Homebuild Rods

Ive had an alps rod wrapper sitting in a box since sometime last year.  Picked up a couple blanks at the ISE show in sac back in february so I figured its time to get off my ass and get to building.  Have a couple rods that I stripped and re-wrapped for practice, learmed enough to build my confidence.

First build:

Senko Rod
Phenix mx78mh
Alps split grip, tex touch barrel and hood
Composite cork split grips
Alps gold wind checks
Fuji alconite guides.
FishHawk Metallics, greens and gold,
single axis chevrons.

Lessons learned, dont use metallics for your first build, thread temsion matters, pack everything, then repack and pack again, dont forget the bottom winding check on the butt

Feom motorcycles to lowriders.....theres just sometbing right about emerald green and gold....which is a shame cause now I have to chase down e model shimanos on ebay and overpay for em. 


Second build:

Swimbaits 4-10oz's
Phenix M1 80H
Alps machined Al reel seat.....light gold
Yellow Camo grips, cut and turned down to a split grip
Fuji alconite guides
Fuji light yellow, gray and black size D thread
Double axis chevrons and a horrible fade wrap.

Lessons learned, pack, re-pack and pack again, dont use a marker on the under wrap, dont eff up the wrap count, order double the amount of thread you think you'll need, dont eff with the finish till its cured, burnish everything, sharp blades equal clean cuts. 

Yellow, black, gold and gray are just as gaudy as the other color combo, i dig it.  Had to track down a shimano dsv for it but may be swappung ut out for a conquest 300....just because....more gold.


Both have a ton of mistakes but still learning, what are you gonna do.

















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Nice works    I don't see any mistakes 

Looks great!

Outstanding work, Art. 

I hope you took a ton of pics of the first rod you built.
After a couple of years compare it to your most recent.
Most won't be able to tell the difference, but the improvements you see will be amazing.
You'll also crack up at the rookie mistakes you made.
Those look great BTW.
Soon it will all be second nature.

That’s awesome and gives me hope lol I’ve been sitting on all the rod wrapping parts and collecting threads for a couple months just waiting on the power wrapper base to show up this Thursday nervous and excited to wrap my own rods


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those look so cool Art, and obvs they will work!

artists are forever haunted by the small errors only they can see, but you have to remember that 99.9% of folks won't ever get close enough to spot them, even if they knew what to look for.

Great job on those rods!

Beautiful. We are always our own worst critics. I love what you have done. Keep going.

Hell yeah.  Those look great! 

Must be an awesome feeling to catch a fish on a rod you built.  Now go do it on a kayak!   

Hell yeah.  Those look great! 

Must be an awesome feeling to catch a fish on a rod you built.  Now go do it on a kayak!   

......ahem.

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Thanks for the encouraging words everyone.  Bad pics make the mistakes less obvious lol.
Im finishing up a third right now, mex flag colors, for my old man that i had to cut the butt wrap off.....twice.  Once cause the wrap screamed xmas not mex (im probably gonna wrap something this theme for the holiday white elephant) and a second cause i forgot to color preserve the wrap before epoxying it ( totally changed tjhevwrap color, i was pissed).  Sucks to throw away hours of work but the extra practice helps and each wrap gets a bit easier.

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Hell yeah.  Those look great! 

Must be an awesome feeling to catch a fish on a rod you built.  Now go do it on a kayak!   

......ahem.

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Beautiful wraps, homie! (And mad photo-shop skills, too!) 

Nicely done

Hell yeah.  Those look great! 

Must be an awesome feeling to catch a fish on a rod you built.  Now go do it on a kayak!   

......ahem.

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Beautiful wraps, homie! (And mad photo-shop skills, too!) 

 

Great job,
It's always rewarding to complete a build that makes you feel proud. It's also great to have others encourage those efforts.
When Ken Weibe of G. Loomis rods taught me how to build Rods (way back in the 80's), I was constantly critiqued on the many errors.
That constant scrutiny made me a better rod builder. Please post some close ups, you will find that those "major screw ups" are really just minor issues.