Making a custom fishing rod power wrapper from a cordless drill

Link to. http://squarespace.com/handmadefisherman
Something I Have always dreamed about as a fishing tackle nut is making my own custom fishing rods at home. But the big obstacle to most of my dreams is funding them and new hobbies can quickly spiral into spending sprees. Someone, well a few people have, over the years called me a cheapskate, and I have started to take it as a compliment, almost a badge of honour; so for this project I thought I would take advantage of my mean streak to begin to realise that dream and make a powered rod wrapper.


Powered rod wrappers are not the most complicated bits of kit even the professional ones, for the most part they are motors which spin a supported fishing rod, some have lots of added whistles and bells.

For the motor on my machine I thought I would make use of my father’s cordless drill mainly because they tend to be low geared enough not to pose much of a danger when fired up and holding a long piece of carbon rod. The main challenge was how to mount the thing as they are designed to be handheld rather than fixed, so I made simple headstock out of some softwood with inline skate bearings to hold a piece of 6mm stud iron and obviously allow it to turn. From there I could cobble together a wedge to hold the base and the chuck would do the rest.

For most of the wood joints I used mitre adhesive and spray activator to hold them in position while I added screws to do the real job, and on parts that were really not going to be under much if any pressure I left out the screws.

The cable came from the bike shop which is about the only thing apart from the wood that I purchased for this project specifically, everything else came from my collection of bits I have picked up cheap from supermarket diy sections over the years. I reckon I spent about fifteen pounds on the wood and cable. The bike cable idea came from some go-karts I made for the kids and had used them for the brakes which were just wooden blocks on the rear wheels connected to a wooden foot pedal by a piece of bike cable

Tools wise I went to town and used everything in the shop, but this could be built with old school hand tools, it would just take a bit longer and require some skills. Maybe that is another video.

For the rods supports i used a plastic chopping board I stole from the kitchen, as it was made of polyethylene which is about a slippy as plastics get and wont marke the blank rods or hasn't done yet.

There are lots of improvements i could make to this machine like adding a thread carriage and other experiments but that is for another day.

The only real whipping problems i came across was the thread which was pretty rubbish and came from an old batch that we don’t use at work as it tend to fluff up like cats tail even if you just give it a funny look. The machine itself was a pleasure to use after I forgot that it was cordless drill up the other end and concentrated at the job in hand.



I don’t do a lot rod wrapping at the factory where I work, I tend only do the odd repair so I am a little out of practice but watching the thread make its way up the rod is still and enjoyable passtime for an evening even if you are dribbling a bit on the thread.

I should be starting my rod building video soon. Thanks for watching and genuinely thanks Squarespace for sponsoring this video, I will also be working on website over the next week to create a base for people to visit and find out what is going in my world and also as a place to make the free lure templates and plans more available, rather than having to e-mail me for them.

Thanks

Link to. http://squarespace.com/handmadefisherman

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Video Link: Basic rod whipping part 1 with Harrison Advanced Rods    • Harrison Rods beginners guide to whip...  
Video Link: Basic rod whipping part 2 with Harrison Advanced fishing rods    • Harrison Rods - How to whip a rod rin...  

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