Repairing an old rod

[Eng 94]

I have an old two piece rod that needs tender loving care. The eyes are old and the wrapping is deteriorating, I would like to replace the eyes and repair it myself.. I have built a rod blank but I don't have a lot of experience. I was wondering if there was anything special that needed to be done to prepare the old rod after removing the eyes. 

[PeggyLee]

Mark the spot with tape  where the guides are located before you remove the guides.Determine what type of guides you will need to purchase. If you like the action of the rod replace the guides with similar and modern guides.Most of the time I do an underwrap first then secure the new guides with an overwrap (maybe in a different color)Add a coat of varnish or clearcoat or flexcoat with a fine brush to form a nice cover to your wrap.Do not rush this rebuild and it will come out beautiful maybe do one or two guides at a time. I think the Mud Hole Catalog has the stuff you will need. I have made rods and rebuild rods for many years which are still rotated in our arsenal.Have fun with it.Check out a few sites on rod building. Good Luck. Capt.AJ   

[bugmannj]

Basically  just make sure you remove any old varnish or epoxy where guides were before rewrap. you might also want to look at Get Bit tackle for replacement guides (little cheaper than Mudhole)

[Eng 94]

First Thanks for the great information. I have been on the Mud Hole site looking for rod building equipment, but with so many selections of rod turning and wrapping choices I was a little stumped on which would be best for me. I definitely am not looking to spend $100+ on the kit. I did see some in the $60.00-$70.00 range with there name brand kits. What would you recommend?

[Bucktail]

Joe,

You don't need anything fancy just to wrap a couple of guides.  I've wrapped entire rods using a coffee mug to hold the spool and running the thread through a phone book for tension.

I've also wrapped them on motorized rod wrappers, but the first method works great if you're not looking to spend a lot of cash.

The minimum you will need are some supports to hold the blank while you are wrapping and a low RPM motor to turn the blank while the Flex Coat dries.

Bugman, Wreckfish and Treebeard are the guys to talk to if you're looking to get fancy.

[Eng 94]

I'm not looking to go fancy but I do want to have the equipment needed to do a good job without busting my butt. Something like the second choice you mentioned, I didn't notice if the Mud Hole unit for $65.00 included an electric unit to rotate the blank..tell ya the truth it's been so long I had forgotten about that. I need to look at some rod building videos to refresh my memory. 68 and still forgetting.

I went back and watched a few videos on rod building and also looked on the Mud Hole site at various basic kits and found there basic start up kit, it has everything I will need including the low RPM motor for $139.95 Little more then I expected but it's affordable. Just wondering what you guys think before I purchase it.  

[Treebeard]

As usual, great advice so far.. If you are only going to be doing a few repairs on your own stuff, I can understand not wanting to spend a lot of $ on a power wrapper...FWIW,  when I got serious about it, I bought one of the wrappers mudhole sells for around 280 bucks... that has both the wrapping and drying motors built in.. and Ive cranked out dozens of rods on it.. but  as others point out, you can do a great job with simple, homemade tools.. a lot of the cheaper kits mudhole and others sell, can be duplicated on the cheap if you really want to do it yourself.. Rod stands can be anything from a notched cardboard box, or you can easily make a couple from wood like these.. I think the one power item you may want to invest in is a drying motor.. so that you don't have to rotate the rod by hand to get a level finish after applying the finish to your guide wraps.. it can be done, but it's tedious at best.. I see mudhole sells a basic dryer setup for 40 bucks..  but again, you may even be able to beat that if you make one yourself.. by purchasing a low rpm motor.. (or salvaging one out of an old bbq rotisserie) and mounting it to a stand.. There's a ton of tutorials and videos out there these days to help you out.. and we'll be glad to help you here if we can with any ?s you may have.. so have fun! 

[bugmannj]

I use a tread bobbin instead of a hand wrapper for most of my work.(more control) for a dryer motor I salvaged a Bar-B -Que motor that is about 12 RPM. Made my own hand wrapper years ago still works fine, Nothing fancy or expensive and I been doing it for over 30 years.

[Eng 94]

I'm pretty handy building things with steal as I have my own welding equipment and shop on our small farm. Tell ya though I'm not really enthused about making my own rod building equipment, just lazy when it comes to that anymore. The basic kit that Mud Hole has was attractive to me because it seamed like everything was there for me to do the repairs I need to do on the few older rods that I have and for the money I was willing to spend it just to avoid the steps of trying to build it myself. You guys are seasoned rod builders and have done this for quite some time so I'm sure it was second nature for you to build your own tools of the trade.Not that I don't appreciate your advice on saving money because I certainly do. But I can afford the $130 in this case. I will have more questions as I get started with this project so please don't think I'm not listening.   

[Eng 94]

Well I decided to go for it and purchased everything I will need for the repair of the rod I have and any future building project I may want to start. I purchased everything from the Mud Hole, I told them I herd about them from this site. When everything gets here Ill put it together and take some pictures. Now I'm like a kid on Christmas day waiting to open his gifts.