Time to reset the forms

[Mike Monsos]

Now that the winter weather has set in it's time to set up the forms and start plaining some bamboo strips. I'm making myself an untested taper based on a rod I designed for a dear friend and fishing partner. I'm also planning on using an old school glue I have on hand, "Weldwood Resorcinol" that leaves a purple stain on the edges of the hex shaped rod sections. To the uninformed they may look like glue lines but in reality, they are stains absorbed by the bamboo from the glue's penetration. The whole package will be an experiment in lengthening a rod and reducing the designed line weight of another taper. The original taper was a 7' 10" 7wt and I'm aiming to have an 8' 4" 5wt. with the same action of the cast. The rod will be flamed with the purple stained glue lines. If it turns out as planned, I'll bring it to the next Bamboo fling, if it's a flop oh well LOL

 

[Tim Cottage]

This should be interesting. So you are going to add some length and reduce the line weight. What tools will you use to do that and still retain the relative speed and flex characteristics. If you are going to use Hexrod and you get stuck you can always contact Mr Hexrod, Frank Stetzer up in Bellingham or just Google hexrod technical details

 

[Mike Monsos]

It will be interesting Tim. I am only familiar with Hexrod, so that is the program that I used. The original 7' 10" rod was intended to be a 5wt, but I found that it is much happier casting a 7wt line on it (my first attempt to create a taper on my own) so, the new plan is to add 6" (to help casting from a float tube) and reduce the dimensions yet keep the personality of the original rod but in a 5wt this time. I let the program manage the changes and the two stress graphs look very similar if not almost identical other than rod action length. I thought about smoothing out a couple of spikes on the graph, but I am happy with the original rod, so I'll keep them as is for this rod. I've only copied tapers from other makers or online archives so this is somewhat of a new adventure for me.

 

[Tim Cottage]

Be sure to pay some attention to the Casting Deflection charts and calculations in Hexrod as they can be very useful to compare the personality of both rods. Maybe more so than stress curves.

 

[@Dryflyphotography]

Mike, I hope your experiment turns out really well. An 8'4" five weight could be an ideal rod for fishing. My favorite rods tend to be 8' five weights but I also really enjoy a little extra length. Looking forward to trying it at the next cast around!

 

[Kado]

Good luck Mike. Always fun to just experiment. Even the different glue might add a little 'personality' of its own : ).

 

[Canuck from Kansas]

Sounds like an interesting and fun project. Keep us up to date, if you will.

cheers

 

[Mike Monsos]

Well, it took nearly three weeks of off and on attempts to tune up my plane irons, form settings and my arm-hand coordination, but I now have the base strips to taper and bundled (nearly) ready for glue up. It's funny how it takes time to get myself dialed in, but when you are dealing with tolerances of about .001." I'm sure you can imagine that a frog hair here or there can throw things off. The next question is, where did that frog hair come from LOL. For me personally the base section is the harder half to hit the numbers on, the tip always seems easier to hit the numbers on for some reason. Might be the larger strips, who knows. But looking at my calendar of commitments and holiday scheduling I see that with a little luck hitting numbers on the tip section in the next couple of opportunities, I may be able to glue up this Resorcinol/new taper experiment up before the big guy makes his rounds. Feel'n good

 

[Mike Monsos]

Making little strips out of big strips now for the tip section