Most vendors who sell
blanks also sell a variety of guide sets for different length rods.
Snake guides have two feet to wrap. Single foot guides are easier to wrap but a little
more expensive. They cut the wrapping time in half. There are also different varieties of
stripping guides. I don't think this matters much except with big game rods like a 7 wt or
higher.

ROD BUILDING SUPPLIES

The rest of the list includes:

• A stick of ferrule cement to glue on the tip-top. Its called ferrule cement because it was
used to mount metal ferrules on older bamboo and fiberglass rods.
• You can also buy guide placement cement (also a stick, used with a lighter) that is used
to temporarily place the guides along the blank before wrapping them.
• Thread, color of your choice. Size A for most fly rods.
• Color preserver to put on the wraps before coating with epoxy
• Flex-coat epoxy for coating the wraps. There are two varieties: lite coat and heavy. The
lite coat usually requires multiple coats to get the proper finish. You should only use the
heavy if you have a rod turner (drying motor or variable speed drill that you can rig). This
usually comes with cups, stirers and brushes. The type with pre-loaded syringes is a little
easier to use.

If you plan to build multiple rods you could also invest in solvent cleaner.

SECTION ALIGHMENT (SPINNING)

The first step is to determine the alignment of the rod sections. The alignment of each section
with respect to the spine of the section then determines the rod action. Some blanks (Sage and
Scott but not Loomis) come with the proper rod section alignment pre-marked which saves some
time by skipping this step. Gatti rods (supplied by Mud Hole, first rate) claim not to have a spine
but I could certainly detect one.

To determine the spine of a section, hold the section diagonally at the top, resting the base on a
table top (use a cardboard or paper cushion), press down with the other hand mid way along the
blank. The section will “jump” (rotate) to the point of maximum flex. If the section is rotated 90
degrees and then you repeat the process there is a spine on the other side of the blank. The
stiffer side is often called the high side, the softer side the low side.

Before doing this it helps to wrap some masking tape around the section and to mark the high
and low spine with a different color dot, say red for high, black for low. The actual high and low
spines may not be exactly 90 degrees apart.

Having built rods from Sage and others that mark the alignment for you, as well as having some
factory built rods, its clear that what Sage aligns the sections so that the entire assembled blank
has a high and low spine that are almost 90 degrees apart and with nearly equal flex. To get this
effect, you might start by assembling the high side of the top section to the low side of the butt
section, aligned on the section spines. Then check the spine of the blank (high and low), and
rotate the top section to get to the point of equal flex for the full blank from each side. Using a
different color pen (say green), make a dot on the tape to mark the alignment of the two sections.

For multi-piece rods, manufacturers, like Sage, often place the middle sections against the spine.
That is, for a 4 piece rod the butt may be aligned along the high side, the second section 45
degrees to the spine to the right, the next 45 degrees to the left and then the tip aligned on the
low side. This gives a very different action than when all 4 sections are aligned along the spine.
Also, all four sections are adjusted to get an alignment with equal flex from each side of the
assembled blank.

If your blank does not have marks to indicate alignment, then check the manufacturer’s website
or write them an e-mail. They’ll tell you how to align the sections.

Another approach is to use Dr. Bill’s “Common Cents” approach to determining the line weight
rating of a rod and its action (http://www.common-cents.info/). The website also gives the ratings
of many rods marketed over the years (http://www.superbob.org/CC_Data.htm). First, clamp the
blank to a bookshelf (lightly) and shim as necessary so that it is horizontal (along the midline of
the butt section). For an unfinished blank, make a few folds of masking tape at the tip. Then
untwist a small paper clip (into an S) and punch a hole in the tape with one end and a hole in the
corner of a plastic bag in the other. Then add pennies to the bag until the rod tip is deflected 1/3
the length of the blank. (measured from the height of the blank, not the unweighted tip). Dr. Bill
gives a table with the equivalent line weight of the rod based on how many pennies were needed.

Alternately, if you have a scale, you can add whatever you have to the bag and then weigh it (in
grains). You can then refer the grain count to a table to determine the line weight.
For a multisection rod the line weight rating of the rod can be altered by changing the alignment
of the middle section(s).

HANDLE AND REEL SEAT

The reel seat will come unassembled. The barrel will have to be glued to the top and bottom
pieces. You can do that the moment the kit arrives. Some prefer fast acting epoxy. I generally use
the low drying. I have made dumb mistakes and was able to correct them.

One of the tedious parts can be reaming the cork handle to fit the butt section. Most handles
come with a ¼” hole. But the blank butt can be much larger than that, and its tapered. You can
buy a cork reamer (section of fiberglass or old blank with grit epoxied onto it) but they tend to be
too big for fly rods. Some recommend using a “rat tail” file, basically a long round file on a handle.
But they are often too short and do not make a nice even round expansion of the original hole. I
have found that sand paper works just as well.

What I do is take an older rod blank, or the rod blank section I’m building, cut a strip of sandpaper
about 3" long and an inch or so wide. I tape it to the blank longways with either a 3” section of
electrical or masking tape. You want to find the spot along the blank where this assembly will just
fit into the cork hole, then by hand turn the blank and ream out the handle. This will have to be
done repeatedly, each time using a new piece of sandpaper moved further down the blank until
the handle fits snugly over the blank to where the reel seat will be installed.

If you have an old blank section, then you can wrap the end of it with some masking tape, and put
it in a drill and then the process can go a lot faster. This also works with a dowel. Since a dowel is
not tapered, another option is to cut progressively wider sections of sandpaper so that when it
wraps around the dowel its thickness is increased.

You’re done when the cork handle will fall to the desired spot on the blank, where it will meet the
reel seat. This approach leaves a nearly perfectly round, tapered hole that fits snug against the
blank.

If you wish, you can then ream out the butt of the handle to make a hood for the reel seat. I have
tried various techniques. One is to hold a spade bit that is close to the diameter of the reel seat in
one hand, and with the other firmly grip the butt of the handle with thumb and forefinger holding
the bottom of the grip. Slowly turn the bit to ream out a rough hole. I then have a grinder bit for my
drill (about 3/8 long and 3/8 diameter on a post). I turn the drill on the low speed (using the switch
for continuous hands free operation), and then slowly expand the hole and smooth it out.
It doesn’t have to be perfect because the cork is flexible.

Now you’re ready to glue the reel seat and handle to the butt section. It helps to wrap some 
masking tape around the reel seat barrel and to make a dot to indicate the alignment of the reel mount.
About ¼” from the bottom of the blank, rap a bushing of ¼“ masking tape to a diameter slightly
smaller than the interior diameter of the reel seat. Then wrap another bushing about 3/8 above
that, then another and others with the last bushing being just even with the top of the reel seat.
Check that the reel seat will slide easily over the blank and bushings. Now coat the butt section
with epoxy, as well as the interior of the reel seat. Slide the reel seat onto the blank, twisting it as
you do so.

The first time you do it you might want to let the reel seat cure before doing the handle. But if
you’re careful you can do both at the same time. Add a thin bead of epoxy to the blank where the
handle will go. Its not necessary to coat the entire blank. A spiral bead will do. DO NOT coat the
inside of the handle. Also, coat the top of the reel seat if it is to be hooded. Slide the handle onto
the blank, again with a twisting motion, down to the reel seat. If you do the two steps at once,
make sure that you don’t partially slide the reel seat off the blank when mounting the handle.

The last step is to align the reel seat mount with the spine of the blank along which the guides will
be placed. Then place the butt section standing up for the epoxy to cure.

GUIDE PLACEMENT

First mount the tip top and align it with the spine of the blank. Apply a flame from a cigarette
lighter to the ferrule cement to soften it and then wipe a drop or two of cement onto the blank tip.
Hold the tip top with a small pair of pliers, long nose are best. Grip the top section of the barrel
with the pliers, not the loop on the tip-top. Then apply flame to the tip-top and when hot, slide it
onto the rod tip and the cement. Don’t worry about excess. When the tip cools, the excess can be
scraped off with a finger nail. Don’t overheat the tip-top or it will be discolored.

To ensure that the tip-top is installed in alignment, I tape the tip section of the blank to a
worktable the spline alignment along the top and with the tip extending a few inches over the
side. Then I try to make sure the tip-top is aligned when I cement it on. If its off slightly, the briefly
apply flame and reposition.

The reason for mounting the tip-top first is that most guide placement instructions are measured
from the tip-top. There are numerous guide placement charts for general use but since the
manufacturer uses computer models, etc. to determine guide placement, my first choice would be
to use the manufacturer’s specs. These can be obtained from the manufacturer’s website. If you
have a discontinued blank that’s no longer on their site, write them an e-mail.

Leaving the first section taped to the table, I then lay a length of masking tape on the table top
next to the section. Using a tape measure, I make marks on the tape at the exact distance from
the tip-top specified for each successive guide. For additional sections, the blank needs to be
assembled and then additional marks made measured off the tip-top, or the last guide placement
on the first section, and so on for additional sections.

Before mounting the guides, it helps to file the guide feet to make them smooth. Some suggest
using a grinder to make the guides pointed and tapered. I don’t think that’s necessary. I just make
sure there are no burs left from manufacturing that could cut the thread.

A simple way to mount the guides is to simply tape them on with masking tape, the loop of the
guide even with the mark on the length of masking tape. Alternately, guide placement cement can
be used. For this you hold the guide with the pliers at the loop, heat the guide feet, rub each on
the cement and then place the guide on blank. Hold for a second while the cement cools. I also
add tape just to make sure it stays in place.

Then when all the guides have been taped on they can be aligned relative to the rod spine.
Looking down the length of the section is the best way to do this.

WRAPPING THE GUIDES

When I built my first rod, I used two cardboard boxes with a notch in two sides of each to support
the blank when wrapping and coating the guides. To provide thread tension, I passed the thread
under a book with the spool in a bobbin. If you don’t have a bobbin, just put the spool in a drinking
glass or coffee cup. Later, I built a rod-building stand with adjustable tension for the thread holder.
It greatly simplifies the work. Various outfitters sell such stands and they are well worth it if you
are going to be building many rods over the years.

There are two types of threads, ordinary and NCP (no color preserver). The former needs to be
treated with a color preserver after wrapping the guides, the latter not. Size A is right for most fly
rods.

The basic steps are described on a number of websites, including
(http://www.flyfisherman.com/rodbuilding). Some suggest marking the blank where the wrap will
start and finish but I just do it by eye. I may make marks on an index card to show the desired
width and just hold it up to the guide to check the placement.

Consider the case where the wrap starts to the right of the guide foot. Loop the tag over and
around the blank. With the thread under tension, hold the tag under the second wrap to form an
“X”. After 6 or so wraps over the tag, it can be cut off.

Sometimes the X has a tendency to slip and collapse. I use a slightly different approach. With no
tension applied I make 6 or so loose wraps towards the guide with the tag end, not necessarily
right next to each other. Then I hold the tag and roll the blank section so that I wrap over the first
of the loose wraps. Continue to roll until all of the loose wraps are covered. Now apply tension. As
you continue to roll and wrap the blank, pull on the tag so that it straightens out. If needed press
on the first or last wrap with a fingernail to position the wrap along the blank to the desired
starting point. Cut the tag and proceed.

As you reach the guide foot, be careful mak the first wrap over the foot. After the first couple
wraps over the foot, if there is a gap over the beginning of the foot, reposition the thread wraps
with your fingernail.

About 5 or so wraps from the end, take a loop of thread and place it under the current wrap with
the loop towards the guide. Continue wrapping. When you reach the end of the guide foot, place
your thumb over the thread, and cut a tag of about 3 inches. Place the tag in the loop. Then grab
the two tags of the loop and pull the loop through (underneath the last 5 or so wraps). Sometimes
the loop of thread will twist and knot if you’re not careful. So start pulling gently until most of the
loop has been pulled through. If there is no not then sharply pull the loop and the tag through.
Then cut the tag with a razor blade or knife at the point where it exits underneath the wraps.
After the guides have been wrapped on a section, again check the alignment. A guide can be
repositioned by pressing with a thumbnail against the side of the guide foot. Make sure that the
guides are aligned with the rod spine that was marked when you began.

In addition to the guides you should wrap the butt section at the winding check. That’s the place
to add a hook keep if you want one. Also wind a decorative wrap about 3/16th at the tip-top.
Then for every female section of each piece, wrap the complete length of the ferrule, from the tip
of the ferrule to about ¼” beyond where the male tip end will lie when the sections are joined.
After the guides have been wrapped, you can apply color preserver, the consistency of milk. It
takes an hour or so to dry. Then you’re ready to coat the wraps.

COATING THE WRAPS

Before coating and drying the wraps, you will need some kind of a stand and a device for rotating
the blank. If you don’t have a stand, then just take a couple of boxes the same size with notches
in the top of the sides to support the blank, the same as used for wrapping. After coating the
wraps, then you can rotate the blank 45-90 degrees every few minutes over the next hour or so
by hand or use a drill or motor to turn the blank.

To set up a variable speed drill to turn the blank for you, take a large nail and wrap it with
masking tape. Then form two bushings about ½” apart. Insert the nail into the drill chuck. Then
fasten (clamp or tape) the drill to the worktable underneath the butt section with the nail pointing
parallel to the rod. Wrap a large rubber band around the nail and either the narrow part of the grip
or the reel seat. If you have a rod building stand, you can tape the drill to the stand itself.
Alternately, you can tape a small finishing nail to the tip top (nail coming through the loop). Place
the drill on some books or whatever to have it at the same height as the rod, fastened with
masking tape. Insert the end of the finishing nail into the chuck.

Turn the drill onto its lowest speed to rotate the blank slowly. For coating the wraps its best if the
blank rotates up and away from you rather than towards you. Or you can use a drying motor. These 
come with a chuck that will grab the butt of the rod or the tip-top.

There are different brands of flexible epoxy coatings, the most common being FlexCoat® that
comes in a high build and light build variety. The high build allows you to put on a thick coat and
usually a single coat is all that’s required. The light build requires multiple coats. It comes either in
two small bottles with two syringes. You need to load each syringe and mix the two contents
together. Alternately, you can buy pre-loaded syringes that are a little more expensive but easier
to work with.

Before using the flexcoat, read all the instructions. They have excellent tips. Some of the most
important are to be sure to warm the epoxy before using. You can just let it soak in hot water for a
few minutes. When mixing in a small plastic cup, avoid making a lot of bubbles. Then pour the
mix onto a section of aluminum foil, the foil helps keep the mix from curing. Then use an
appropriate sized brush (provided) to apply the coat to the guide wrap. Start from the middle and
work outwards.

Especially for long wraps, like the female ferrules, it will be hard to get a smooth application of the
coat using the brush. That’s not a problem; it will even out somewhat through turning the blank.
But if you want a really factory-like finish, the next step is to take a hair dryer and blow the wraps
with the dryer on the low fan setting. All it will take is a few minutes to heat and soften the coating.
Then the rod turning will even it out.

After the epoxy has set, say 2 h. you can stop rotating. After another few hours it will have cured
enough to use.

Most manufacturers either label the blank at the factory, or provide a decal to apply. If not, you
can take an opaque white marker, write the specs on a section of clear tape and apply the tape to
the blank.

Then go fishing.