New project | 6 piece hiking/travel rod

[BenzoV]

Not that I have hiked anywhere recently, but just in case the opportunity arises. I've been enjoying these odd projects, although completing them seems to take a lot longer that starting up the next one :wink:

I just got all the sections selected and cut to length last night (from broken rod sections I got from a fly shop), so the sections still need to be cleaned up, painted and obviously the rest of the build needs to follow as well (grip turned, seat turned and fastened, guides wrapped etc etc)

Length 6'8"
Line weight ?? (2 or 3 I think)
Butt OD 7.5mm
Tip OD 1.5mm
Grip in the making of course sponsored by Pongracz
6piecetravel.jpg
From top to bottom (correct me if you think I'm wrong as I don't know):

No idea ??
Xplorer classic
Sage ??
Stealth XL
Xplorer Classic
Sage ??

[Andre]

Now this is going to be a project worth following. Best of luck. Will be interesting to see how the fishished product works, but well done for taking it on. Particularly like your bravery in using the champaine corks....

[smallstreams.co.za]

Ben - be very careful not to get any nicks into the blank when you take that epoxy off. Even if you are going to repaint it, any nicks will be a bad thing.

Looking forward to the project.

I little tip ... try to mark and keep the alignment of the guide on the blank BEFORE you remove the epoxy. This should help a lot ito keeping some sort of spine to the completed pieces.

How far are your females entering the male ferrules? Try not to have it less than 50mm

Enjoy it man - going to be a nice project!

[BenzoV]

Ben - be very careful not to get any nicks into the blank when you take that epoxy off. Even if you are going to repaint it, any nicks will be a bad thing.

Looking forward to the project.

I little tip ... try to mark and keep the alignment of the guide on the blank BEFORE you remove the epoxy. This should help a lot ito keeping some sort of spine to the completed pieces.

How far are your females entering the male ferrules? Try not to have it less than 50mm

Enjoy it man - going to be a nice project!

Mmmh, I'm a little short on the ferrules. Consistently around 45mm overlap, except for the top two sections where I have an overlap of about 55mm. I also had to insert a spigot into the second section from the butt, as I could not find a section that will fit "naturally" and still feel balanced. The original two sections I used toward the butt end was too light and the result was a "blank" that felt very top heavy and not balanced at all, so I had to beef them up a bit.

I'll keep the costs on this build as low as possible as I don't have a world of confidence in the blank, coming from broken sections and all that. I'll be using guides that I salvaged from the sections, the champagne grip and turn my own seat with sliding bands (rings) as a seat.

[smallstreams.co.za]

45mm should be fine Ben - but that's what I really would say it the absolute minimum. Guide placements could be a lot of fun on this rod Don't follow charts - tape up your guides with some strong tape in the positions you think they should go, and then do a curved test with some line through it.

[GGY]

Don't follow charts - tape up your guides with some strong tape in the positions you think they should go, and then do a curved test with some line through it.

Agreed. With the varying brands & actions of your 6 pieces, doing normal guide spacing is not going to be optimal.

[BenzoV]

The sections are cleaned up. Will hopefully find some time tomorrow to give them a coat or two.

[KevinE]

Fantastic project. I'm looking forward to hearing how it fishes.

[BenzoV]

So is there a reliable way to do a preliminary test to see if the blank will hold up, before I start a full blown assembly? I guess tying on guides with tape and doing a curve test and maybe a couple of casts is about it, right?

[smallstreams.co.za]

So is there a reliable way to do a preliminary test to see if the blank will hold up, before I start a full blown assembly? I guess tying on guides with tape and doing a curve test and maybe a couple of casts is about it, right?

Jip, that's about the only way. Aim for a nice smooth line curve. I'm guessing you'll need about 8-9 guides on this one. The TXL tip is going to make for a pretty sweet portion of that rod