9-Putting It All Together

After lots of delays and distractions, I finally put the first coat of finish on the wraps yesterday.  I should be casting in two more days.  At the start I said that this wouldn't be a blog about beginning rod building, but I will mention some of my techniques.  In all of our crafty endeavors we start with a teacher or book and integrate skills and knowledge over time to produce our own style.  That's what I'm talking about here, style or what works for me.

Lets start with the cork grip. I begin with cork rings that you see in post #4.  These are placed on 1/4 inch all-thread with a layer of Weldwood Plastic Resin Glue between rings.  Nuts are tightened down to compress the rings until glue is squeezed from all joints.  This process has always resulted in a grip without viable joints between rings.  The assembly is chucked into the lathe and turned to shape.  My first step is to sand the grip round with 100 grit cloth on a wood block.  This results in the cork being concentric around its axis.  At this point I shape the grip using 100 through 600 cloth and paper.  The grip is removed from the all-thread by holding the grip in one hand while spinning the shaft in reverse with a drill motor.

The inner ID of the grip has to be reamed with rat tail files and reamers until it fits over the rod.  Once a good fit is achieved, I glue the grip in place with 2 Ton Clear Weld Epoxy.  Some folks will ream individual cork rings (less work) and assemble the grip on the rod.  They then chuck the rod butt section in a "rod lathe" and shape the grip.  I would have to acquire a roller steady rest for my lathe before using this method.  The results are the same.

I glue the reel seat in place with the same glue.  I have learned by experience to first dry fit the seat and mount a reel.  This allows me to assure that the reel will align with any guides on the butt section.  Carefully placed alignment marks work for this purpose, but there's nothing like a visual check before getting out the epoxy.

In post #5 I explained guide spacing, and rod spline in #6.  With this information the guide locations are marked.  Marks can be made with pencil if they show up.  This is convenient because the marks are easily removed with alcohol on a Q-tip.  Before placing the guides, I wrap the ferrules without the guides in the way.  Aligning guides can seem to take as much work as wrapping.  I tape guides in place and then look through the guides checking that they appear to align.  I then look down on the rod section checking that there is an equal amount of each guide visible on each side of the rod.

My fishing buddy, Jim, showed me how to wrap a second color (gold metallic) embedded in the primary color (black).  If you are interested, reply to this post, and I will try to describe the process.  After some practice I was able to wrap a guide pretty quickly.  I have one strong recommendation.  Take time to prep the guides.  By this I mean filing and honing down the leading edge of each guide to a knife edge without any burrs.  If you don't, you will fight the wrapping effort.  I found the Hopkins-Holloway guides required very little preparation.

Finally, it's time to finish the rod.  Today graphite rods are finished with a two part epoxy, which is only placed on the wraps.  This is often applied very thick.  Years ago bamboo was wrapped with silk thread and finished with varnish.  As fiberglass rods were built between bamboo and graphite, I used an in between process.  Wrapping thread is nylon and the finish is General Finishes Arm-R-Seal.  It is a tung oil/urethane  finish that was recommended by a bamboo rod builder who also uses it on fiberglass.  I will put at least three coats on the wraps, and then another two coats on the fiberglass and wraps.  The glass doesn't require a finish, but I like the look.

In the next post I will tell you what line weight the rod likes and have finished pictures.  Surely you can't wait.  At least I'm anxious to get to what this project is all about -- fishing.

8-Strength

How can you break your rod while casting? I'll get to that, but first let's think about the strength of a rod. Fiberglass is a very strong material that resulted in a rod lighter than bamboo, but not as light as modern graphite. Fiberglass rods were initially designed to cast like soft bamboo, and still can't produce the fast action of graphite, but it can take more abuse.

I mentioned in the last post that most of the fibers in the material run the length of the rod. This arrangement resists bending and makes a stiffer rod. The stiffer it is, the faster the action is. Weight of the rod (not line weight) is the trade-off. Graphite wins in the fast vs light competition. Fibers also wrap around the rod. These provide radial strength and keep the rod from deforming too far out of round under bending stress. Though a fiberglass rod won't cast the distance of a graphite, it will produce a more delicate and controlled cast than graphite. The bamboo guys will argue that cane rods are even more delicate and controlled.

Rods get abused when I fish. There is the yearly fall into the rocks, which is the reason I avoid expensive reels. There is also the larger fly hook hitting the rod at many miles per hour during an marginally controlled cast. Both situations can nick the surface fibers of the rod. This creates a weak spot. Graphite has a softer surface, thinner wall thickness, and faster line speed (fly velocity), and suffers greater damage.

A fly rod is designed to have high bending strength and adequate radial strength. It's not designed to have high resistance to twist. This leads to a weakness you can exploit if you wish to break your rod. Casting sidearm is a useful technique in a variety of situations. Double hauling sidearm is powerful, but puts great stress on the rod. The caster must apply enough power to keep the line from dropping to the ground during the back cast. It's necessary to keep your thumb behind the direction of the cast so that the guides face in that direction. Look at the diagram and imagine the twist put into the small diameter tip section of the rod if the line is pulling as shown. Always keep the guides and reel aligned with the direction of the cast.

Here is another tip breaking technique that works best on fast action rods that bend mostly in the tip section. Before you cast, when first pulling line out through the guides, grab the leader and pull down parallel to the raised rod. This forces the maximum bending stress into the tip section at its smallest diameter. It's much harder to break the rod if you pull away from it, which applies the stress against the rod length.

Lastly, we can break the rod at the ferrule. Again, this is best done during a sidearm cast. I discovered this while practicing with a 9 weight rod. The middle rod section slipped forward during a double haul cast. This put all the bending stress on two points as seen in the diagram. Point 1 couldn't break through the side, but the rod split at Point 2. I've also had the rod tip section come loose on light rods and fly out into the water. The first reaction is to look around and assure that no one saw that happen, then I retrieve the section and put the rod together again. There is a solution to this problem -- St. Croix Ferrule Wax. Apply it to the male ferrule and they won't slip.

I've gotten off on a bit of a casting tangent. But my rods suffer enough during normal use, so I try not to add to it through improper use. In the next post I will discuss assembly of the rod, and in the last post I'll find the right line for it.

7-Manufacture

Build a fiberglass rod, how do they do that?

First a steel mandrel is machined to what will become the inside diameter and taper of the finished rod blank. Each rod weight and action will have a different size mandrel. The uncut blank that I started with would have had a full length mandrel. Contemporary graphite rods often have a built in ferrule. The butt end of one section slips over the tip end of its mate. These have to be manufactured as separate sections.

The material that wraps the mandrel is fiberglass with many more fibers running lengthwise than crosswise to the rod. It is impregnated by the supplier with a resin glue, and is then called pre-preg. The fiber specifications, their orientation and the resin used are all design parameters that determine the rod characteristics. Early rods were made of E-glass and the later rods of S-glass. I have to assume that my rod is S-glass because that is what would have been in inventory when Wright-McGill stopped making fiberglass rods. S-glass is somewhat stronger, and can produce a stiffer and lighter rod.

The pre-preg is wrapped around the mandrel, and that is wrapped with a heat shrinking cellophane. Here again, the wrapping technique impacts the finished rod's performance. At this point the mandrel is hung in an oven to cure. The cellophane shrinks when heated. This puts pressure on the pre-preg in which the resin has liquefied. The excess resin is squeezed out, and the rod continues to cure -- harden.

The mandrel is removed from the cured rod as is the cellophane. At this stage spiral ridges caused by the uneven cellophane pressure remain. These were most often, but not always, sanded off. My blank has the ridges. I don't know if they would have been sanded. Not all companies sanded the blanks, but I believe W-M did. I'm leaving mine. By the way, W-M started making fiberglass rod in 1952 and continued into the early 70's. At one point they were making 500 a day. Most would have been spinning and casting rods.

If you are interested is further detail, "The Technology of Fly Rods" by Don Phillips is an excellent resource. It's out of print, but available through inter-library loan. I think I will leave rod strength for the next post.