rod making process

poodoo
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rod making process

Post by poodoo » Sun Jun 16, 2013 10:40 pm

thought the below link is interesting in terms of describing how one of the Japanese companies manufacture their rods.

http://www.majorcraft.co.jp/company/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: rod making process

Post by CarlG » Mon Jun 17, 2013 7:24 pm

Interesting...are they a japanese company operating in vietnam...?
Seem to have the process down pretty well...

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Re: rod making process

Post by Fish-cador » Mon Jun 17, 2013 7:30 pm

I watch discovery channel and some nights ago, the topic on "How Do they Do it" was graphite rod making. Cool stuff. they have to keep the rods spinning while the epoxy on the bindings dry up - up to 6 hours depending on the type of materials used.
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Re: rod making process

Post by CarlG » Mon Jun 17, 2013 7:37 pm

Fish-cador wrote:I watch discovery channel and some nights ago, the topic on "How Do they Do it" was graphite rod making. Cool stuff. they have to keep the rods spinning while the epoxy on the bindings dry up - up to 6 hours depending on the type of materials used.
The bloke who did my salmon rod, (the one currently being rebuilt, along with a snapper rod), has a homemade device that spins four blanks at a time while epoxies them...does a beaut job..

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Re: rod making process

Post by berazafi » Mon Jun 17, 2013 7:55 pm

And the best epoxy can take 12 hours

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Re: rod making process

Post by poodoo » Mon Jun 17, 2013 7:59 pm

CarlG wrote:Interesting...are they a japanese company operating in vietnam...?
Seem to have the process down pretty well...
Yeah they are.....make decent rods at a decent price.

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Re: rod making process

Post by Fish-Hunter » Tue Jun 18, 2013 8:56 am

Back in the late 80's & early 90's , I used to help out in a fishing /Bait store & the owner was a well known custom rod builder & he instructed me about Rod Building basics . The temperature also played a big part also , if he would apply the Epoxy or wait , if the weather wasn't just right the epoxy would turn to a hazy glaze & not have clear clarity , imagine ruining 12 + hrs of hand applied custom thread work because you rushed the epoxy application :shock: & yes he would have the Rod's spinning for up to 12 hrs .

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Re: rod making process

Post by cobby » Tue Jun 18, 2013 10:12 am

Good find! Reassuring that each rod is tested individually. I've got a Majorcraft rod, and for the $160 it cost, eats up my Tcurve T series rods for quality

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Re: rod making process

Post by ncr1 » Tue Jun 18, 2013 12:50 pm

Thanks for the link poodoo. I build custom rods and this info on commercially-produced rods reignited a little bit of confusion in me. So please excuse me while I open up a can of worms.

My confusion comes from how the term 'custom rod' is defined and I'm often frustrated to see how regularly that term is exploited to sell rods these days. From what I can see there is fundamentally very little difference in how majorcraft make their rods on a commercial scale to how I make them at home. If majorcraft have tried-n-tested designs and decent quality control then the quality of the workmanship is unlikely to be inferior to mine (perhaps even better??). Therefore, what differences in the process makes me a 'custom' rod builder vs them a 'factory-rolled' rod builder?

The classic example is that a custom rod is one where I work side-by-side with a customer who defines there own design specifications and is not limited by their choice in blanks or components. At the other end of the spectrum, I could simply take a rod that I've already built and add on a personalised decal (i.e. no customer input apart from the wording of the decal). Does this still qualify as a 'custom' rod? I've seen them marketed this way. Worse still is those pre-built rods marketed as 'custom-designed'! What does that mean exactly? Aren't all rods 'custom designed'?

One of the more common ways for custom rod builders to operate is to develop their own range of rod designs and then let the customer decide on certain modifications to the existing design that they would prefer. There are a few advantages for the builder to use this approach: a) an existing tried-n-tested design will better guarantee performance than a design fully conceptualised by often inexperienced customers; b) the types of blanks and components used in an existing design won't vary much between each customer meaning the builder can order specific types in bulk and save on overheads; c) using a the same range of blanks each time means you save plenty of labour time per build since you don't have to greatly modify the rod recipe (e.g. guide placement, balance, etc). But again, you could argue that this approach is not truly 'custom' rod building either since the bulk of the rod is designed by the builder themselves.

So given all this and the apparent ambiguity of the word 'custom', I thought this would be a good opportunity to ask you all on your own opinions of what defines a custom rod from a hand-crafted or commercial rod?

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Re: rod making process

Post by frozenpod » Tue Jun 18, 2013 1:34 pm

We have a lot of custom rods and I have seen it all happen before but it was interesting to see it again.

Particularly the raw carbon storage.

I have to agree with NCR, in some ways I am not sure what a custom rod is as potentially it could be identical in design to an off the shelf rod but different colours.

One difference when using overheads is the spline of the blank when going custom can be suited to an overhead reel particularly in rods in the 6-10kg range were as off the shelf are all designed to suit egg beaters.

Second difference is reel seat, most off the shelf rods the reel seat is too close to the butt IMO and when going custom I can have the reel seat just where I want it.

The third difference is balance. Most of our light custom rods have had a small weight added under the butt cap to provide correct balance. A lot of off the shelf rods have and most are slightly trip particularly when heavy when using light reels.

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