Rod "rebuilding" ? for the rod building guru's

[RAVEN87]

I have a Shimano spinning rod (not sure of model #)that I bought about 7-8 years ago, part of the eva handles are starting to get dry and not "feel right" anymore, the epoxy around the guides is turning white and cracking, the finish is starting to peel away from the blank and the lettering(model #, power, line weight....) is going with it, although I do remmember it being a 6'6" med. and thats about it....anywho....I am wanting to strip it down to a bare blank and add my own reel seat, split grips, guides, winding checks, hook keeper, finish..ect....

My questions are, what is the best way to remove the grips, reel seat and guides?...... chem. or solvents or just cutting them off? after the grips have been removed, what is the best way to clean the blank? I know any type of gouges in the blank will compromise it's strength....so is hand sanding an ok approach?
This is my first time trying my hand at "rod building", but to make matters worse I also have to strip it
Any help will be appreciated!
Thanks

[Mattman]

My questions are, what is the best way to remove the grips, reel seat

Some people have used boiling water. Didn’t work for me. I cut them off. I also use a heat gun and get it fairly warm as that helps peel it off after I’ve cut it in half.

My questions are, what is the best way to remove the grips, guides?

I warm the guide wraps with a heat gun. Then with an X-Acto knife slice from the guide foot tip to the guide leg and slice the entire wrap off the foot. The remaining part of the wrap gets reheated and unwound.

what is the best way to clean the blank?

Elbow grease. It’s a lot of work to clean up a blank. Keeping the epoxy and finish warm is a big help. I typically use a large X-Acto with a straight blade and scrape the finish off. As long as you keep the blade perpendicular to the blank, you won’t slice into it.

hand sanding an ok approach?

I will wet sand lightly. But removing too much graphite will compromise the blank. You can tell when you get to graphite because your slurry turns black. Its time to finish up then. 220, 320, 400, 600 grits.

[smalliesteve]

I did this with an old shimano magnumlite aero I bought when I was a kid. Before I got started i cut a big chunk of cork off the butt so I could measure the butt of the blank. Then I decided to read up on the rod online a little. Turns out the rod I paid $30 for about 20 yrs ago is worth close to $200 Of course I had already ruined the grip so nobody would have wanted it anymore. Ended up with micros and an all black theme with some minimal copper metallic trim.
Good luck with the rebuild. Stripping the blank is def. the most tedious part. I didn't get to crazy with cleaning up the blank as it wasn't perfect to start with, but if I were to do it again I would probably use a paint stripper on it to take it down to bare graphite instead of trying to sand my way down.

I will warn you don't get started on rodbuilding if you want to save money. It won't happen. The ONLY way you end up with a cheaper than comp. factory rod is if you build with the most expensive components available. You do however, get a rod with the components you want, laid out how you want them, the cosmetics you want, and the length you want. For me, that's worth the little bit extra it costs me. I especially like being able to use the reel seat I want -not a fan of any of the new-fad split seats I've tried- and being able to build whatever butt length I want. I've often felt that factory butts tend to be too long on ~7' factory rods.

Also when you get started you will have started the fishing equivalent of a crack habit and there's no 12 step program for this addiction.

[Snyder Rods]

Sometimes it's easier to sell the old rod and build a totally new one.

[RAVEN87]

Thanks for the info guys, I want to try a build on a blank I already have, the stripping and cleanup is no problem at all, work (auto body shop/mechanic) is really slow right now so I have nothing better to do with my time

I dont want to buy a new blank just to have something go wrong and mess it up, after-all, this will be my first rod build....and like everything else, if something can go wrong it usually will go wrong. If I were to sell it the way it looks now I wouldnt get no more than $5.00 for it, so it makes the perfect candidate for a rebuild. When I bought the rod about 8 years ago, I gave around $100 or so for it, so I got my $100 worth out of it over the years and just want to "experiment" with some different things to make it better with newer technology in guides and reel seats.

I have one more question.....what are the differences in a casting blank and a spinning blank?
Basically, could I turn this spinning rod blank into a casting rod?


Thanks

[Mattman]

I have one more question.....what are the differences in a casting blank and a spinning blank?

The name

[Jean Scurtu]

I have one more question.....what are the differences in a casting blank and a spinning blank?

The name[/quote

I agree with "Mattman"!!!

[artiea]

I have done this and believe me, I am no expert. Just take your time, it can be frustrating. One thing I found helpful was marking the original guide placement.

[RAVEN87]

I have one more question.....what are the differences in a casting blank and a spinning blank?

The name

I was looking at the blanks on two rods of the same brand and year model I have, one spinning and the other a casting w/trigger, same length, and action and I couldnt find any differences in the blanks.

artiea, yeh, I measured where all the guides and the reel would set, but, I may use 1 more guide, it only has 6+tip now and they're spaced pretty far apart so that would throw my measurements off a bit to add a guide.
After I do some more research on the subject of rod building i'll have a better idea of what to use where and how many, but for now i'm just getting an idea of what is involved.

I went surfing.....the internet that is for some type of tutorial or just the basics of rod building, I found some usefull and some not so usefull info, I may have over looked something though.
Back to searching the information highway.........

Thanks for the help everyone

[tunnelengineer]

Go to mudhole.com and pickup a similar blank and components. Far better to start on a new blank. Just my 2 cents as there's enough time on building a rod to begin with if you do it right. A new blank is probably a better blank than one from years ago anyway.

[smalliesteve]

You can check out mudholes rod building info here:

http://www.mudhole.com/Rod-Building-101

If you look at the left side of the screen there's a menu. Under the Rod Building 101 entry there's a link for videos and How To articles. These provide some good basic info for getting started.

You can also check out

http://rodbuildingforum.com/

This is the site I spent most of my time on when I got started. There's another site I think its rodbuilding.org but I can't pull it up right now for some reason.


FWIW start with your rebuild. Use cheap guides and grip materials. Get a little experience under your belt before you invest a lot of money. My theory is get competent, then go for broke on components.
You should be able to get guides a seat and grip for 20 - 30 if you go with inexpensive stuff.

I don't see where you're located but if you're close to Columbus let me know and I'd be happy to show you my stuff and help you get started.

[5poundhooker]

RAVEN87, when you go to purchase your rod finish do not use Flexcoat if the bank has any color to it that stuff yellows in the sun. I wrapped a few Micro magic rods that had a tan look to the wraps and some sort of plastic and thread for the wrap to hide the guide foot. When I was finished they were as white as the blank and looked funny by all of the tan ones, until a few months had passed then they matched. They probably used the same UV protective Flex coat that I did. Just a heads up Pro kote or thread master, something where both bottles are clear to begin with. Someone said something about Columbus, if you are in Ohio or near there is always Jann's Netcraft who carry most of the things that you will need and are very fast at getting it to you. Mudwhole is also great and has way more choices for components.
Good luck with your project I just did the same thing to a cheap Daiwa casting rod to turn it into a spinning for my old man. It takes lots of work as everyone has stated. Have fun!

[RAVEN87]

Well...as I was removing the guides I found a small crack in the blank hiding under the 2nd guide from the butt end, so I have to buy a new blank now. To build my own rod is on my fishing "bucket list", so, this is something I have to do, its just one of those things thats meant for me to try. Now I just have to decide on the blank to buy
I am from southern Ohio, about 60miles s.east from Cincinnati and about 60miles s.west from Portsmouth.

Thanks everyone for your help and advice