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Post Info TOPIC: Rod building class


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Rod building class


well i for one enjoyed it even if i had to leave early, i did manage to take  a few pictures before the other Terry (heheh Terry.N.J.) had  us working away.

nice well laid out plan of attack, er ah training, well spoken presentation and comfortable atmosphere and commentary, i felt  quite at ease there.

I  plan on returning often (count me in always Terry N J.)class002a.gifclass003a.gifclass004a.gifclass005a.gifclass012a.gifclass013a.gifclass014a.gif

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when one cant fish one draws fish pictures or "make fishing rods"


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Awesome!
I wish I had the means to set something like that up here!

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Raymond Adams
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Terry, thanks for posting the pics!

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Terry......
              Thanks for sharing the photos !!...smile




MaryLou~~

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Raymond, get with Terry(J) heheh and ask him for his notes and get with a locale fishing tackle place (they make the money ) and every one gets a discount and ya start a class.

ya i know "easy to say" hard to do, heheh


-- Edited by Terry G on Sunday 24th of January 2010 06:45:03 AM

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when one cant fish one draws fish pictures or "make fishing rods"


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Terry G wrote:

Raymond, get with Terry(J) heheh and ask him for his notes and get with a locale fishing tackle place (they make the money ) and every one gets a discount and ya start a class.

ya i know "easy to say" hard to do, heheh


-- Edited by Terry G on Sunday 24th of January 2010 06:45:03 AM


Tried that already Terry,
There is only one place in town with enough room & they don't carry squat as far as rod building stuff. Very few blanks & some gudebrod thread, & flex-coat products. They are kinda "stuffed shirts" too.

What's funny is, one of the owners hosts a BIG local fishing TV show and are always having fishing seminars & boast about how they enjoy teaching the outdoors. I guess rod builders dont fit?


 



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Raymond Adams
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www.rodbuildingtutorials.com
  
                                                                        


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well there ya go "open up a small store" and they will come (humm heard that some where, heheh)

it dont take much uh, other than money, time, mental anguish, insurance etc.

but others have done it

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when one cant fish one draws fish pictures or "make fishing rods"


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Looks like everyone had a good time,I guess i am going to have to drive down for one of the classes.
Paul

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It did comsume a lot of time to put the class together and we learned a bunch from it.....overall I thought it went well and the feedback back has been great! My hats off to all the club members that gave up their Saturday to help

Allen Pierce (alsp)

Pat Helton (patfatdaddy)

John Lopez (kutb8t)

Alex Almaraz (Surfsider713)

Lloyd Pepper (Lloyd Pepper...lol..he doesn't own a computer)

Gary Brown, Doug Williams, and Alfonso Barrera were also there and contributed

and thanks to Joey Ybarra for another epoxy demo

Great day and fun was had by all!

heres my pix...



-- Edited by Terry Jones on Sunday 24th of January 2010 12:23:26 PM

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I received this email from Brad Lamonte who participated in the class Saturday (he is the one seated with the black G Loomis hat).
He asked me to post this up becuase it would be awhile before he could get logged in, register, and post this himself. Great post with good commentary and ideas!
I really appreciate all his kind words! All the participants i spoke with had a good time and got a lot out of the class!

Here's his email....


I wanted to let everyone know how great the FTU rod building class was yesterday.



I attended, and I am very pleased that I did. I cannot say enough good things about it. Though I have "built" (an overstatement) a few rods myself (all armed with only information from the web), this was my first face-to-face formal training class. I wish I had attended this class before I started thinking about starting on a rod building spree!



I started about four years ago by ordering a bunch of equipment from Versitex. Cups, Rod Bond, brushes, mixing tabs, size D thread (remember that; it's important below), Flex Coat, a cork vise for handles, and a dryer. I bought burl cork, a reamer and my guides (I insist on Fuji Ti/SICs always) from FTU and some cork from Mudhole. I bought some Shikari SHII flipping rod blanks, some St Croix Avid blanks, and a Loomis FS904 from a fellow on the web.



On my first rod I overheated the Flex Coat with a hair dryer in an attempt to get it to mix better and by the time I reached my last few guides it was a gel. My next rod I had bubbles all in the wraps because I didn't heat it but mixed it Very Vigorously in the mixing cup and I didn't know the tin foil and straw "tricks" and thought the bubbles would magically go away. This happened again yesterday after I started mixing but before I applied it to my guides but this time Gary and Allen told me to chunk my mixing cup and try again but mix with much less vigor. Notice that I didn't buy any clean up alcohol in my lists above. On my next one I got epoxy on the guides because I was going too fast and had a heck of a time trying to clean it up. On all my rods I'd have an aching back after wrapping the guides using a book and a chair and a big cardboard box hunching over for hours and doing my best to wrap them. My biggest mistake was not buying even the most simple wrapping station like the ones we used yesterday. On my next two I built the handles and paid FTU to put the guides on, and I can't really claim those as "my" rods.



Work started to take up more of my time, and after my start-up frustrations I quit the rod making hobby and eventually gave alot of my stuff away, even my dryer. I got back into it yesterday.



Terry did a fabulous job leading the class. I just happened to find out about the class by accident several weeks ago while at FTU looking to buy some last Loomis blanks before they disappear to put in my closet for the future. I saw the flier and started to talking to Terry at the guide counter. I could tell just by talking to Terry that he has a real passion for rod building and knows alot and truly wanted to share what he has learned to others. Terry said he'd put me down as an alternate, and if there was a cancellation I'd get in and there was. Thanks Terry!



Yesterday I learned ten times more than than all I knew before, and I met a lot of great guys. Met Alex and Ruy before the class. Alex's guide wraps and surf rods are phenomenal. Ruy's almost-complete rod he brought looked like a start of the art prototype rod you'd buy at the Fishing Show and that no one else would have.



Cut Bait was there before class also. He and I talked some weeks ago while I was at FTU. I met Pat Helton, Terry G (who is a great guy and was building a fine fly-spin rod), Victor (who was building his first rod ever, and his finished rod was very nice), Mr. and Mrs. Capt. Pepper, Allen Pierce of Custom Coastal Rods and who was a great help all day, Trey and several other great guys. Gary was there and was a great help all day. Thanks Gary.



To all the co-instructors - sorry if I wasn't the best student. I am a little stubborn but I did my best to put that aside and listen intently to Terry and all the other more experienced folks there. And I am glad I did. Especially on wrapping guides. I got better and better at the wraps after a terrible start.



We all have different philosphies, which is what make things great because everyone has something to offer. Folks were building rods with split grips, traditional grips, cork grips, EVA grips, no foregrips, trout rods, bass rods, redfish rods, casting rods, spinning rods, fly rods (Terry's rod was a "spin-fly" rod) - you name it. I enjoyed watching others work and seeing different tips and tricks. Everyone's finished rods were very nice. A couple of the split grips in particular were so clean and so well made that they could have been slapped with a "Waterloo" or "Castaway" or any big name brand sticker and given a $200 price tag, and no one would have known the difference between it and one made at the factory.



My feedback coming from a very green "rod builder" is the following:



1. I started with size A thread but was having a heck of time with it. My first three wrap attempts were total failures and Gary was doing the best not to lose his patience with me. All I had used before was D size, and it is much easier to manage. For new folks maybe recommend starting with D, or maybe I was the only one struggling with size A.

2. I made a few messes and used alot of clean up alcohol not on my rod but on the tables. Maybe start the hands-on instructions with a firm emphasis to folks like me to put paper towels under everything especially when making the grip. Maybe this was emphasized and I was just too anxious to start.

3. I suggest charging a modest fee for the class and bring in some snacks and soft drinks with those fees.

4. I completely agree that micro guides do not belong in that first class regardless how popular they eventually come.

5. Emphasize a few mottos: "no sawing" with the razor blade. I didn't cut tags ends right on a few wraps (my own fault). "Keep the tension" - I lost tension on a few wraps when trying to tie them off. "Don't go backwards" - I lost tension going backwards a few times. All these are common rookie mistakes.

6. Maybe provide premium blue thin nitrile (not latex) powder free gloves when working on the epoxies. These could be paid for by a fee for the class.

7. Scare folks a little into using exactly 50:50 on the 5 minute epoxy for the handles and the reel seat. I was a little sloppy measuring the two when gluing up the grip/handle and it may come back to bite me (but probably not since I used so much). The 50:50 ratio seems absolutely crucial on the high builds but not so much on the grip/handle glue but getting folks to think 50:50 on both epoxies is good reinforcement for high build measuring.



Again, I was very impressed with how organized everything was, and how everything you needed was there at your fingertips. I can only imagine how many man hours it took to organize since it was run so well.



It was a great experience, and I am confident that events like this benefit the attendees and the Texas Rod Builders and FTU.



Thanks to all,

Brad Lamonte


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Nice pics Terry G.



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Very Nice Photos !!!...





MaryLou~~

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Terry G, I enjoyed our conversation while everyone else was on lunch break, now I know we are the same age, both have harleys, you can draw and I can't. Seriously if all members had time to sit and chat with other members we could learn a lot.

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I also enjoyed the conversation , every one can draw but most have convinced themselves they can't.

I think Terry J. is kind of planning that or something along those lines with the more frequent meetings but we also need to remember that it does consume Terry's time and also uses the good will of FTU.

speaking of learning , i know i sure did and i'll make a confession, i never got your name or if i did i am really bad with names but i'll know your face any where in the world along with the rest of the guys there..



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when one cant fish one draws fish pictures or "make fishing rods"


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You 2 T J,great pics.evileye

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well i had to leave early and didnt get in on the eye wrapping and that was one of the main things i wanted to really really learn .

well i brought the rod home and after playing around i decided to "get-er-done", so to speak heheh.  i started laying it out and, tore it off , restarted (several times ) and finely emailed Raymond  as i figured he was home and just asked him for any references .

and he answered with a suggestion and a picture , well now i knew what i had to do but when i got up to the tip them eyes sure get tiny but there all done and i may go test the rod today..

sorry Raymond but i did my own spin on the way it was done and the epoxy is drying.

tell me what you guys think.cross1009a.gif

-- Edited by Terry G on Wednesday 27th of January 2010 06:53:07 AM

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when one cant fish one draws fish pictures or "make fishing rods"


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Pretty cool Terry!

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Raymond Adams
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www.rodbuildingtutorials.com
  
                                                                        


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Terry.......
                  Not bad for a Ole' Harley Rider !!!....biggrin




MaryLou~~

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Looks like you did great on your own! I like the cross wrap trim you did! Very gutsy to try this early in your career!
Good job Terry!

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thanks, it was from something i saw from Raymonds site and intrigued me and i tried it and liked it, the wife says it looks like a Christmas wapped present with that x in the middle heheh not approved i think...

and yes its "off center" heheh, Raymond beat ya to it on the off center part heheh



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when one cant fish one draws fish pictures or "make fishing rods"
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