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Mattman

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About Mattman

  • Birthday 08/12/1969

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    http://s163.photobucket.com/albums/t288/Otterods/

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    Fergus Falls, MN

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  1. In my opinion...No. There will be probably close to $60 - $70 in freight alone for components to a builder and the rod to you. Long tubes don't ship cheaply. There went a third of your budget. An Avid blank (middle of the road quality/performance) is going to be around $100. Or, if your builder buys, and charges you wholesale, about $75. That leaves $55 to buy guides, seat, grips, and miscellaneous materials. How much do you make per hour at your job? Multiply that by the 6 to 10 hours of labor it will take to build your rod. And add that to the materials total. Everyone is different and some guys are happy with a $60 rod and some guys need to have a $500 NRX or an $800 Megabass. I feel you need to be closer to the $300 mark to start seeing good gains. At $200 I feel you need to compromise on materials too much and you're better off buying a nicer off the rack rod for the same kind of money. On the high end builds I do... $200 for a rod blank...$80 for a set of guides...$35 for a painted reel seat...$5 per INCH for cork...$150 for decorative bling items...12+ hours of labor.
  2. There are no easy answers here and you'll likely get as many different answers as you do responses. In my opinion... If you buy $50 - $150 off the rack rods, no it wouldn't be cost effective. If you buy $400 - $500 off the rack rods, yes it would be cost effective. If you're looking for something you can't find off the rack, I do believe its worth it. Quite honestly, the guys that request a rod identical to an off the rack rod, but with different wraps, drive me nuts. That's just a waste in my opinion. Getting a builder to build a rod exactly how you want is the reason to go to a custom builder. The handle the length you want, and not from a kit. The handle in the material you want. The seat you want. The guides you want. Etc. Different builders have different pricing structures. Some guys triple the retail cost of materials. Some guys have a flat fee. Some guys, myself included, look at the project and assign times for every task and charge that way. Very few of my rods are just simple assembly builds. I need to look at how much time I'm going to have from start to finish. Charging a flat fee just doesn't work for me. Most of my builds use high end components. It is no more or less difficult to build on high end components versus low end. So why should I make more money just because I use high end? So I base using my cost of materials. Your builders skill level will also play a big part in what you are charged. A new guy just starting out may charge next to nothing as they are chalking it all up to "education". A guy that's been building for 15 years and is in demand will probably charge you quite a bit more. Expect to pay, on top of materials, $100. I wouldn't be shocked at $200. And, depending on how complex your build is, $400 isn't out of the realm.
  3. I use 5 minute epoxy on my tip tops. Once they're on, they're on. If you have to get them off for a repair or something, heat from an alcohol torch does the trick.
  4. Anyone and everyone is certainly able to prefer one or the other for various reasons that often times can't even be explained definitively. However, if that reason is a loss of casting distance, I would argue strongly that the rod wasn't built properly.
  5. Yes you are. Why would you ever use that few guides? Sure, if you carry it the ridiculous, you'll have issues. As with anything. At no point did I ever say to use not enough guides. Again, if you're going to carry this to the ridiculous, you'll have poor results. You always need to use enough guides to get the job done. With a guides on top rod most add more guides because when the blank is flexed, the line scrubs against the blank. You can get rid of those extra guides by putting them under the rod where the line will never touch the blank. This is the falsehood that most cling to. If you look at a spiral wrap, the line just is off to the side of the blank by a small amount. So many that have never done one or looked at one get this idea that the line need to take this long circuitous path around the blank. It doesn't. Properly set up and constructed, you will not lose casting distance. Read the literature. Set one up properly and see for yourself. I’ve done hundreds of them. Not only have I never had a single complaint, most rave about the performance and don’t understand why the factories don’t build spiral wrapped rods. Gary Loomis tried back in the 80’s but the public wasn’t ready.
  6. I whole heartedly disagree with the spiral wrap comments. They do NOT impact casting distance. That is a false claim. I spiral wrap all of my personal casting rods. The biggest reason is because there is no down side to it. Only ups. Benefits to spiral wrapping as I see it… Eliminate rod torque. With the guides on the bottom the pressure from the fish isn’t trying to spin the guides to the underside of the blank because they are already there and there is no twisting torque applied to the blank. Eliminate line scrub. With a guides on top rod when you flex the rod the line can then touch the blank. Reduction in weight. With a spiral wrap since line scrub isn’t an issue, fewer guides can be used. That helps with weight. With a spiral wrap single foot guides can be used even on the heaviest rods since there is no side pressure on the guides. The loss of an extra foot, thread and finish is a big help with the reduction in weight. A reduction in weight (fewer guides, fewer guide feet, fewer wraps) is going to aid in sensitivity. All of those things add some encumbrance to the blank and reduce its efficiency in transmitting vibration. You can see in this photo...two identical rods...one spiral wrapped and one conventional wrapped...both mounted in ball bearings...both with the same weight strung from reel seat, thru the guides... http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t288/Otterods/Reference/Spiral.jpg The conventionally wrapped rod wants to turn upside down because of the guides being on top of the rod. Once turned, this rod is very difficult to turn back. The spiral wrapped rod remains stable. And here you can see how a blank twists... http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t288/Otterods/Reference/bentrod.jpg While most graphite rods can resist that force, it is still there. And if you can get rid of it, why not? Devcon will work for assembly. However I would use an epoxy designed for assembly, like Rod Bond. Fly guides are single foot guides.
  7. You can buy sets of guides that will accomplish your guide selection for you. Personally, I tend to dislike sets as I feel they are typically too large and have too many sizes. But, it does take some experience to get to that point. You need to be able to factor in your line sizes, line connection knots, etc. I'd go with a size 12 double foot, a size 8 single foot bridge, and size 5 fly guides for the remainder of the guides. Spiral wrapped. Do NOT use Devcon. Great for baits...POOR for rods. Flex Coat, LS 2000 Supreme, Thread Master, etc. There are a good number of thread finishes out there. Use them. The reel seat and guide sizes have no relation. Most Bass rods are using a size 16 seat.
  8. Trimming from the tip will increase the power and make the action more moderate. Action is impacted less than power is. I measure all of my incoming blanks. I mount each blank on the wall horizontally by capturing the butt section between two staggered padded pegs. They're about as far apart as the length of a typical handle. Then I hang weights from the tip of the rod blank to deflect it a percentage of its working length. With a small level and a protractor I can measure the angle that the tip is at to give me a picture of the action. Mod-Fast, Fast, or Ex-Fast aren't very descriptive. 60°, 66°, or 72° is much more descriptive. I put the weights on a scale and weigh them. Medium, or Med-Heavy aren't very descriptive. 12.455 ounces or 20.387 ounces is much more descriptive. And those numbers aren't open to interpretation. Fast, Ex-Fast, Med-Heavy, Heavy are all different with St. Croix than they are Loomis, or Rouge. Even the same manufacturer can change their definition based on the type of blank. I also put the blank on the scale and weigh it. All that information gets plugged into an Excel spread sheet and some formulas calculate other details for me. With all of that information I can get a very good picture of what a rod blank is really like. And most importantly, compare different rod blanks against each other. When a customer wants a blank that has a little softer tip...or a little more moderate action...I have a much better chance at actually finding the right blank. That being said, I can use this to measure at points on the blank which allows me to find the changes that will happen after cutting the blank, without actually cutting the blank. Recently I had a customer that wanted a crankbait rod that was between his Loomis CB783 and CB785. I found a blank that was equal to the CB845. I found point on the tip to cut which put its power dead center between the two and then cut the remainder of the length from the butt. Effectively giving him a CB784.
  9. I don't order checks until I have the blank. I would guess they'll be sending you the right sized seat if this is a kit. But exposed blank seats are something I don't order until I have the blank either. I suppose its possible they may measure for you if you ask and get the right checks for you. Also...to even have half of chance of anyone answering here what size you should get, you'd have to mention what model blank. They all have different dimensions and an MB842 will have very different dimensions than an MB844. Personally...I want the blank in my hands so that I can make the measurements where I want them to be made and order the right materials myself.
  10. Fuji makes a nice check. I personally use Matagi checks.
  11. You need to use "standard" guides from the reel to your micros. I usually have 3 sizes in addition to my micro size. The 1st guide is about 1/2 the diameter of the reel spool.
  12. I personally don't spend my time splicing back together a blank from the last foot forward. In my opinion the weight of the repair is a detractor. Sure you can do it and get a fishable rod, but the change in action and feel just aren't acceptable to me.
  13. I use Fuji's titanium framed SiC guides almost exclusively. I feel they have the best guides out there for various reasons. If a set of Alconite guides weigh X...a set of SiC's in the same frame style are 15% less than X...and titanium framed SiC's are 30% less than X. Reducing all the weight out on the working portion of your blank will go a long way towards keeping it feeling crisp and light and most like it does before you're forced to put guides on it. Sure you can use micros on spinning rods. I typically don't like to go smaller than 4's on my personal rods.
  14. Without having a blank and doing some accurate measuing on weight, action and power, thats pretty tough to say.
  15. I would avoid any metal ringed guide. They aren't up to the task in my opinion. It isn't the line that is tough on guides, its the grit in the water that clings to the line. I've seen metal guide rings get grooved from flourocarbon. Below is a list of values for various guide ring materials. Stainless Steel (SS): 400 Chrome: 800-1000 Carbaloy: 1000 Aluminum Oxide: 1200-1400 Alconite : 1300-1500 NanoLite : 1800 Zirconia: 1000-1400 Zirconia PVD: 1600 SiC: 2200-2400
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