fishingguy61
Senior Member
Does anyone know of someone who builds custom fishing rods in the Atlanta area?
Buy a kit from mudhole and build one for yourself. It's a satisfying experience to catch fish on a rod you've built yourself.Does anyone know of someone who builds custom fishing rods in the Atlanta area?
My goodness! I couldn’t even imagine shrink wrapping a guide on. That ain’t right at all. Does anybody do that?I make rods for myself and family's personal use.
Like stated above, I can't imagine being able to make a lot of money at it.
It's time consuming, especially if you thread wrap instead of using shrink tube.
I average $100+ in blanks and material per rod.
I've never used shrink wrap but know some that have used it instead of thread and Flex-coat it just like thread.My goodness! I couldn’t even imagine shrink wrapping a guide on. That ain’t right at all. Does anybody do that?
You can save a little bit of money rolling your own, but really only if you get wholesale prices on components. Main thing though, you can custom tailor grip length and shape, guide train, etc.
I’m a big fan of spiral wrapped rods, and you will never find one of those in a store.
Got 2 rods my "Uncle" Tommy Padget made for me back in the early 80's using the same rig.They must be lazy. At one time I was on all the rodbuidling boards, went to the shows, new pretty much all the big players (Bill Batson, Gary Loomis, the chief engineer of St. Croix) and I never heard of such a thing.
It really is pretty easy to learn how to wrap guides. I taught myself from a little bit of info from the old Jancraft - there was no Mudhole around then. I started with a shoebox with notches cut in it, and a telephone book for tension. I then built a simple stand to hold the rod, and after awhile graduated to a powered rod lathe. It is not hard, and actually fun.
I started off doing the tape wrap under reel seats. I knew right off the bat not to use masking tape. I had heard too many bad things about that, plus I've repaired a lot of them, when the adhesion breaks loose. I started off with drywall tape, and never to my knowledge had one go bad.It's very rewarding.
I don't do any fancy wrapping. Just cork handles and single color thread.
I prefer tape wrapped and epoxied for filling the reel seats. It seems to be a more solid fit.
I made 2 bottom fishing rods from Gorilla Glass blanks and those things will pull up a Volkswagen.
Arthritis in my wrists has just about ended my rod building.I started off doing the tape wrap under reel seats. I knew right off the bat not to use masking tape. I had heard too many bad things about that, plus I've repaired a lot of them, when the adhesion breaks loose. I started off with drywall tape, and never to my knowledge had one go bad.
But that is awful messy, you tend to get Rodbond or some other paste epoxy (which is what you ought to be using for this) all over everything.
Then I discovered the premade arbors from Mudhole and other suppliers. Some call them graphite arbors, but they are not that, just some kind of dense foam. But you can easily ream them out to fit your rod, and they've got outside diameters for all common sized reel seats.
Quick and easy, inexpensive, and I think you get a lot better bond.
I'm in the process of having a big 30x40 metal building put up, mainly so I can get into reloading, but I'm gonna set my rod shop back up too.