Building a Sage XP Rod

[ShaunF]

DISCLAIMER - THIS IS NOT A "HOW TO BUILD A ROD" THREAD. I AM A COMPLETE BEGINNER, HAVING NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE. I AM RELYING ON ADVICE AND COMMENTARY FROM OTHER MORE EXPERIENCED PEOPLE. THIS THREAD IS THUS MERELY TO TRACK THE PROGRESS OF THIS PROJECT AND FOR YOUR INTEREST AND COMMENTS.

Well today I am a very lucky boy. Around 12 days ago I ordered a new camera, a waterproof Pentax Optio W20, which I bought especially to take fishing with me. It arrived today, so you can expect a lot more fishing pics from me in future, because in the past, it was too much of a schlep to take my other camera with me and try to keep it dry. The Pentax is purpose designed and so I can't wait to take it out on the water, and shove it under the water for that matter !

But I digress, I'm already off topic. The reason for starting this thread is that my pet project also arrived today - a Sage XP 8'6" 5wt 4pc blank along with all the other goodies required to build it into a near factory spec rod, along with a few of my own little cosmetic customisations.

Let me be upfront that this project was inspired purely from the jealousy of having seen Chris and Neil's 000's being built up with such good results! For some reason, before this the thought never even occurred to me to built up my own rod, and so with their inspiration this project begins.

At Neil's suggestion, I contacted AA Outfitters and enquired as to whether they still had any XP blanks. The Sage XP has recently been discontinued and replaced with the Z Axiz. Gene informed me that he had one left in the weight, length and in a 4pc blank as I wanted, and offered it to me at a good price and so, with a little backwards and forwards deciding on what other bits and pieces to get, the rod was purchased last Friday (17 November). 5 Days later the rod was at the local post office waiting for me to collect. I was shocked, I've never had an overseas delivery take such a short time before. Brilliant service from Gene at AA Outfitters, he really is a pleasure to deal with and I can highly recommend them.

I will update this thread as things progress until the project is completed.

PS: All pics are taken with the new Pentax !

[ShaunF]

During the course of the last week, in anticipation of the arrival of my new rod, I began to plan the wrapping bench and drying stands. Thanks to Neil for the advice offered re using a cardboard box. I decided to make a wooden stand as there is a good chance I will do this again if this project is successful.

It's not very pretty but I built it with function in mind and not aesthetics.

So, with the wood cut, I assembled everything today and begun to line the relevant areas (Bottom and V where the rod will rest) with felt.

Here is the main wrapping bench, without the felt lining glued on yet:



Another Angle:

[ShaunF]

Here is the section of the drying stand that will turn the rod. I create a chuck to hold the rod using some junk I found in my old man's garage. I've used a system of elastic bands that will hold the rod butt in place by sticking it through the hole formed at the centre. I've tested it with one of my old rods, and the elastic bands provide enough friction to turn the rod, but you can stop it without stopping the motor if you need to inspect something at any stage, like a crude clutch system:



The rear of the dryer motor. The motor which drives things is from a braai rotisserie:



Another angle:



Here is the opposite end of the dryer stand where the rod will rest. I've stuck the felt lining on this section:

[ShaunF]

So, that is some of the prep work done. I'll finish off lining the stands with felt tomorrow, and I guess the real work on the rod itself will start next week.

I'm waiting for Neil to get his tutorials up first, and also I'm going up to Maritzburg next weekend to visit a well known local rod builder, Roger Baert, who has very kindly offered me some tuition and some old broken rods to practise on before setting to work on the Sage.

[KevinE]

Shaun, I am going to be following this thread with interest. I have been thinking about building myself a rod for a while now but I don't quite know where to start. I hope you don't mind the occasional but-in to clarify things as you go?

What sort of revolutions per minute does your rotisserie give you and what is ideal?

PS. Nice pictures

[ShaunF]

Hi Kev,

No problem at all chipping in to have your say. That is the whole point of this thread, otherwise I'd just post it once I have finished.

By my crude calculations, the rotisserie motor turns at 4rpm. I'm not sure if this is ideal, but I know Neil uses one for his dryer too and so hopefully he'll chip in and give us his views. One thing though, it came with a DC transformer which has a sliding switch where you can increase the voltage. At 3v it turns at approx 4rpm and at 4.5v or 6v it turns a fair bit faster. Not sure how good this is for the motor, but I guess I'll find out.

[smallstreams.co.za]

Shaun

Neil does not use this type of motor, I do however, and it's great imho. Neil uses a motor that he stripped from an old plotter, and that thing is great. It's totally quiet - not a sound as it turns!!!

Also, don't stray too far from my new site, wrappings and epoxy steps coming soon, hopefully this week if Logan allows

[ShaunF]

Great stuff Mario. Good to hear that motor works well. I thought it might be a little on the slow side, but we'll see how it goes. Will be definitely keeping an eye on things on the other side !

[StephenL]

I am planning to build my own rod over the winter months,dont forget that we are not all as lucky as you back home in having a nice warm Christmas!! I have found the website, www.rodbuilding.org, a very useul source of information. There are also plenty of suppliers with links to this site.

Stephen

[ShaunF]

Update: This afternoon I completed the lining of the wrapping stand and gave it a test run. I used a very old Silstar rod I had lying around from when I first started fly fishing and made a few test wraps just above the handle. Took me a couple of go's but I think I've got the hang of it.

Going to practise a bit more during the week, maybe with a a couple more advanced decorative wraps using multiple colours, which I'm going to use at the ferrules. Will post some pics during the week.