[mlwebb]

Hi Folks,
This is the first fly rod I've built. When I was in Junior High or early High School (35 yrs ago), one of my buddies father taught us how to build a spinning rod, and helped us each build one, so I had some idea of what was involved, (Hey, teach a kid or two if you have the opportunity). Some diligent forum reading helped.
Reelseat and first cork ring glued on blank. The hole in the end is for a screw on small fighting butt.

My homebuilt rod building stand with cordless drill set up for turning cork. The little wheels on the rod supports (there are three of them, one on each side, one on a 1/4 inch ply arm, are furniture glides (six for $5). The stand is mdf I had around the house (leftover from speaker building, but that's another forum I glued the cork rings together and to the rod blank with Locktite "Sumo" polyeurathane glue. It claimed to foam less than its competitors, and seemed to work fine. I am sure Titebond III would also.

Cork almost done. I don't know how long it takes you pro's to shape a handle, but it took me about 3 hours till I was happy with it. That includes a lot of squinting at it, and checking other fly grips around the house.

Bottom striper at ferrule. I added a bit to the wrap to bring it over the spot on the female ferrule where the end of the male ferrule will be when rod is assembled. I read somewhere that this can be a stress spot, which made sense to me, so I reinforced it. The next image shows an upper ferrule, also with reinforcement.


I looked at a couple of online guide spacing charts, downloaded a spreadsheet, and had the measurements that someone online (in Europe) had used with this blank. I decided to use a "tamer" stripper setup, with a sixe 12 about 5" above the bottom size 16. Using one of the calculators, I got a guide at each ferrule, 11 total. (4,9 5/16,15 7/16, 22 5/8, 30 3/4, 39 3/4, 49 5/8, 60 1/2, 72, 84 3/16, 89 1/2) I have no idea if this is ideal, but it looked good in a static test, and seems to work well.
Wrapping guides (using foran lock)


These ones at the rod tip get pretty skinney. This one needs a little packing. Both threads are NCP

This is my rod drying adaptor, a 6 rpm motor I stole out of an old microwave (It needed replacement, which I haven't got around to yet. I kinda miss it for warming up coffee)

And here is the finished Rod. I used Threadmaster Lite. They sure have improved this part of rodbuilding.

I am very happy with the feel of the rod. As the "Common Cents" data suggested, the 10 foot DC FT's have a different action than the 9' rods, a little slower and truer to line wt. ( I measured 7.28/61). It seems to have a quick recovery, and throws the line well. (at least as well as my modest casting skills allow, need to work on that)
Michael

[Silenttracker]

Well Done,
I like the "clean" wraps and not too "flashy" overall look.

Mike

[fishincaper]

I recently built on a few of Dan Crafts blanks.The latest is a 10ft 8wt switch rod.A POWERHOUSE and it is very convenient to have a rod to convert to a 2 hander when it is needed.I also built on a Sig 4-5pc. A sweet trout rod.Dan sells great blanks.He is a good guy too.

[mojo]

Very nice for being laid off for 35+ years. What's next on the list