201104 - Issue 43 Description

April 2011
Issue 43

Power Fibers is published in Adobe Acrobat format. To view the magazine, you must download the Adobe Acrobat Reader. You can get it here.

To get this issue, order the 2011 Issue CD on the “Backissue CDs” page.

The April, 2011 issue of Power Fibers contains:

Book Review: Brook Trout Forest

A couple of weeks ago, Ron Barch sent me a copy of Kathy Scott’s new book, Brook Trout Forest. Once again, Kathy invites us to peek into her life in Maine. The book is filled with stories of work with middle and high school youth, the making of twin rods and a trip to Labrador. Through her writing, Kathy relates her passion for all of these subjects...

Laminated Bamboo Reel Seat Insert

For a while I have wanted to make a bamboo reel seat made from small plugs or chunks of bamboo. After seeing a few Japanese bamboo and fiberglass rod makers that had them – Ishida Hideto and Yasuyuki Kabuto specifically – and having a friend ask if I could put one on an upcoming rod I was making for him, I figured I’d give it a shot...

Multiple Rod Turner

For some time I turned my rods for varnishing wraps, one section at a time, on a gizmo I made with a spitbraai motor (braai is the South African equivalent of barbeque and almost a national sport). The motor’s gears gnarled and gnashed their way into the ears of the family, driving my hard won popularity stakes for washing dishes etc., down the drain of irritation...

Making a Turning Chuck

In making a turning chuck you need a lathe and drill press. For material, you need a length of heavy wall aluminum pipe and a few nylon screws.

Photo 1 shows the length of the chuck cut off....

CA Glue as a Reel Seat Finish

You can venture to any pen turning site and find many ways to apply CA and they all seem to think their way is the best from using 20-25 coats of thin CA to a combination of CA + BLO or BLO + CA.

BLO acts like a lubricant and allows you to apply it smoother and slows down the curing of the CA slightly.

I use straight CA as I don't care for the look of CA + BLO (Boiled Linseed Oil)...

Small Machine Tools for Reel Fabrication

The reels I make bear a general resemblance to classic reels by Vom Hofe and others, but employ modern materials like Delrin and aluminum. Making the parts requires machine tools, a lathe and a mill. This article is about the tools and accessories that I have found useful for this work, and is written to inform others who, like myself, have no previous experience with machining.

Careful and complete design is an important part of this work. You should not order raw materials until you have drawn all parts in detail because oversize raw material means wasted...

The Dirt Cheap Beveler

I was surprised when Todd asked me to write an article about my beveler. It is not really special and does not have state of the art machining. It is not all shiny metal or made to tolerances of one thousandth of an inch, but I think it works great!

Back to the beginning, a long, long time ago in the suburbs of Chicago, in a fairly tale land called Wheaton; a man came to teach a rod building course. This was not an ordinary course costing thousands of dollars in a condensed...

Getting an Ultimate Ferrule Fit

The most expensive component of a rod today is the ferrule. Yet, one of the least talked about aspects of rodmaking is the method by which to get a good ferrule fit. Today, most ferrule fits are roughly 30 – 35% fit. Following this article guidelines and steps you can increase that fit to 70 – 90%. When we say “fit” we mean the total area of contact when the ferrules are fully seated. If you do not believe this, just look at the males and you will see the contact area.

The information currently available really does not address this issue. It really gives you very rudimentary guidance. One of the spin-offs of our efforts in drawing NS tubing and exploring the classic rodmakers who drew their tubing and made...

April 2011Issue 43