One Custom Spinning Rod

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

One custom spinning rod, comong up. Just got the parts needed to complete a medium fast, walleyr spinning rod. I'm using premium cork for the rear and fore-grps, a premium cork fighting butt, a beautiful, and quality reel seat. The rod blank has been properly spined. I'm using top of the line Fujii K, Concept guides, and tiptop, with the anti-tangle design, with SIC inserts. I've got beautiful blue trim rings, with a matching winding check, premium hook keeper, and a gorgeous forest green, silk winding thread to attach the guides to the charcoal colored rod blank. This rod is a single piece, 7 foot rod. When it's complete, it will be worth $300. When I find a buyer, I will get custom decals with the buyer's name, and the rod action, and strength, along with my company name
I just purchased a new rod holder setup with a winding, and drying motor. That should speed up the work vs. turning the rod blank by hand. I'll begin buildig it tomorrow.? this is exciting for me.

I sold a custom rod, similar to this one, but with Pac Bay Airwave guides, with enough power to land steelhead, and coho salmon. She loves it. She purchased it for $300. Know anyone in the market for a premium., custom spinning rod? Oh, and the rod blank is made by a well respected company, known for producing high quality graphite blnks. This rod will cast long, and accurate. It will be ballanced, and super sensitive as well. I need to build a 300 dollar fly rod for my son's dental practice.as a raffle item to draw in customers. My other son wants me to build him a Sage, 3 weight, fast action, fly rod fot brook trout. I built myself a Winston, 7 weight, BX3, worth $900 if bought from the Winston factory. That Sage will cost about $450 to build. I've got work ahead of me, not to mebtion tying flies for the grandkids.

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North.

 

[taxlady]

Sounds interesting. I'll be following this thread. Will there be pictures of the progress?

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

If I can figure out how to put photos in DC, I'll post pictures.

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[taxlady]

If I can figure out how to put photos in DC, I'll post pictures.

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

Do you use the camera in your phone or a stand alone camera to take pictures? I'm sure we can walk you through it.

 

[strmanglr scott]

The Sage will cost $450 to build or is that retail?

I've built a couple rods myself. Imo, a motorized rod Turner is critical. I have only used my rotisserie on my grill once in five years and I thought about rigging that up for turning the rod. If I got into it I'd buy a rod turner.

I thought about getting into that hardcore. I just can't imagine people paying that kind of money, but I know they do. I thought, how many rods can I make until I get a good enough reputation that I can actually sell them. Screw up one rod and it's an expensive mistake. Last rod I built was a 5' trout rod. I didn't even use expensive parts and it still ran me close to $100. Most I've ever spent on a rod.

Where do you get your supplies from Chief? Do you ever check out the videos on you tube from Mudhole?

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

I get a l;ot of my rod building supplies from Mudhole.com. I also use Anlgelr's Workship, and GetBit.com/ RodGeeks has good prices on quality blanks as well. There are several other good places, each offfering slightly different products, and prices. Though I purchased my cork handles from Mudhole, I got the winding check from angler's Workshop, and hte fighting but from another site that I don't remember, offhand. Shop around. There are literally hundreds of places that sell rod building suplies and tools. Many sell entire rod building kits, with matched blanks and parts to go with them. You simply put it all together.

Echo makes a great rod kit at a great price. They have a very good reputation for their fiberglass fly rods. You can purchase a completely built beginner's rod for right around $00, not including the reel.

And if you are including a fly reel, that's going to add between $70, to $350 dollars to the total cost, depending on the reel. You can get good large arbor reels for around $60, or a bit more If you don't mind buying Chinese knock-offs. Many of the high priced reals are made in the same Chinese factories as are the knock-offs.

The Sage is a $450 build, by the time you pay for the blank, premium super, or floor grade cork, premium winding checks, reel seat, fighting but, trim rings, and high quality Fuji K Concept, SIC guides and tiptop. Depending on what the customer wants, you also purchase decals, and more pricey parts. I know of an elk-horn scrimshawed reel seat that alone will set you back $300. That same Sage rod, when purchased complete from Sage, will cost you in excess of $900. So building a rod, if you know what you are doing, is definitely cheaper than purchasing a completed rod, plus you can customize it to your fishing style, and determine the quality. To build a high quality ice fishing rod, I'm looking at a $45 build. I sold 7 last year, and a spin casting rod, for a total profit of $400. And I was charging only $5 per hour for my time. The rest of the costs were shipping, and parts. Now that I have the drying and thread wrapping motors, and jig, it should take much less time for the build.

There is money to be made, and a market for custom rids. But you must produce high quality rods. The thread winding must be perfect, the colors must be good, the rods must perform as expected, and it has to look, and perform better than what can be purchased at Walmart,

I checked out the ice fishing rods at Walmart to try and find out why I can't build and sell a custom ice rod for less that $70, and they can sell ice rods for $10 or less. The first thing I checked was the construction. I bent and found the spine of the ice rod and looked at the guide placement. There were too few guides, and they were aligned neither to the spine, or the belly, which will cause excess torque when landing a fish, which could result in the rod snapping. Also, the rod blank material was cheap, and no at all sensitive. I doubt it had much tensile strength. As a test, I lifted a 5 lb. weight with my completed ice rods. That's the difference between a quality custom rod, and a big box store rod. My ice rods had Pacific Bay, Airwave guides, and could be used as an ultra-light rod for catching bass and trout, and all panfish during the summer. The guides allowed for long casts that rivaled the casting of a good spinning rod. And the fiberglass blanks are tough enough to handle fish up to walleye size. Imagine fighting a 15 inch small mouth bass with that little ice rod. That would be a lot of fun. I let the purchasers know that they could use their ice rods in the summer as well. They appreciated that.

I love the versatility I can put into my rod builds, and how I can customize the rods, no matter whether a customer wants a spinning, casting, jigging, ice, or fly rod. I can make it stealthy, or full of shiny bling, though I prefer to make it stealthy, so as to increase the chances of not spooking skittish trout or bass. For steeelhead, and salmon, even pike, you're not so close to the fish, and so add all lthe bling and make the rod beautiful, with the colors and decals the customer wants.

Can you tell that I enjoy the creative process of bulding rods? A rod blank I really want to build on is CTS, out of New Zealand. They have a great reputation, and the reviews are really, really good for all of their rod blanks, fresh water, surf, salt water, and fly rods. They offer premium carbon fiber, composite, and glass blanks that are supposed to be among the best in the business, and not as expensive as Ross, Sage, Winston, or Orvis. But they are still pricey, coming in about $100 less than their competitors. I believe my next build for myself will be on a CTS Quarta Crystal Glass fly rod blank.

Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[strmanglr scott]

Start making center pin rods. I don't think any of those guys spend less than several hundred on their reels.

You'd be disgusted what I use for equipment. I'm the Wal-Mart rod guy. I buy good reels but not rods. I've broke too many. Broke the trout rod I made. I've only broke one rod fighting a fish and it was my own fault. In high current steelhead fishing, tried to horse it in. I had caught a good number that day and I was in a creek the fish are usually a little more tired.

I joined a fly fishing forum this last summer and that got me rethinking building a rod again. Money isn't quite as tight as it was when I built the last one. There is definitely a difference in the feel of a quality rod. When I built the last rod I saw all the much nicer stuff I could have built with and thought someday I'll drop a few hundred for my dream rod.

Love fishing trout, salmon and steelhead here in Michigan. I do some lazy river bait fishing too for whatever bites.

I make my own spinning lures and tie my own flies as well. Thought about selling spinners but wow that'd be a lot of work to make any kind of money out of it. Pretty much all I use on the spinning rod since I started.

What kind of rod Turner did you purchase?

Tight lines Chief.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

so I'm simply posting it again as it was too late to edtig.

I tried to edit my post to add this info. I get a lot of my rod building supplies from Mudhole.com. I also use Anlgelr's Workshop, and GetBit.com/ RodGeeks has good prices on quality blanks as well. There are several other good places, each offfering slightly different products, and prices. Though I purchased my cork handles from Mudhole, I got the winding check from angler's Workshop, and hte fighting but from another site that I don't remember, offhand. Shop around. There are literally hundreds of places that sell rod building suplies and tools. Many sell entire rod building kits, with matched blanks and parts to go with them. You simply put it all together.

Echo makes a great rod kit at a great price. They have a very good reputation for their fiberglass fly rods. You can purchase a completely built beginner's rod for right around $00, not including the reel.

Cafbon fiber, is more sensitive, and lighter in wheight that fibeflass, but is more brittle, and easier to break. Fiberglass is slower, and less sensitive, and is togher and more durable, but heavier. Fiberglass is easier, and more forgiving when casting a dry fly, and will lay the fly down onto the water more lightly. But their are great carbon finber medium fast ors that will lay down a fly as lightly as a fallng goose down feather as well. For dry flies, I like the Windston rods because of their medium fast action, with enoough backbone to handle whatever you hook into. Sage is very fast acction and is better for casting distance, and into the wind. All of the premium rod companies offer a range of blanks to suit most fishing needs. Better blanks are suppied by Orvis, Sage, Winstion, CTS, MHX (from Mudhole.com), Anerican Tackle, Rod Geeks, and St, Croix, each claiming to have the best. All of them are pretty great. My personal favorites for what I like to target when fishing, are Winston BX3, CTX, Echo, and Orvis, followed by Sage and St. Croix. Sage are great, but a little too fast action for my style of fishing. My son loves the Sage rods.

And if you are including a fly reel, that's going to add between $70, to $350 dollars to the total cost, depending on the reel. You can get good large arbor reels for around $60, or a bit more If you don't mind buying Chinese knock-offs. Many of the high priced reals are made in the same Chinese factories as are the knock-offs.

The Sage is a $450 build, by the time you pay for the blank, premium super, or floor grade cork, premium winding checks, reel seat, fighting but, trim rings, and high quality Fuji K Concept, SIC guides and tiptop. Depending on what the customer wants, you also purchase decals, and more pricey parts. I know of an elk-horn scrimshawed reel seat that alone will set you back $300. That same Sage rod, when purchased complete from Sage, will cost you in excess of $900. So building a rod, if you know what you are doing, is definitely cheaper than purchasing a completed rod, plus you can customize it to your fishing style, and determine the quality. To build a high quality ice fishing rod, I'm looking at a $45 build. I sold 7 last year, and a spin casting rod, for a total profit of $400. And I was charging only $5 per hour for my time. The rest of the costs were shipping, and parts. Now that I have the drying and thread wrapping motors, and jig, it should take much less time for the build.

There is money to be made, and a market for custom rids. But you must produce high quality rods. The thread winding must be perfect, the colors must be good, the rods must perform as expected, and it has to look, and perform better than what can be purchased at Walmart,

I checked out the ice fishing rods at Walmart to try and find out why I can't build and sell a custom ice rod for less that $70, and they can sell ice rods for $10 or less. The first thing I checked was the construction. I bent and found the spine of the ice rod and looked at the guide placement. There were too few guides, and they were aligned neither to the spine, or the belly, which will cause excess torque when landing a fish, which could result in the rod snapping. Also, the rod blank material was cheap, and no at all sensitive. I doubt it had much tensile strength. As a test, I lifted a 5 lb. weight with my completed ice rods. That's the difference between a quality custom rod, and a big box store rod. My ice rods had Pacific Bay, Airwave guides, and could be used as an ultra-light rod for catching bass and trout, and all panfish during the summer. The guides allowed for long casts that rivaled the casting of a good spinning rod. And the fiberglass blanks are tough enough to handle fish up to walleye size. Imagine fighting a 15 inch small mouth bass with that little ice rod. That would be a lot of fun. I let the purchasers know that they could use their ice rods in the summer as well. They appreciated that.

I love the versatility I can put into my rod builds, and how I can customize the rods, no matter whether a customer wants a spinning, casting, jigging, ice, or fly rod. I can make it stealthy, or full of shiny bling, though I prefer to make it stealthy, so as to increase the chances of not spooking skittish trout or bass. For steeelhead, and salmon, even pike, you're not so close to the fish, and so add all lthe bling and make the rod beautiful, with the colors and decals the customer wants.

Can you tell that I enjoy the creative process of bulding rods? A rod blank I really want to build on is CTS, out of New Zealand. They have a great reputation, and the reviews are really, really good for all of their rod blanks, fresh water, surf, salt water, and fly rods. They offer premium carbon fiber, composite, and glass blanks that are supposed to be among the best in the business, and not as expensive as Ross, Sage, Winston, or Orvis. But they are still pricey, coming in about $100 less than their competitors. I believe my next build for myself will be on a CTS Quarta Crystal Glass fly rod blank.

Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Start making center pin rods. I don't think any of those guys spend less than several hundred on their reels.

You'd be disgusted what I use for equipment. I'm the Wal-Mart rod guy. I buy good reels but not rods. I've broke too many. Broke the trout rod I made. I've only broke one rod fighting a fish and it was my own fault. In high current steelhead fishing, tried to horse it in. I had caught a good number that day and I was in a creek the fish are usually a little more tired.

I joined a fly fishing forum this last summer and that got me rethinking building a rod again. Money isn't quite as tight as it was when I built the last one. There is definitely a difference in the feel of a quality rod. When I built the last rod I saw all the much nicer stuff I could have built with and thought someday I'll drop a few hundred for my dream rod.

Love fishing trout, salmon and steelhead here in Michigan. I do some lazy river bait fishing too for whatever bites.

I make my own spinning lures and tie my own flies as well. Thought about selling spinners but wow that'd be a lot of work to make any kind of money out of it. Pretty much all I use on the spinning rod since I started.

What kind of rod Turner did you purchase?

Tight lines Chief.

It is aa 2 motor jicg that I purchased on Eby for a good price. The unit has nylon trays, attached to three aluminum tbes, with wheeled rod holders, and a two bobin thread holder. I had to lubricate the thread holder sled with graphite powder between the nylong sled and aluminum tubing. It slides effortlessly now. It was a treat setup for around $90 complete. This - https://www.ebay.com/itm/Aluminum-fishing-rod-wrapper-3ft-base-w-stand-support-9-rpm-Rod-dryer-110V/254321971476?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

It works well and is easy to put together. The seller upgraded the thread holder and its better than in the pictures.

Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[strmanglr scott]

I couldn't buy a kit, I've seen those, but what's the fun in that. Maybe good for a total beginner. Maybe somebody putting on a class. But I have too much creativity to do that and if I'm gonna drop the money, I want to make it mine.

I used American Tackle for the blank when they had the green blanks. I used black thread w a gold accent. Above the cork I used the black and put my initial in w the gold. Took me a couple times to get it right. I ended up finishing about 11:30 at night. And wouldn't you know it, the very last thread I had to cut I put a gash in my finger about 3/4" long w the razor blade. Went to ready care the next day, doctor chewed me out for waiting till morning. Got a bill close to $300. That was an expensive rod.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

I feel your pain.. I JUST epoxied on the grip, real seat, trim rings, fore-grip, and winding check. I checked the size of my tip top and found the tube size was a 5, while the rod tip needs a size 5.5. I found the tip top I need at Mudhole, in the size I need. It will take a couple of days fot it to get here. That will give the grips, and other items time to set. I also need to purchase a fighting but. I'll break out the micrometer and measure the rod-end so that I can get the correct inner diameter. I had ordered the correct tip top but lost it. There went $15. I hate losing parts. It can get expensive. But when working with such small pieces, it's so very easy to do. I have all of my guides stored in individual plastic bags, with the sizes marked on each bag. I have 7 running guides, and two reduction spinning guides, Guji Tangle free, with SIC inserts, and KG concept. This rod should cast a mile. It's a single piece, 7 foot rod. Guide spacing will be important to get the most from the blank. I'll keep everyone informed as to my progress.

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[strmanglr scott]

I used an small old tackle box to keep my stuff in.

You'll find that fighting butt sometime down the road and think to yourself, well I guess I need to build another rod.

I've owned a lot of different rods, they all seem to cast the same distance. Now that I discovered cold river fishing, distance isn't so important.

Just might take the plunge, I found this...

https://www.mudhole.com/RBS-Hand-Wrapping-System-with-9RPM-Dryer-110V?quantity=1

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Well I promised to keep everyone updated. Sadly, due to family emergencies, and some mistakes, the rod is barely completed. But I ave learned a valuable new skill, a super-easy way to find the belly of the rod blank. I had used what I saw on YouTube, and had read from various sites for rod builders. They all said to place the tip of the rod onto a smooth, flat surface, hold onto the butt end, and apply downward pressure to the rod, forcing it to bend. The rod will then find its natural bend, and the concave part of the arch is the belly, with the opposite side being the spine. However, I discovered that it is too easy to place your own English to the rod, and get a false result, and inaccurate location of the belly. I discovered an easier way, that is dead accurate, and works every time, at least with a single piece blank.

Pick up the rod plank by the center with one hand, and grasp the rod blank tip with the other. Still grasping the tip, place the other hand so that an extended index finger sits sideways under the rod, about a third of the way toward the butt. Place your other index finger on top of the rod, so as to suspend the rod between the two fingers, one on the tip, and one a third of the way down. The rod bends under its own weight, and literally snaps to its natural bend, giving you the perfect location of the belly and spine. Mark it the length of the blank with a china marker, then measure out the distances of the guides, and glue the handle parts, and reel seat in place.

Because I learned this technique after i had gotten the belly a little off, I had to remove the guides, already wrapped onto the blank, and the bottom half of of the handle. I now have to remove the reel seat, which of course is epoxied in place. I will have to bring a very large pot of water to a boil, and soak the rod blank and reel seat in the water to degrade the glue enough to remove the reel seat. This is a seven foot blank, and I have 7 foot ceilings in my house. So, I will have to bring the pot to a boil, and place it on my porch, outside, so that I can immerse the rod and real seat into the water. In effect, I am undoing all that I did, and starting over.

The reel seat is close, and If I completed the rod, lining the guides up with the reel seat, no one would probably know. But I' would know. I want my work to be as perfect as possible. My name is on my work, and I want that name to be synonymous with the finest quality, and attention to every detail.

In a particular post, dealing with food, I said: "Good enough is good enough." In this case, only perfection, or at least as close to perfection as possible, is good enough. Ah well, at least i got to practice my thread wraps, and am happy to say that they are very nice. It's just to bad I had to cut all of them away, and remove the guides so that I could align everything properly.

I will post again with pictures when I have something worth posting.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[RCJoe]

How this brings back the memories. In my earlier years I was an avid fly fisherman. I still have Great Grandad's split bamboo Fly Rod that I fished the mountain streams of West Virginia with. I also have his old bamboo salt water pole as well. (circa late 1920's)

Back in the day I got my fly tying supplies from Herters. (went out of business in 1981)

 

[strmanglr scott]

Argh, Chief, that stinks. Good luck with getting that reel seat off, that's a huge part of the work. At least you didn't glue down the guides. At that point I wouldn't turn back. Then again, after setting the reel seat I probably wouldn't have turned back.

I find the spine the first way. I do it a few times, set it down and come back to it and do it a couple more times just so I'm sure.

Looking forward to the pics. You're gonna get me motivated to start building rods yet.