# Replacing Guides



## chumrunner (Nov 6, 2007)

Well it's officially winter and I'm trying to find things to do until the fishing picks up in the Spring, so I'm thinking about upgrading the guides on one of my rods. It's a Daiwa Beefstick (no snickering) 7' MH boat rod that I picked up a few years ago for about $20. It's was a great rod especially for the price, but the guides were crap- just plain chromed brass rings. Didn't take long for the saltwater to corrode the mess out of them. Also I run braid on my 4/0 which I use this rod for and it's started wearing grooves in the metal. Bottom line: new guides or new rod.

I like the idea of putting some better guides on there and learning how to do some wrapping, and the blank seems very sturdy. I think with the right components it could make a great fighting rod. My only hesitation is just the cost of the guides + thread + flex-coat + .... I'm not sure the rod's worth it.

I'd ideally like to get turbo style guides with some type of ceramic insert. I've looked at the fuji hardloy, and alum. oxide which are fairly well priced, and the American Tackle Halide guides which are a good bit cheaper. I'm pretty sure the current guide layout is a 20-16-12-12-12-12-12-top. I think I would rather have 20-16-16-12-12-12-12-top, but I've never done guides before so this is just and idea.

Any ideas about which guides to go with? I haven't heard much about halide material but it looks ok. Also what other materials besides thread, epoxy and finish would I need? I'm also planning on getting some x-flocked shrink tubing to cover the ragged foam grips. I would love to be able to do the whole project for under $50 if that is possible.

I don't know anything about this so thanks for humoring me


----------



## Lightload (Nov 30, 2007)

I don't "speak boat rod" so I can't give you specific suggestions but I will say this. The project you have in mind is a good one and my advice would be to go for it!

With a little bit of TLC and some ingenuity on your part, you can turn that rod into something to be proud of. You'll get a lot of satisfaction out of using that rod knowing that you built it yourself.

You can easily change the number of guides but doing that presents two problems. #1, you may need all those guides to keep the line off the blank. That's easy enough to check though. Just tape the new guides in place, string the line through the guides and tie it off to something heavy, then put a strain on the rod. The line should run parallel to the rod without touching the blank. If it works with fewer guides, so be it. #2, Depending on the finish on the rod, taking off the guides will leave a mark. If you replace the guides in the same positions, you'll cover the marks. If you move the guides you'll have to deal with the "blemish". That could be easy and then again it could be next to impossible. The easiest choice would be to just replace the guides at their original positions.

I'm thinking you'll need two sizes of thread for that rod. Size "A" for the underwraps and size "C" or "D" for the over wraps. You'll also need finish epoxy. You can get a flex coat kit for around $10. A rod wrapper can be fashioned out of a cardboard box. Just cut two "V" notches in opposite sides of the box for the rod to rest in while you're wrapping the thread. You can apply tension to the thread by passsing it through the pages of a book.

After you apply the finish epoxy, you'll have to turn the rod until the finish cures. This can be a pain in the butt without a turning motor but if you put just a thin coat of epoxy on the threads, you can rotate the rod 180 degrees every 10 minutes or so and you shouldn't have a problem with sags. You'll need at least two coats of epoxy.

As far as guides go, I've used a lot of Fuji Alconites on surf spinning and casting rods and they work very well.....and they aren't expensive. I've never used their boat rod guides but I don't see where they'd be any different.

Finally, go to the Mudhole website and look at their rod building tutorial. Lots of good info in there.

So yeah, go ahead and rebuild that rod. You may just find that you have a whole new way to enjoy your fishing addiction!


----------



## chumrunner (Nov 6, 2007)

Thanks Lightload. I'm definitely going for it. I pretty much have everything picked out from mudhole, just need to wait out all the Christmas spending and save up a little more $$$.


----------



## SteveZ (Nov 30, 2006)

Exactly what Lightload said! What an excellent post.


----------



## seajay (Dec 18, 2005)

First off that is a Great Grouper rod,as I have one that I use. No problems with the original Eyes. But then I use Mono.
If you are using Braid then it would be worth the xtra to use the newer braid friendly components. Looking foward to pics of your project.


----------



## Finfan (Jun 4, 2007)

If it's to be used as a bottom-fishing boat rod, you might also cosider a roller tip for it, especially if you use braid. If you decide to stay with the conventional tip spend a little extra on it, you'll be glad you did!


----------



## junkmansj (Jul 23, 2005)

Go to mudhole.com and look for "rodbuilding 101" it will give you the basics on how to wrap guides. When removing guides ONLY cut on top of the guide foot holding the blade at a flat angle cutting toward the guide to avoid damaging the blank.

Also checkout "rodbuilding.org" look in the Library for articles you might need


----------



## Oldmulletbreath (Jan 7, 2006)

WARNING !!! you are entering a very addictive hobby.


----------



## chumrunner (Nov 6, 2007)

Oldmulletbreath said:


> WARNING !!! you are entering a very addictive hobby.


That's my only worry


----------



## Lightload (Nov 30, 2007)

*Rod Rollers*

One thing about rod wrapping is that it doesn't cost a lot of money to get into it. Here's a set of rod rollers I made out of a set of furniture casters I got at the hardware store. I just epoxied them into a block of oak so that the wheels almost touched. Works great!

There are two pics and I'm not sure how it's going to work. I'm thinking that at least one of them will come up. We'll see.


----------

