Guide wrapping thin diameter blanks

[bigfoot86]

Any advice for wrapping guides on noodle blanks, especially at the thinner end?  I’ve built a few ultralight open water rods before and have found it tougher wrapping the guides near the thinnest diameter of the blank.

[meandcuznalfy]

Go slow and keep it tight, it's tough to do, took me awhile to do the ones I built, I believe I tightened up the thread spools on my wrapper to help it stay tight.

[defish]

We've all struggled with the first few noodle rod tip guides.  It's a common question so look in the Rod Building section on here, or do a search on the site for ideas. There are supports made for power wrappers just for this, but many have made their own supports for power or hand wrappers and I think I posted a photo of my tip support fixture for my hand wrapper here.  (It looks crude, but works great and was easy, and cheap to make.)

Besides a support, something that's made it easier for me to wrap on tip guides is to super glue the guides in place rather than using masking taping, etc. to hold them in place and having to juggle around removing the tape in mid-wrap.

Good luck.
Dan

[Remps17]

https://sportsmensdirect.com/shop/mud-dog-wrapping-assistant-green/

I use a fly tying bobbin for the tip guide and often the second last guide as well. The mud dog wrapping assistant is pretty handy too.

I use hot melt to hold the guides on when wrapping.

If you have a dremel, grind down the foot of the guide so the thread will progress up the foot without issues. This saves a lot of swearing and getting pissed off. Haha

[matzilla]

super glue and practice - I use a home made hand wrapper with adjustable supports and adjustable thread tension

[bigfoot86]

Question with the super glue.  Are you only super gluing it when you know the EXACT position of the guide?  Guessing once it's super glued there no room for adjust the eye from side to side?

[defish]

You're right. Super gluing the guides is done after you've determined where you want them to be wrapped. 

Gorilla Super Glue Gel is what I use (as recommended by Matzilla.) You do have a bit of working time that they can be adjusted, and you can pop off a guide that's glued in place by using an old razor blade laid parallel to the blank.  it's easy to remove glued guides on the larger portion of the blank, but be careful removing them on the fragile thin part of the blank so put those on first and line the rest up with them.

What works well for me is to tape the blank to an old piece of Formica (my fish cleaning table) and mark the Formica with pencil marks for the guide spacing. Apply a small amount of Super Glue to the guide foot and place it on the blank (I use both hands to place the guide - they center on the blank better for me that way.) I use the back of an old razor blade (wrap the sharp part in tape...) to press down on the guide foot to hold it in place, make any adjustments, and either blow on the glue to help it set, or use a heat gun on low or hair dryer if the glue doesn't dry fast enough from just blowing on it.

Keep a bottle of DNA and some paper towels handy if you get glue on your fingers or to clean the blank, guides, etc. if one needs to be redone.

So much faster and easier for me anyway, to wrap guides that are glued on rather than taped.  They also don't need to be adjusted after they're wrapped like is often the case with other methods that allow the guide to twist to the side while being wrapped.

[Remps17]

Bigfoot. I am sure you already know this as you have built a few rods already but make sure you mark the spine of the blank.

[Ice_Fly_Guy]

I use fly tying head cement to stick my guides on.  That way, once it is wrapped, it usually just takes a bit of a push to break that loose if I need to make any adjustments.  However, it's not hard to totally un-do the wrap while trying to adjust, too, on the tip guide.  But I'm sure super glue is a great way if you are sure you'll get it on there right the first time.

[bigfoot86]

Another question is how many use a tip top vs. a regular guide?

[Ice_Fly_Guy]

I use a regular fly guide.

[defish]

Another question is how many use a tip top vs. a regular guide?

I've done both in the past, but do only wrapped on fly guides now. Easy to do, and they always fit so no searching for odd size tube style guides.

[HWeber]

Fly guide

[filetandrelease]

 Been using fly guides for many years ,, last 3 rods I used titanium and sized up
 Super glued 1 side or taped 1 side these days , I have developed a slight  shake so a bud that’s a rod builder does them for me