So I was brainstorming last night... BAMBOO!

D

DJBerg

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Aug 20, 2012
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I bought an old south bend at a garage sale last summer. got it home and realized that the tip section was broken(split glue) between every set of guides. though for a dollar who cares, it will look cool on the wall.

while looking around on the ebay, i found replacement tips for the dickenson taper, no clue what the taper is on that south bend, but i'm gonna get a caliper and see how close they are. but i'm thinking the next project will be straightening the base section of the old south bend and installing a new tip section. even if the tapers are different i'm hoping the variance will not be much.

so i started last night, luckily the old reel seet that was on there was only nailed on, so off that came, cut the old cork off it, i'm going to make a new handle for it out of cotton wood bark. leaving the ferrel on the base section, i heated up the tip section ferrel and that came out for the most part , will have to drill the rest of it out. sanded the base down to the cane, and left the original reel seet shim, and the base section ferrel.

my hopes are i can spend maybe $100, new reel seet, guides, custom grip and have a 7'6" 4wt bamboo rod. we'll see if the snowboard bindings i have on ebay sell then it's go time!
 
Sounds like a fun and cool project - post some pics when you're done.
 
DJBerg wrote:
I bought an old south bend at a garage sale last summer. got it home and realized that the tip section was broken(split glue) between every set of guides.

You know if the glue lines were delaminated you could easily re-glue them...
 
You know if the glue lines were delaminated you could easily re-glue them...

Shh... i didn't think of that until after i removed the tip form the ferrel, leaving a bit of it in the bottom...

yeah that crossed my mind last night, but that's broken now, though i could prob just shorten the tip section...
 
So the bamboo project was sidelined via broken tip. :cry:

but here's the few shots i took of the progress...

the split apart tip section, split as far as i dared. yeah i started with a single zip tie, but it was wrapped with the thickest thread i could find using my fly tying bobbin.

Untitled by dj.berg, on Flickr

all glued up with tightbond III... though very warped things were looking very good.

Untitled by dj.berg, on Flickr

a few glue lines but all and all like i said i was happy with the progress.

Untitled by dj.berg, on Flickr

then while heating and straightening the tip broke off, and that was the end of the $1 garage sale bamboo fly rod for now.

so while waiting for the next batch of money that i can spend on hobbies, i mad a poor man's lathe, and with some fallen off cotton wood bark made the bamboo a full wells grip! :-D


20121207_171839 by dj.berg, on Flickr

so until i get a free $40 for a ebay tip section, the project is on hold, all i can do is mount up the reel seat and grip, and wait...
 
I'm building my first splite bamboo some time in jan or feb. I love the grip you made out of the cottonwood bark. If you could make one cigar shape I would willing to give you 50$ for it. This would give you the money to finish your project, and make my rod realy stand out. Send me a PM and let me know. buckmaster
 
buckmaster you have a pm.
 
DJ,
Looking for sometime after the first of the year. Hook and Hackle has one made in the USA for $385 and one made in China for $285. Went down to there warehouse and looked at both of them and the USA one was o lot better made. But let me know about the tolin in Allentown. I'm looking for a 6' 3wt or 2wt for fish for native brookies. Thanks, Mike
 
ok, sorry i thought you were making your own blank(spliting cane and all that).

as far as i can find for ready to build bamboo blanks i have found, hook and hackle, ye olde english flyshop(imports), and the anglers roost(imports). the only one selling 2-3wts is the anglers roost but they have a nice import selection( http://theanglersroost.com/products/bamboo-blanks/presidential-bamboo-blanks/ ).

http://rodbuildersreview.blogspot.com/2010/09/anglers-roost-bamboo-blank-review-and.html

this is the only info "third party" on the roost blanks.

so, like i said n that message i sent you, let me know which taper you are going to be using and then i can figure out what to ream the grip to and i can get that right to you. and what outside diameters if you want anything larger /smaller to fit your hand better.

 
That grip is beautiful. Did you stack the bark and glue with titebond? I've seen birch grips, but I don't recall cottonwood. The contrast are really striking and I'll look forward to seeing that on a rod.
If you are still looking for blanks you might try posting on the bamboo section of one of the rod building forms. Three are a lot of basement builders out there that would be willing to sell a quality blank for a more reasonable price.
Mike.

 
thanks and yup, punched a bunch of hole saw cuts through some cotton wood bark, sanded them square, and glued them on a piece of threaded 1/4-20 then rigged a drill up with my rod wrapping station and just used 60/120/200 grit to shape it. given my 1/4-20 threaded stock was way to forgiving so it came out pretty lumpy, i just acquired a real wood lathe over the weekend so i'll have a real "true" version some time this week...

this is where i got the idea for my bark grips. http://www.rodbuildingtutorials.com/Grip%20&%20Handle%20Tutorials/redfirbark%20by%20Ron%20Hossack.pdf


as for the bamboo rods for my self, i am working n that as we speak, i'm meeting a guy over x-mas who is a bamboo dealer, so i'll have my first clumes by the new year. i am also in the brainstorming/searching for the cheapest way to build forms for planing. thinking on staring with some aluminum angle for my first set(one for standard hex and one set for penta).

and the last over winter project i am working on is finding someone to either trade my dslr for a mill and a lathe(metal), and start making reels, or just sell the camera and buy them separately. the cool part with the machining tools is i have a bunch of cross work i can do with them...

 
If you have the Best of the Planing Form they have both drawings and specs for both hex and quad forms or Ray Gould books also have drawings and specs (excellent books) for hex, quads and Pentas. Some online info can be found at http://www.thomaspenrose.com/form01.htm or other bamboo rod building sites. Building your own forms is the cheapest way to go if you have the time and some basic equipment. I bought both my hex and quad forms. I have not played around with pentas yet but if a set of forms comes up for sale that is affordable I might.
 
Try ( A Master's Guide to Building A Bamboo Fly Rod) by Everertt Garrison With Hoagy B. Carmichael on Amazon for $25. I'm reading a copy of it now to under stand what goes in to building it from start to finish, so I can build one the right way using a bamboo blank. Hope this helps. Mike
 
If you have the Best of the Planing Form they have both drawings and specs for both hex and quad forms or Ray Gould books also have drawings and specs (excellent books) for hex, quads and Pentas. Some online info can be found at http://www.thomaspenrose.com/form01.htm or other bamboo rod building sites. Building your own forms is the cheapest way to go if you have the time and some basic equipment. I bought both my hex and quad forms. I have not played around with pentas yet but if a set of forms comes up for sale that is affordable I might.

the penrose site was what got my brain turning on making forms and a basic tutorial on you tube hooked me on the bamboo building part. my only question is, the guy on the youtube vid had a piece of extruded aluminum in the shape of an astrix(pretty much a piece of aluminum that would fit in the middle of a hex rod) that he did his first heat treat with. took the roughed in strips and bound them in to the grooves and used that as a heat treat straightener. pretty cool stuff, and of course once my brain saw the basics, it was on i had to see if i could build one...

Try ( A Master's Guide to Building A Bamboo Fly Rod) by Everertt Garrison With Hoagy B. Carmichael on Amazon for $25. I'm reading a copy of it now to under stand what goes in to building it from start to finish, so I can build one the right way using a bamboo blank. Hope this helps. Mike

yeah i went to the local library system looking to see if there was any books available, of course not. so i'll have to do some looking around.
 
and i have no idea what happened but the thread went weird after i posed that last one!!!
 
DJBerg wrote:

the penrose site was what got my brain turning on making forms and a basic tutorial on you tube hooked me on the bamboo building part. my only question is, the guy on the youtube vid had a piece of extruded aluminum in the shape of an astrix(pretty much a piece of aluminum that would fit in the middle of a hex rod) that he did his first heat treat with. took the roughed in strips and bound them in to the grooves and used that as a heat treat straightener. pretty cool stuff, and of course once my brain saw the basics, it was on i had to see if i could build one...

They are called M-D fixtures and are supposed to keep the heat more uniform during the heat treat process. You don't actually need them, but there are guys that swear by them. Harry Boyd is the only person I know of that sells them.
DJBerg wrote:
Try ( A Master's Guide to Building A Bamboo Fly Rod) by Everertt Garrison With Hoagy B. Carmichael on Amazon for $25. I'm reading a copy of it now to under stand what goes in to building it from start to finish, so I can build one the right way using a bamboo blank. Hope this helps. Mike

yeah i went to the local library system looking to see if there was any books available, of course not. so i'll have to do some looking around.

The Garrison book is fantastic, but it is very detailed, very very engineering oriented, and some would argue a bit dated. You are going to eventually want a copy if you get serious, but as a basic beginners guide, you can't beat the late George Maurer's book

I recommend a class if you can swing it. There are a lot of good classes, several held in PA, where you make a cane rod for less than you would spend buying one and you get hands on experience before investing in the tools. I took one up in Maine 2 years ago and have been hooked ever since. I am now in the process of setting up a shop and still have to tackle a dip tube and oven, but otherwise all is go. If any of you that are interested in getting into this ever want to chat or bounce ideas around let me know. It's always good to have friends that share an addiction.
Mike.
 
thanks mike, that's some very important questions answered!
 
Wohoo! Merry xmas to me!!!! The father inlaw went a bit over board but I now own 12 6' clums of tonkin cain!!! Forms are started at home, and still gotta build an oven, but its getti g to be bamboo building time!!!!
 
well, a small update, have my home made forms all ready to drill and tap. got to my buddies, got all set up, finally put my first drill in the chuck, turn on the power... and the bit is swinging back and forth like a cows udders in the wind! google possible issues, seems the chuck heads are only pressed on, so i grab the dead blow and a punch. knock the head back off go to find a solid piece of block to re press the chuck on. and hear the machine turn on, and my buddy say " nope it's definitely the shaft that's bent!" DAMN IT! so now i wait for a new shaft to come in the mail... again the project is on pause, though i am going to start the oven project while waiting.
 
FrequentTyer wrote:
I am now in the process of setting up a shop and still have to tackle a dip tube and oven, but otherwise all is go. If any of you that are interested in getting into this ever want to chat or bounce ideas around let me know. It's always good to have friends that share an addiction.
Mike.

I always thought a dip tube was used for something else.......
 
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