The Varnish Can

The previous post included some photos of Alan Kube's shop in Denver. But you have to look past the Bridgeport mill and Leblond lathe to see the important stuff. I felt a little guilty for not sharing the new tool I found. So here it is...a varnish can. A beer can turned upside down makes a perfect little resorvior for a dab of varnish when you're doing your wraps. Check out the picture.

David

Tuning a Garrison Style Binder

I was reminded of Chris Bogart's Garrison binder article today. I've yet to find better information from any other source. It's a simple machine, but it's not fool proof. It has to be tuned up correctly. Here's the link to the article:

http://www.canerod.com/Tools/Index.html

Simple Secrets

To follow up on David's secret tips, here's another:

After gluing and binding a rod, we typically tie a loop on one end of the section and hang it to dry.

I've taken to putting tension on my hanging sections, to "encourage" them to dry straight. The trick, then, is to fix the loops you tie on each end of the section so that when they pull on the rod, they pull evenly on at least 2 opposing sides of the section. If not, when you put tension on the rod, the loop pulls on one side of the section more than the other sides, and it puts a bend in that end of the rod. This is particularly true with the small end of the tips. I gave up on finagling with those loops (while you are wearing latex gloves, and racing drying glue!)

Now, and here's the secret, I go to the electrical section of the hardware store and buy a selection of heat-shrink tubing used for wire insulation. Now, when the section is glued up and bound, I slip a 2-3 inch section of the tubing half-way over each end of the section. The tubing shrinks 50% so i pick a size that will shrink and hold the section tightly - smallest for the tips, largest for the butts. I "hit" it with the heat gun for a few seconds, the tubing shrinks, and grabs the end of the section, evenly from all sides. Then I pierce the part of the tubing that is not pinching the rod section, and slip a paper clip through it. One end gets hung from a hook in my drying box, and a weight gets hung from the bottom end. This process, plus reducing my binder tension to the minimum, has done more to produce straight sections than anything else I have tried.

Lee

Tightbond III

I'm using Tightbond III on all my rods. I've tested the other industrial strength glues for set resistance. They are more set resistant than TBIII, but they will all take a set if abused. URAC is the most set resistant glue I've tested.

My TBIII rods do not take sets with normal use. But there's something about the process that's worth putting in the list of Secret Stuff. The glue joint needs to cure completely before the blank is straightened. Flexing the blank before the glue has cured will weaken the glue joint. How much weaker will depend on how much of the joint had cured when it was straightened. I will straighten a blank for up to about eight minutes after applying the glue. Beyond that, I don't wiggle, bend or twist a blank for a least a week.

An easy way to tell if the glue has cured is to save a blob about two inches in diameter and watch it cure. The glue will turn darker as it cures. When the color is a consistently darker color, it should be cured enough to straighten. The curing time will vary depending on the temperature and relative humidity.

Turning Ferrule Stations

I may have posted this before, but I thought it was worth adding to the list of Secret Stuff. I've tried several recommended methods of turning ferrule stations. I've used sand paper, files and lathe bits all with varying degrees of success. I've read about home made cutters made from tubing and then there's the high dollar station cutters that are way beyond my hobby budget.

I've settled on the process shown in these pictures. There are probably a hundred other makers doing this, but I'm not aware of any at the moment. This is something I dreamed up a couple years ago. It's simple as dirt. Just clamp a file to the tool post and ease it down on to the bamboo. Use the file like a lathe bit to make the cut. Make a couple passes at a time to allow for deflection at the end of the rod blank. Put a little more downward pressure on the file and repeat the process until the ferrule fits. It just takes a few minutes to cut a perfect ferrule station.

Tapered Slide Ring

There was a discussion on the rod makers list recently about the angle that should be used to taper a slide ring. Most rings that I've seen are jammed up onto the reel foot. The ring and the foot make contact only at the edges of the foot. It's a poorly engineered component, but it's simple and traditional.

About the only thing that can be done to improve the fit is to taper the inside diameter of the ring. That can be done a couple different ways. A swage was explained on the rod makers list. It's a steel mandrel with one end tapered to the desired angle. The ring is pounded onto the mandrel to expand the ring to fit the taper. The other method is to turn the taper on a lathe.

The question that emerged from the discussion on the rod makers list was what angle to use. As I understand it, the foot of most fly reels has a 7 degree taper. Brent Nickerson, a retired engineer and machinist from Alberta Canada, suggested a 7 degree angle about half way into the ring. Several replies to his post recommended a 3 1/2 degree angle because the ring would have a combined 7 degree taper.

So...I just happened to have a couple discarded rings in the shop to experiment with. I turned one with each of the two suggested angles and mounted a reel to see how they fit. The ring in the first picture has a 3 1/2 degree angle. The second picture is a 7 degree angle. Click on the pictures to enlarge them and take a look at the position of the rings relative to the insert. The 3 1/2 degree ring leans forward into the reel seat insert. That makes sense given that the reel foot has a 7 degree taper. The reel foot is going to force the ring to lean into the insert.

For me, the primary reason for tapering the ring is to minimize or eliminate scaring the insert with normal use. I would prefer for the ring to fit flush with the insert. Take a look at the second picture. That's the 7 degree ring. The tapered half of the ring fits flush with the reel foot and the flat half of the ring fits flush with the insert. The ring fits square with the insert...perfect!

I'm not an engineer or machinist. But apparently it took a combination of both to solve this riddle. Kudos to Brent Nickerson! I'm putting this one in the secret stuff file.

Here's a link to some CAD drawings that Brent provided. There are three PDF files for bored 3.5 and 7 degree rings and a 7 degree swaged ring. Shared with his permission: SLIDE RING DRAWINGS

Translucent Wraps

One of the mysteries of bamboo rod making is translucent wraps. I've read of several ways to produce a clear, shimmer free, translucent look. Some of them have curing problems. The varnish seems to take forever to cure. Others leave shimmers in the finish and still others have a cloudy appearance. There are probably others that work well, but the one that has produced consistent results for me is a concoction that Alan Kube passed along to me. Its a 1 to 1 mixture of Walnut Alkyd Medium (not walnut oil) and Waterlox Original High Gloss Finish. Waterlox is a Tung oil product with a very thin viscosity. It soaks into silk like water.

I apply the solution as recomended by Alan. Soak the wraps starting at the tip of the guide foot and working toward the center of the guide. The air space around the guide foot needs to fill up with varnish as you go with no air pockets. I'll soak the wraps on one guide, do the next one, and then go back to the previous guide and wipe the wraps down with a dust free cotton cloth to remove any excess varnish repeating that process until all the wraps have been soaked. Wait about an hour and do it again. It takes 24 hours to cure in my drying closet at about 90 degrees and 40% relative humidity. Alan doesn't use a drying closet so he allows about a week for the wraps to cure before leveling out the wraps with a coat of straigt Waterlox and a few subsquent coats of Varmor R10.

This solution works if it's mixed and applied as described above. Variations of the mixture and application may not work as well. I followed up with Alan on this recently. He does get occasional shimmers, but we think that may be because of dirty wraps, not the solution. I have a very oily complexion. When wrapping guides, I wash my hands thoroughly before wraping the guides.