Rod Building 101 - Part 3: Wrapping the Hook Keeper

Ok so this section I have been having issues. (see my post: How To Hide tag end once cut?)

I have gotten to a point where I am somewhat please but I am attaching some photos of my progression because I have some questions.

First wrap, didn't get the tag end located well so that was a do-over

This second one was a little better but I ended up messing up a lot of wraps but scraping the metallic color off of the wrap when cutting of the tag end.

I ended up having to clean and re-wrap this, because you'll see some places where the wrap's blue color is either silver or black (thread damaged because I sanded the first coat of fishing too much), but at least I learned how to remove the whole thing and re-do it (may be helpful for repairs).

Finally this is my last wrap, I think it looks better but hesitant to put the finish on it. I do have the tag end sticking out a little but I think I should be able to sand it down or shave it with a razor blade after a thing first coating of finish.

Rod Building 101 - Part 2: Guides Preparation (Part 2)

This is pretty straightforward, I sanded down the guide a little both under for better adhesion to the blank and on the top for smoother contact with the thread.

After figuring out my guide spacing, I taped the blank to the meter and marked down each guide placement with the 3/4" masking take that I cut into 1/4" wide strips.

Mark your guides using a meter and masking tape

Sanding down guide with a flat file

Check that guides sit on blank correctly

That was pretty straightforward and I'll make sure to test the spacing by setting the reel and running a line through it when I get closer to wrapping the guides.

Rod Building 101 - Part 1: Grip and Foregrip Set-Up

For my first rod I bought a St Croix kit and in terms of tools I didn't really buy any, so I'm using the box and book wrapper jig, the drill to sand the cork, and other things laying around when substitution was possible.

------Section 1 ------

Here is the grip and reel seat section of the build. Not that the handle kit from St Croix came with the foregrip, but I over reamed it and decided to get a new one. When I did, I realized it needed to be shaped so I built a makeshift rotating device based on some things I saw on the forum

First reamed the grip and that one fit nice. Used marking tape as recommended.

Then reamed the thing that goes inside of the reel seat (forgot the name). This one was a lot more tender so reaming was slower and more meticulous.

For the fore-grip, I over-reamed the one that cane with the set, so after finding the only local supplier I got one that I hadn’t planned on being standard in shape. Decided to figure out a way to smooth out the edges. Additional tools like clamps and driveway reflector courtesy of my local hardware store.

Sanded down with 90 - 140 - 320 sand paper.

Scary moment but this one was not over reamed (Fun Fact: I had bought 2 foregrips just in case, and after shaping this one, I thought I had reamed it to perfection when I noticed that I had reamed the unshaped one. So I decided to shape the already-reamed one and that worked out well.

Sanded down the blank gently to prepare for the epoxy.

Applied epoxy in between the masking tape and smoothed it out with the pop sickle stick.

Repeated steps for reel seat and fore grip, and then put some epoxy on the winding check when in was about 1inch from the foregrip, and voila.

Did some reaming inside of the cord to prepare it for the rounded shape of the plug.

Stuck in the plug by holding the handle grip tightly and rotating the plug slightly. I didn't want to temper with the way the grip had been glued to the blank a day before.

Still haven't cut the sticking end of the plug, but once that's done I'll sand it down and should be done.