MickD

How to get bait monkey off my back? Why would one want to?

From what I have read both braid and mono have very close to the same density, and they are basically neutral density. Meaning they don't float and they don't sink. Braid has much smaller diameter than mono or FC so it cuts the water more efficiently. So you can easily get deeper with braid than mono. And probably deeper than with FC, too. I have used all three types on cranks and have to say they all work fine as far as getting the depth I want. Both spin and baitcasting.

I said no because this process does not measure stiffness. If it did I could get an answer with units of measure of something like inches per pound of deflection. But I cannot. Yes, as stiffness increases without a mass increase, the stiffness to weight ratio will rise and the natural frequency will rise. I am actually measuring the time of one cycle of free vibration of a blank/rod when its butt is restrained and the tip deflected and let go. From that the natural frequency is calculated. And the units I am using are cycles per minute as derived from a period of vibration measured in milliseconds. Respectfully, I'm not going to get into a long debate about what the process is or isn't or its relevance. It is clearly a method of measuring another important objective measurement of a blank/rod physical characteristic which can be used to better understand the blank/rod. A characteristic that experts for many years have agreed is important to rod performance and one that until now has not been measurable without expensive equipment. If someone wants to know the TNF of their blanks/rods and how it changes with how they configure their blank into a rod then I will share the process. All it takes is a method of securing the butt (forces are very low-a rod wrapping machine is adequate) an Android device, and a free app.

Yes on response to less mass or more stiffness. As the equation for cantilever beam indicates. Not sure what you mean by ratiometric. Have not measured under load, don't know how that can be done. By recovery I mean the velocity of the tip in recovering from a deflection. Blanks with a true natural frequency (TNF) of 600 cycles per minute have to be recovering faster than blanks with a TNF of 500 cpm. It is impossible for it to be otherwise. Most rod experts for many years have argued that sensitivity is proportional to natural frequency, but there was no inexpensive way to measure it. I am using Android devices and a free sound analyzer app to measure TNF. It correlates with my experience-generated evaluations of blanks/rod. Of course that is simply an opinion and not provable. It shows how the TNF increases when the mass of guides, tiptops, and wraps are added to make the blank into a rod. It shows the advantage of what I call premium blanks in most cases and shows the advantage of titanium guides and tiptops relative to stainless steel of the same size and design. I am not arguing that it answers all questions about the properties of blanks/rods, but it does offer one more objective measurement (TNF) to the ones we already had, length, weight, power and action (CCS). I submit that if one can match all of these objective measures from a blank he likes, he will find the new blank to perform very much like the first one. Your skepticism is similar to others who have heard of it, but like them, you have not tried it. I suggest, if you are interested, that you try it. I will be glad to provide a quick tutorial/description of the process. You can message me.

I notice on the Point Blank specs that both the Light and MedLight blanks have Action Angles of 77 degrees, meaning under the protocols of CCS, they are both the same action. Yet they describe the Light as XFast and the MedLight as Fast. I fish the MedLight and consider it an "almost X-Fast" ? It is not quite as fast as a couple other rods with 80 degree AA's. There is a slight difference in the powers of the blanks. Since one can never have too many rods, take your best shot at selecting one and build the other later.

No, it describes the stiffness to weight ratio, not just the stiffness. A broom stick is very stiff, but its stiffness to weight ration is not very high. Because it is heavy. The natural frequency measurement is a direct measure of how fast the blank will recover. If you want the fastest recovery, you want the blank with the highest natural frequency, and you want to put on the lightest possible running guides.

Permagloss is a very light, tough, flexible, thin, coating and doesn't build anywhere near what epoxy wrap finish does. It is said to never yellow like epoxy ultimately will. It has nasty fumes and hardens very fast. Practice with it is good advice, IMHO. It will probably require a number of coats to get a look you like. But it definitely is a good, serviceable, coating. In the past it had problems hardening in the bottle before one could use it but improved packaging has about solved that, I think. I have a bottle in my fridge that I've had for a couple years and it's still good.

The best of the best for the blank, IMHO, is the Point Blank 701MLF. You may go lighter, but you won't get the same power, and you won't get a faster recovery, I've tested all the best for true natural frequency, and PB is the best. Period. Then any size guide will work.

The real issue is the length and objective power, not described power. What is the blank length and ERN of the blanks on which they are built? The two biggest components of rod weight are the weight of the blank and the weight of the reel seat. Everyone brags about their light rods without even knowing the objective specs for them. Go for it! Love the attitude. I'm a little cheap. But I have a LOT of rods.

You can go Torzite if you want the absolute best, but they are very pricey for little value over SIC. I have NEVER grooved any guide of any material, and I used a lot of cheapies before I started building. If I were doing it I would go with titanium SIC's. I would get one KB and the rest KT's. The KB would go right after the 5.5M. I just weighed the set I'm going to use on a new rod, and to use up stuff I have on hand I have a KLH 16 stainless, a KLH 8 stainless, a 5.5M titanium, a KB4 titanium, and 5 KT4 titaniums. The whole set (all SIC rings) weighed .141 oz. 9 guides at .141. This brings what DVT was arguing into perspective. See my other comment. The link doesn't show the size. If you go into the 4 and 4.5 size you need to be prepared to tie some pretty small knots, like FG or at least an Alberto in order to get the knots between braid and leader through the guides somewhat cleanly.

You should go KG in my opinion, either SIC or torzite. I've never used Torzite, always use SIC. Never grooved a SIC. Use tip top cement, a hot melt, to attach it. If you use epoxy and ever need to replace it you may sacrifice a half inch of tip of the blank because with epoxy you may not be able to get it off. Order the ring size that matches or is one size larger than the runners, and a tube size 1/2 size larger than the advertised tip diameter. It is not a problem if the tube is too large. It is an unsolvable problem if it's too small.

Yes, not 1.4 when we are picking nits. Anglersresource.net use the KR software to locate the reduction guides, locate the running guides with the 2 line stress test, tutorial on same site. I always use 3 reduction guides + 6 runners on a 7 foot rod. Most use 5 runners.

Accuweather and Windfinder. Where I fish wind predictions are more of interest than weather for planning. While on the water Accuweather usually is very accurate down to a few minutes of rain coming in.

1.48 in my view of their catalog. NFC , unfortunately so far, is strange in their descriptions which often do not match the measured values for power and action. If I were choosing between NFC and St Croix, I would go St Croix. More likely to get what is closer to the description. I just received an NFC drop shot rod rated Medium power. Its CCS ERN is 12.8 and it feels about that light in power and weights 1.6 oz. I have asked for their data to confirm the ERN. I have not yet finished the build, so I have not fished it. I seriously question whether another NFC blank weighing 1.48 will have any more power than about ERN 13. A Point Blank PB701MLF measures ERN 19.9 and weighs 1.76 oz. It is probably my favorite rod for spin finesse. I have measured the true natural frequency of blanks and Point Blanks have the highest of any blanks measured which indicates the highest stiffness to weight ratios, the fastest recovery times,and most likely the most sensitivity. I often fish a St Croix SCV70MF, and it's a very fine rod. I expect the SCV70MLF (orXF) is also. I seem to remember many on this forum having the SCV70MLF as a favorite. The Xray that I have is the mirror finish, not the highly textured one. While the mirror has only very small grooves in the finish, it still is a bit of a pain to wrap due to the difficulty of moving the wrap thread on its surface. I prefer to build on St. Croix and Point Blank, or any other un-textured blanks.

I personally don't use braid on baitcasters because mono casts better. FC is too fragile and manageable FC is way too expensive considering how easily damaged it is. On spinning I use braid almost exclusively, for everything including cranks. I use about a 5 foot leader of FC or mono, and it gives some shock absorption without significantly compromising feel and hook sets.

Yes. straight floro is only about .3 mm for 16 pound test, the ID of size 4 runners is way above that.

Many braids have a coating for lubricity, and they have no stretch, which nylon wrapping thread has, and which helps to keep it tight to the blank. Using braid for guide wraps may or may not work. What I know will work is nylon or polyester wrapping thread. Thread designed for rod building. If you want to buy something locally that will work, then the polyneon embroidery threads available in sewing shops will work IF you use color preservative to keep the lubes in it from affecting the epoxy coating and to retain its color. The rayon embroidery threads are to be totally avoided. Even CP will not save their color.

White

I build for a lot of reasons, I love the feeling when I finish the rod, admiring its beauty, looking forward to fishing it. Also very important to me is that I can fish the best rods in the world for about half the cost of what it would cost to buy the name brand hi mod rod. But I agree with DVT, if saving $$ is your ONLY reason to get into building, it's not a good idea. I think I keep building spin rods, even when I don't need another, is that I have developed a "signature" design that really works, and no factory company offers anything close to it. I also have built a bunch of rods for an educational foundation auction. Nice to support local education with my skills, and neat to see what others will pay for one of my rods. Many builders are building rods for kids and rods for vets, both admirable endeavors. I built my first rod when I was a teen, parts from Herters, "Finest Procurable Quality," built a fly rod during college finals week one year when I was well scholastically prepared, fished it before taking my last final. I have many fine memories from rod building. It is a neat hobby, even if you don't get into selling. Especially if you don't get into selling (warranty issues, broken rods, "that's not what I meant by MH") My family and a few close friends value their rods from "Custom Fishing Rods - MJ Danek" That's what the label says.

All good points. The advantage of a kit is that it familiarizes one with the parts and processes. I still at times don't exactly know what to buy. Fuji fazlites are fine guides for a very fair price. Use the right software on the anglersresource site to match the KR guides (to locate the reduction guides). Use the two line stress test to locate the runners. I would not go super small on the runners, the smallest ones are tough to wrap. I'd suggest 5.5's for a first rod. They still are probably smaller than you're used to.

Good advice, too. One thing that always stumps new builders is reel seat location-what is important is where the reel is, not the seat. Seats vary. But one good way to locate it is to do it in the same location as a rod you have that you like. Or put it close, then move it a little if you feel you can improve on it (seats can be taped to a blank for evaluation before gluing in place. One of my first spin rods I made I used a stock rear grip and it put the reel too far forward. It ended up snagging my elbow area when going from tip up to down and vice versa. I ended up having to cut 1 1/2 inches off the butt to fix the ergonomics. Since then I've used the rod for many years and it's been a good rod. But I still regret cutting 1 1/2 inches off the butt of a $160 blank. On another rod I mis-aligned the guide with respect to the seat/reel stem. I had to totally rebuild that one. Moral: Your first or second build will usually not be the best work you are capable of doing once you get some experience under your belt.

I think this is a very smart strategy. I recommend starting with a kit, and before that review the good tutorials at places like Flexcoat.com and Mudhole.com. Additionally the Library at this site has excellent information. https://www.rodbuilding.org/library/library.html I don't know exactly what "super cheap" is, but get what appears to be a decent kit from Mudhole.com or Getbitoutdoors.com, and maybe there are other sources I'm not familiar with. Search on line for "fishing rod building kit" and see what you get. There are an untold number of videos on line, search by the subject you are interested in, including the word "video." Keep in mind that what you will be seeing are opinions and everything may not be fact, that there are many ways of doing different things, and when we describe what we are doing to others, we may not always include the subtle things we are doing to make it work. Don't hesitate to ask specific questions on rodbuilding forums.

Sounds a lot like a Lorentz transformation. Not sure what a Lowrance transformation is. Seriously, if you aren't interested forget it. If what you have works, fine.

The best jigs I've found for retaining the bait and preventing early damage to it are the ones with the light wire screw feature rather than a barb. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/VMC_Hybrid_Swimbait_Jig/descpage-VHSJ.html

Glad you got some humor in your life. Besides being humerous, it allows one to determine objectively whether or not his premium dollars are yielding any value. How do you accomplish that now? Advertising copy?