Dark culms have been flamed and are ready for splitting. The blond culms on the bottom will be split as is...no flaming.
Split strips.
Strips ready to straighten and work the nodes.
Heating the nodes and using the clamp to straighten them.
The straightening tool. Inspired by Harry Boyd's tool that was made by John Long. In case you're wondering, no I didn't press the nodes. They were sanded with a belt sander. Pressing would probably be better, but I don't have time.
Squaring up the strips. This step is a little problematic if one side of the strip isn't already close to square. I used a belt sander to get them close before this step.
The wood form in this picture will run through planer with the squared up strips to cut the first rough angle.
Cutting the angles. The fixed depth grooves on the wood forms are designed to cut a 60 degree angle in two passes much like a hand planers roughing form. I actually take two additional passes through the planer to square them up a little better.
A six pack that been roughed in. These strips have not been tapered yet. They will be heat treated in the oven first.
Binding a 6 pack for heat treating.
This is the home made heat treating oven. It's about 5ft long. The oven has a steel divider down the middle to create two circulating chambers. It uses a 750 watt mica heat strip in one chamber and the bamboo goes in the other chamber. The fan circulates the air between the chambers. The PID controller regulates the temperature.
Staggering the nodes and cutting to length before roughing in the taper.
Some cut offs. Just thought it would be cool to take a picture. Not so sure about that now.
Sanding the enamel off before roughing in the taper. Actually, I did most of the sanding on a belt sanders and finished up the process by hand. Taking the enamel off by hand is probably better...but again, it's not worth the extra time in my case.
This is the tapered adjustable wood form that will be used to rough in the taper on the heat treated strips. There's a groove on each side with one deeper than the other.
Preparing to taper a strip with the bench top planer. Note the tap on the end of the strip. That was to keep the planer from sniping the end of the strip in the first couple pases. The tape wasn't necessary after a couple passes.
I started with the strip on the deep end of the form and made multiple passes sliding the strip closer to the target depth on the shallow end of the form. That allowed me to make all passes without adjusting the hight of the cutters.
A complete 4 piece rod (one tip) ready for final planing.
I sharpen my plane blades with sand paper glued to automotive safety glass. Google "scary sharp" for more information. Generally, I resharpen after completing a 6 pack.
I'm not using the glass plates in the previous photo any more. Found this thing at Grizzly. It's perfect for sharpening plane blades. It uses a series of glass plates with several different grits of sandpaper to progressively sharpen the blade. The blade sits under the plate in an adjustable fixture. Go to www.worksharptools.com to see how it works. My old setup works just fine, but this is much faster and the fixture holds the blade in place both vertically and horizontally for consistent bevels.
Here's a photo of a blade that's been sharpened with the Work Sharp machine. The grit sequence I'm using leaves scratches in the bevel, but that doesn't seem to matter. It's razor sharp. This blade has a micro bevel. It only takes a couple minutes to touch up a blade so I sharpen often.
Adjusting the steel forms to finish plane a strip.
Hand planing. Note the bench top riser that the steel form is laying on. That gets the plane up where I can hold it steady. It's also the ergonomic thing to do if you have back problems like I do.
The tip of a finished strip. Very cool!
A finished section ready to be glued up. Note the planes. I use one to get the strip to within 6 or 8 thousandths of final and another to finish it up. Two planes aren't necessary but that does help keep them sharp longer. Oh...the other two planes are just the result of going over board buying stuff at the flea market. But I keep them handy just in case.
Preparing to glue up a section. The strips have been taped in order and carefully checked for splinters and trash that might cause a glue line.
Titebond III has been applied. I've got about 10 minutes from this point until the glue tacks up.
Smeared the glue with the brush to get full coverage between the strips.
Rolled the taped strips up to prepare for binding.
Preparing to make the first of two passes through the binder.
Preparing for the second counter wound pass.
Glued up sections.
Stuff to make ferrules. Includes three sizes of specially draw nickel silver tubing.
Cutting the moisture plugs from nickel silver round rod.
Cutting the male ferrule off. The ferrule was first fit to the female with a lapping file and sand paper.
Tapering the tab end of the ferrule. Note that head of the lathe is turned slightly to create the taper. That's a unique feature of the Sherline lathes.
Soldering the moisture plug. This is the only soldered joint in these ferrules. All other joints of the female are glued with Lock Tite.
Cutting the serrations.
2 sets of finished ferrules. A size 8 and a 12. The tabs have not been crowned yet.
Stuff to make reel seat hardware. Tubing for the body of the end cap and slide ring and sheet for the butt of the end cap. The mandrel is used to turn the small pieces on the lathe.
Cutting the tube for the butt cap.
Cleaning up the tube for the butt cap.
Soldered the flat plate to the tubing to form the butt cap.
Tapering the interior of the slide band.
Cleaning up the slide band and cutting decorative groove.
Trimming up the flat plate on the butt cap.
The butt cap almost done.
Blued the groove on the butt cap. About to sand off excess.
Blued groove after sanding.
Blued groove on slide ring after sanding.
Finished butt cap and slide ring. Blued grooves have been sealed with clear spray on enamel with excess sanded off.
Turning a modified cigar grip.
Turning a cork reel seat insert. This was my first cork insert. It turned out okay. I cut the mortise with a few light cuts on a benchtop sander and finished it up by hand.
The finished grip and insert ready for mounting.
Sanding the glue residue off the blanks...carefully.
A section after sanding off the glue.
Sanded and ready for final straightening.
Measuring and marking a section to be cut to length.
Hope my calculations were correct...if not...it's to late now.
Each section is a slightly different length to compensate for the depth of the female ferrule. The finished sections should all be the same length including ferrules, tip top and butt cap.
Turning a section to mount the ferrule.
The male ferrule glued up and lashed in place.
A female ferrule glued up and lashed in place.
Bluing the ferrules.
The blued ferrules before applying a sealer.
Blued ferrules sealed with Nyalic.
Reaming out the cork handle.
Preparing to glue the handle on.
The handle glued on.
Ready for guides. The reel seat insert is not glued in place yet. That will be the last step.
Taping the guides on.
Ready to lawn cast with the guides taped on.
Wraping the guides. I'm using YLI 100 silk #227 with black tipping on this rod. I've read that #227 is similar to java brown. This is the first time I've used it. I've been using #201 red.
The left wrap is complete except for the tipping. I'm about the trim the tag on the right wrap and continue wrapping.
The black thread loop is used to pull the end of the thread back under the wraps to lock it in place.
The thread has been pulled under the wraps and is ready to be trimed with a rasor sharp blade.
I'm adding three wraps of black tipping. It's hard to see in this photo, but there is a thread loop under the wraps to pull the end back under all three wraps. I usually moisten the wraps with a drop of water before triming the tags. That will hold them in place temporarily.
All done with the wraps. The idea was to get smooth wraps (no overlapping thread) the same width on both sides of the guide. The guide in the photo looks a little out of line because of the camera angle.
The secret stuff used to create translucent wraps. 50/50 Waterlox and walnut alkyd medium. I use the "dust remover" to keep the varnish from skimming over in the containers. Just turn the duster upside down and squirt some in the can for a few seconds. Like I said, this is top secret stuff passed down from the pros.
Applying the secret stuff to the wraps with my bamboo brush. Three coats of this stuff goes on first.
More secret stuff and the bamboo brush.
Cleaning up over run varnish with a scrap piece of silk thread. Works like a charm.
The wrap on the right has one coat of the secret stuff on it and the left wrap has none. Maybe you can see the thread has turned translucent. After three coats of this stuff, I switched to straight Waterlox and put several thin coats on until the wraps were smooth and any fuzzies could be sanded out.
Preparing to dip (drain) the rod sections in Varmor. The fixtures taped to the end of the sections will keep them from bumping the sides of the tube. That's not necessary if you're dipping the sections, but with the drain setup it's required.
The Varmor has been poured into the tubes and left to stand for a while to let the bubbles clear. The varnish has been warmed to about 95% with a ceramic heater near the can to thin the viscosity down a little. I'm not using any thinner. The sections were lowered into the varnish. I'm reading to start draining the varnish.
Here's the drain setup. I just open and close the valves to control the drain rate and stop at the guide wraps.
Maybe you can see the star shaped things holding the rod section in the middle of the tube.
I'm not using those star shaped things in the previous picture any more. They were difficult to work with and all the tape trapped air bubbles that escaped slowly into the varnish. Here's what I've come up with to simplify holding the blank in the middle of the tube. If you look closely you'll see three small zip ties that have been fastened to the ferrule and the tag cut to length to hold the blank in place.
I used the zip ties on both the top and bottom of the blank. This is the top. A piece of old fly line has been attached to the blank to hold the blank at the proper hight in the tube and pull it out. In fact, this setup was perfect for pulling the blank out temporarily to pop the varnish in a guide and drop it back into position to continue draining the varnish. I couldn't do that with the previous setup.
Here we go. I've started draining the varnish at a rate of about 3 inches per minute. I'll stop at each guide to let the varnish catch up. If I don't the guides will cause a run.
I'll stop at the top and bottom of every wrap and way maybe 30 seconds to let the varnish catch up. I've stopped a the top of the first wrap.
Stopped at the bottom of the first wrap.
Stopped at the top of the second wrap. At this stop, I have to make sure the varnish film in the guide "pops". If it pops later, I'll have a run to deal with. Runs are not good. If it doesn't pop on its own (usually does at 95 degrees), I'll pull the rod up out of the tube and pop it with a tooth pick and lower it back in place. That's not ideal, but it works for an amateur setup.
Stopped at the bottom of the second wrap. In about 30 seconds I'll let it drain to the top of the next guide at about 3 inches per minute. I can't stop draining between wraps. If I do, I'll leave a little ring around the rod section at that point. That's not good.
Maybe you can see the varnish puling up around the rod section as it drains. It's that friction that creates the ultra smooth layer of varnish on the rod. The slower you drain the thinner the coat. Draining faster would leave a significantly thicker coat. The goal is about 3 thin coats.
This one is done. It's got a nice even thin coat of varnish ready to cure. I'll remove the section from the tube at this point and put it in the drying closet.
This is my drying closet. That's an 8 foot sheet of roofing for a door over a closet that never had the doors installed. The florescent bulbs are are the broadest UV spectrum I could find at Lowe's. The idea is to use some UV light to help cure the varnish. Maybe that's helps...maybe it doesn't. They also provide heat for the closet to keep the humidity down. The relative humidity in the closet was about 40% and it was 75% just a couple feet away in the shop. I dry the sections at 90 to 100 degrees.
The sections are hanging suspended from the ceiling until they're dry to the touch.
I'll turn the florescent lights off in the morning and turn the incandescent bulb on to maintain the heat in the closet.
She's finally done...May 2007 This is number 8. This rod is functionally great but a little disappointing on the cosmetics. I'll have to keep working on my wrap finishing skills. I just needed to take a little more time between coats to sand all the flats. Got in a hurry getting this one ready to fish on the Smith in Montana. It's headed that way this weekend.
Number 8
The stripping guide on number 8. Should have taken this at angle so you could see the agate stone. It look really good.
Another guide on number 8.
Yet another guide on number 8
The female ferrules on number 8
The male ferrules on number 8
More of number 8.
The reel seat hardware on number 8.
Last one of number 8.
Here's a photo of my wife's grandmother's treadle sowing machine. I've been using it to sew the rod bags. I'm going to have to take a sewing class some day.
