# Does anyone build their own guides?



## Trophyhusband (Nov 30, 2011)

I'm not a smithy or otherwise versed in the metallurgical arts, but I think I could make these:

http://reelseats.com/shop/index.php...id=120&zenid=d4fd390e71b267129fb0e1874c9a6eb4

I'm thinking a roll of welding wire would produce a heck of a lot of guides. They would be easy to form by heating the wire and wrapping it around a mandrel, but there may be other problems. First off, how would the heating of the wire effect the metal? Would it make it too soft and susceptible to grooving? I was thinking stainless wire, but would I need something harder and would that would raise the cost too much? What about inserting a ceramic ring in the wire spiral? Would there even be a way to securely cement the ceramic ring in. 

Could something like this be made strong enough to stand up to and AJ on a spinning rod or would it be limited to smaller rods?

If anyone has any experience trying this please give me some insight. If anyone is interested in giving this a shot with me, let me know.


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## Cap'n Fisherman (Mar 15, 2011)

There for the price of a few guides goes your AJ! I'd stick to decorative wraps, etc and not the heart of my equipment. Just my thoughts.


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## Charlie2 (Oct 2, 2007)

*Making Guides*

I've made guides from wire for fly rods and bream poles and they worked OK. I have this wire wrapping thing that will make some pretty good looking guides.

Using them with a braid or mono is another story.

I'll stick to factory made guides; thank you. I don't want to miss a fish because of a bad guide. C2


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## Trophyhusband (Nov 30, 2011)

Come on, guys! Where's your sense of adventure? You trust your wraps to hold the guides on, don't you? That's just thread and some glue or something. We're talking metal here.


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## kanaka (Oct 3, 2007)

Friend and I used to make our own spinning guides out of 308 SS TIG rod and sell them locally. The biggest bugger was pounding out the feet. SS tends to be self hardening the more you cold work it in my experience.
Have you ever seen what a used SS or hard chromed guide looks like after a few seasons of mono???? Mo betta you wrap a few rods before you get tangled up in making guides, baby steps...:thumbsup:


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## Charlie2 (Oct 2, 2007)

*Homemade Guides*



Trophyhusband said:


> Come on, guys! Where's your sense of adventure? You trust your wraps to hold the guides on, don't you? That's just thread and some glue or something. We're talking metal here.


My 'sense of adventure' waned when I lost several good fish because of a broken line. The line guides were grooved and caused this effect.

Unless you use some kind of ceramics, I feel that's it's a lost cause. C2


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## Captain Mickey O'Reilly (Dec 18, 2008)

I think there are more probs then it would be worth. Just getting a superior polish on the inside of the rings would be a nightmare, and believe me you will lose alot of fish from frayed broken lines. Another problem that comes to mind is the guide feet, if the feet damage the blank because they are not solidly built for the task at hand, you could end up with a broken rod! Just prepping guides for wrapping is a pain in the butt! I admire the thought, but get some rods wrapped as stated before, then go hog wild! Cheers!


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## Neki (Jun 29, 2011)

Some advantages of twisting guides out of stainless welding wire, are you can produce a good guide at low cost if you have the ability, and the weight of a set for a cobia /pier rod are preety light .They also flex with the blank effortlessly. Theres a guy bending nice guides over in PC and just picked up contract to produce a ton of them. For reasons mentioned above , i dont like them because they're non plated , and much softer than a chrome plated guide thus less prone to guide and line wear , especially with braid. Spring guides dont have welds to break like a welded guide, but i notice alot of corroision on the foot of the spring guides where it enters the guide wrappings and finish . This area will fail faster than a welded guide because a welded guide has two strands of wire forming the foot and is less prone to corrosion and failure in that area of entering the thread and finish. So its a big toss up as to what guide is better. The harder polished chrome plating of pac bay guides are hardto beat IMO


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