# Finished My First Rod



## chumrunner (Nov 6, 2007)

Haven't posted in a while but I finally finished my first rod after about 3 months of work and thought I'd post it up. It took so long because I could only spare an hour here and there and a little more on the weekends, so it was difficult getting it together. I also was stalled for a couple of weeks waiting on thread and other materials that I ran out of in the middle (now I have a better idea just how much thread goes on one of these things  ). There was also the usual decorative wrap disasters with lots of cutting off and re-doing. I had problems with the high build finish I got at first and had to order some Threadmaster lite based on some advise from a more experienced builder (fantastic stuff by the way). There were all kind of lessons learned through the experience like, never buy a cheap POS drying motor off ebay  Yep, crapped out on me in the middle of a coat just when I had stopped checking on it for a while. Had some nice droopy spots. I was able to limp it through the rest of the rod, but it was sketchy. Live and learn. Ok enough of my jabberin.'

Here's what I did. I took a 7' Daiwa beefstick boat rod, stripped it down to the blank, and re-built it as a 30lb stand-up style. Handle has Amtak alum. gimble, 8" slick butt and alum reel seat. Guides are Amtak halide turbo guides, spiral wrapped. Thread colors are black, met. silver and met. elec. blue. The butt wrap is a subtle tiger wrap with sz A silver and black underwrap and met. blue on top. I wanted to use white ncp and black under, but I didn't receive my white thread from backorder until the day after I finished my rod. I kind of like the way it turned out though, but the pictures never do them justice.

Here are the pics:









Handle assembly










Butt wrap










Tiger wrap (pun free of charge)










Guide wrap










Spiral wrapped guides










Yep, it's a Beefstick










Paired with Penn Senator 113 and ready for battle :fishing:


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## skunk king (Mar 25, 2008)

incredible for your first rod! Great work.


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## RuddeDogg (Mar 20, 2004)

Great work.


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## Amarie (Mar 19, 2009)

*Rod*

Very cool!


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## triple t (Nov 1, 2008)

Nice wraps


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## mud (Sep 23, 2007)

wow that really looks great especially for your first project. Good job man!!


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## EFishent (Nov 14, 2007)

nice job!


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## drawinout (May 11, 2008)

Looks *GREAT* man*!!!!!!*


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## Tacpayne (Dec 20, 2008)

Great Job! keep at it, it gets easier with each rod


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## chumrunner (Nov 6, 2007)

Thanks a lot guys. I think I made it ten times harder on myself by starting with an old rod instead of doing it from scratch. Besides stripping all of the old components off, I had to strategically place my wraps to cover the old ones and had to smooth over all the old epoxy to get my thread to lay down evenly. The next one will definitely be easier.


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## HellRhaY (Jul 6, 2007)

nice first one. my first was so ugly i had to quit for 2 years.


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## AtlantaKing (Jul 7, 2002)

chumrunner said:


> Thanks a lot guys. I think I made it ten times harder on myself by starting with an old rod instead of doing it from scratch. Besides stripping all of the old components off, I had to strategically place my wraps to cover the old ones and had to smooth over all the old epoxy to get my thread to lay down evenly. The next one will definitely be easier.


That's a good looking first rod dude! You're right about the old rod being harder. Starting with a fresh blank allows you to place the components at the best locations without worrying about covering old wraps, plus it gives you a smooth, clean surface to work with. There are a lot of inexpensive blanks to wrap, although after the first few, you'll probably end up buying high-end blanks anyhow :redface:


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## BubbaHoTep (May 26, 2008)

Looks great!


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## galaxy51 (Feb 4, 2009)

Very nice job. Was the rod painted white under the white thread on the guides? Did you use color preserver? NCP or regular thread?


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## lil red jeep (Aug 17, 2007)

The rod looks awesome!


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## MDubious (May 10, 2008)

That sharky on there is ill!!!


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