Graphite Rod
Making Page
I purchased a 9' three piece 5 wt. graphite Rainshadow
Xcel RX8 blank (model: RXF 905-3). It has 51 million modules and is a
relatively fast rod. My primary motivation behind this project was to
practice my guide wrapping before I attempted to wrap my nearly finished (as of
March 2004) Bamboo rod.
Part of this project was to make a rod turning setup for both wrapping guides
as well as for drying the epoxy on guide wraps.
(click
photo to enlarge, use back arrow in browser to return to this page)
Rod Turner
This is the complete rod turner. The "V" notches cradling the
rod are lined with a plastic milk carton for smooth turning. The motor is
mounted to an independent stand (not attached to the other two upright stands).
Close-up of the turning motor. It is a low RPM motor (56 1/4 RPM) from a
"junk" electronics store (locally known as Wacky Willies). Thank
you to my friend Coleman for providing me with this motor (he thought it cost
$5).
This is my rod holder (chuck). Since this photo was taken, I've replaced
the screws with thumb turn screws. The chuck is a rubber nipple that you
might find protecting the end of a tent pole. It's firm but flexible and
holds the screws using under-sized holes drilled in at three points. The
motor's shaft is inserted in a small hole drilled in the end of the
nipple. Try to get this as close to the middle as possible so you can
avoid excessive wobble during rotation.
Rainshadow Graphite Rod
This is a photo of the nickel silver reel seat I purchased for this rod.
The wood insert has a lot of grain detail and a nice finish. Note
the spline marking on the tape above the reel seat.
This photo shows the tip section and the reel seat.
This is the finished rod. The handle was a partially finished handle with
a single ring added at the back end to accept the reel foot hood. The
wraps are a maroon color (no color preserver) with three coats of Flex-Coat Lite
epoxy. They ended up a very nice dark garnet color.
