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Give me the lowdown on building handle on carbon tube

Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 2:37 pm
by Jason Penn
I'm wanting to try my hand at assembling rods again. I bought a hand wrapper and drying motor a few years ago, but had a lot of things happen in a short amount of time and just shelved the idea. Now life has gotten a bit more consistent again.

I'm trying to figure out advantages and disadvantages of assembling the handle on a tube and the adding the blank. The one advantage I can see is being able to work in a more confined space by just doing the handle assembly. I wonder what the weight difference would be on a completed rod though?

Re: Give me the lowdown on building handle on carbon tube

Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 3:48 pm
by Mattman
Its the way the Japanese do it.

Personally, I think its better to build right on the blank. You're not doubling up on the carbon that way. And I feel better about my sensitivity when there isn't all that overlap of carbon right at the place where your hand is in contact with the blank.

I'm sure the weight difference isn't drastic, but I certainly don't believe you'd be at an advantage by building on tube.

I also personally like building on the blank because you're not in such a confined space. You have blank for your rollers or other fixtures. Something to hold on to. Etc.

I've built plenty of handles up to go on Japanese repairs. It certainly is not my preferred method of building.

Re: Give me the lowdown on building handle on carbon tube

Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2017 9:37 am
by Jason Penn
Thanks for the info. I'm still kind of on the fence about whether or not I want to build or not. I'm really scared of how much time & money I'll sink into it.

Matt I have another question for you. Do you have a lathe, and can you make grips?

Re: Give me the lowdown on building handle on carbon tube

Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2017 6:03 pm
by Mattman
Jason Penn wrote:
Matt I have another question for you. Do you have a lathe, and can you make grips?
Yes I do. I have a full sized woodworking lathe. I pretty much make all my own grips.

Re: Give me the lowdown on building handle on carbon tube

Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2017 10:39 am
by Coach
I did this recently with a Fuji TVSTS. My reasons:
1. was a rebuild converting casting to spinning and the blank handle area was very tatty.
2. needed to extend the rod by 3 inches (was previously cut down by this much)
3. You have to use a tube for the TVSTS reel seat (unless your blank is massive) so figured may as well do the whole handle.

Pros:
It got the job done relatively quickly except*
It's an easy way to extend the rod.
It possibly adds strength and stiffness to that part of the butt.

Cons:
* "15mm" carbon tube came actually 15.3 mm and required loads of taking down of the ID of the parts I wanted to fit (the 15mm I.D of the seat is tight, needed to use a 16mm flybit to get it to sit nicely on the tube. I did not anticipate that.
The reel seat itself is small and not particularly comfortable for large hands.
It adds weight.
It introduces potential to reduce sensitivity - now I was nedding with this yesterday and it's a 3pc travel blank, but with braid it wasn't noticeably insensitive, though it was certainly not 'sensitive' either. A carbon tube attached to your rod with epoxy and carbon or paper arbors is bound to create some deadening bulk. Would seem a shame to do this to a 1pc highly sensitive blank that you rely on for feedback critical methods?

Here in the UK we struggle to get reel seats so my favourite spinning handle (AT aero) is import only, and my favourite casting handle (Fuji ECS) isn't available either so it's TCS or the new PTS which needs the carbon tube. The whole thing is a PITFA (which I'm sure will be Fuji's next reel seat).
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Re: Give me the lowdown on building handle on carbon tube

Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2017 4:13 am
by Coach
oh, and Chinese 15mm tube is 15mm OD spot on, not like the naughty 15.28mm UK stuff.

You're looking at 33 grams per 50cm length of 13IDx15OD tube. 15-20grams or so for a complete handle and 8-10grams for just backing out a reel seat.

I still had to bump out the butt cap with 8 or so grams of lead to balance the above rod with reel on, so the increased mass isn't necessarily that helpful.

Conclusion: useful for repairs, rebuilds and fitting a handle from the base of the blank if the need arises. The above handle was actually fitted after the main build, the winding check was on it's own with the wraps above it epoxied to finish before the handle was glued up to it afterwards (because I was impatient and waiting on parts).
For fresh builds on bare blanks I'd prefer the reel seat and grips to be on the blank unmolested by additional layers.

(despite the fact my MBf2-12-64x4 rod is built this way and is the most sensitive thing I've ever used)

Re: Give me the lowdown on building handle on carbon tube

Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2017 9:04 am
by jimmyb
agreed on most of the above comments. The only other possible advantage is that it does allow you to get some very fast actions.

However, for 98% of the cases, this will just make the rod heavier than it needs to be.

Re: Give me the lowdown on building handle on carbon tube

Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2018 6:12 am
by nctrucker
if you want the "quick" setup check out crb handle kits on mudhole. i like the cork and eva components.