Hi,

Good to here from some one.

I too have just started building my first rod

I picked up an old Butterworth rod, stripped it back

and starting to put the new guides on

and I have just finished building my rod lathe

Im really happy with the way it turned out

Got all the aluminium from work for free 

brought the wheels from the U S A for $27 the motor $4 from china

for the epoxying and got an old sewing machine motor for a dollar

For the chuck I used the hub off of a bmx bike and put a pulley wheel on 

one side and a bmx foot peg on the other the hub is fixed so only the axle turns

When I have to reduce the size for a smaller rod I just drill the right size

hole into a rubber door stop and stick it in the foot peg

Sound a bit way out but looks just as good as the $800 lathes