Paddled Rhodes Pond today

Sharon and I took the Kayaks and Bella the Swamp Dog, over to Rhodes Pond today . We had a good time, it is always such a nice place to paddle.Today it seemed that everyone had the same idea. When we got there the parking lot was full of vehicles with kayak carriers on top. plus a couple of trailers. Several big groups were paddling today. it didn't matter there's plenty of room back in there. Here are some shots from today.

Cleaning Up Our local Lake

This past Saturday the 9th of July , we had a clean up of our local lake. This lake is the only public fishing area except for the river in our area. It can get to be quite a mess , not so much from the people who fish there but all the other elicit activities that go no there. It is nothing to find the parking lots full of beer bottles , used condoms, or hypo needles. We are working with the city official to try to get the illegal activity out there controlled. But untill then we will try to keep the area policed. We hold a bi-annual clean up with other organizations, but the FAAN members  pick up trash every time we go out there on our own Here is a slide show from this past event.

Tip Tops and a New Blank

You can see a section of the rod blank on top of the box.
Hey Cabela's kill any trees lately.

    My Tip Tops and the blank for the 6piece fly rod, I am building for my Father-in-Law, arrived last evening. It was funny , the size of the box that they came in. The rod blank was only 19 inches long , the only other thing in the box was 2 rod tip tops and a magazine that Cabelas is putting out. I guess they are making enough they can afford to have a little over kill in there packing department. I will say that they were fairly quick in getting it to me. So on with the rod building.

    I still had the Tip Top to install on my rod. I did that this morning. I used fletch tight hot glue stick to secure this. I think on the next one I will use the same epoxy that I use to glue the reel seat and the handle. Once I had the tip top glued in place I wrapped up to it and added the silver spiral wrap. I will wait to do the epoxy until I have both rods ready to finish.

   
Now on to the rod for my father-in-law. We are going out to Wyoming to spend a week with them in Sept. Going to surprise him with this rod. They have a huge 5th wheel Travel Trailer they live in.
Spending the winters in Livingston Texas and then go out west for the summers. It will be my first time to Wyoming so really looking forward to it. Not to mention the fishing.

The six pieces of the blank.

Found the spine of the rod and got it marked then laid out the guide spacing with a china marker. Next I marked and taped the arbors for the reel seat and the handle section. I used masking tape instead of the drywall tape this time, on advice from several more experienced rod builders, thanks Billy , and Matt.

You can see the burl in the insert

 Here is the Handle and reel seat that I am using.  I picked up at the Rod Builders Expo in High Point earlier this year. Got these off the Mud Hole discount rack. I think that I got them for around $5.00 , pretty good . It looks like the wood is  maybe Burled Rosewood or Coralwood for the insert, the wood on the handle might be Rosewood,it not burled. Any way they look good together.

End cap for the Reel Seat

Arbors of masking tape. The larger build up is for the space
 between the insert and the threaded portion of the reel
seat.

Front of the reel seat

 The arbor for the end of the reel seat had to be reduced some. I neglected to allow for the end cap to fit. At least I found that in the dry fit and not after the epoxy was covering it.

Back with the section that had to be built up on the blank

Ready for dry fit

Dry fit looks good

Added thin arbors on the blank to center the handle

 The Veneer Calipers help to get the arbors sized right .

Used 220 sand paper to rough the finish for the epoxy to
grip

Using the ProBound for the reel seat and handle. Works good for me , like the consistency of it. Builds good between the arbors and doesn't sag. 

I have a ton of these little plastic plates, left over from middle daughters wedding. For the finishing plan to cover the plat with tin foil to dissipate the heat of the epoxy .

Ready to install the reel seat and end cap

 Taped up the threads on the reel seat. Had a little epoxy ooze through on the last one I did , not fun cleaning that out of the threads once it cured.

Holding the end cap on with more tape

All gooped up and ready for the handle.

Freaked a little when the epoxy came pushing through
the forward hole in the reel seat that the foot of the reel
goes in. Cleaned it out with paper towels then stuffed one in
it that is soaked in alcohol to keep it open.

Here it is all clamped up and ready to cure.

Now just waiting on it to cure , well that and the guide set that is on order from Mud Hole . Talked to them this morning , should be in to them any day now. So hopefully it will be here soon. Like I said need to finish this before I go to Wyoming in September.

I decided to go a head and put the tip top on the blank while I had the ProBond mixed up. I always seem to mix up too muck of that any ways.

I got it all gooped up but after putting it on the tip it felt like it needed a small arbor tot tighten up the fit.So pulled it off and wiped it down with a alcohol soaked paper towel and apply 2 wraps of masking tape and it fit like a charm.

So now just waiting on parts ...reminisces of my time back in the Army ....seems like we were always waiting parts.