So...OK!

Moving on with stuff. No one complains if I don't post everyday so why bother? I mean the only two persons reading this crap are in Russia and Serbia looking for stuff to lift and download, stealing stuff if you will... so here's a bit of fodder for those two guys. Knock yer self out.

I think the last post where I actually put a pic up of any sort of progress were three bamboo culms cut and on the bench.

Since then, the culms have had the nodes sanded, been flamed (heat tempered) and split in halves. The damns knocked out and the splits re-taped into a single piece again.

Once this is done, then the halves are ready to be split. The halves are split into sixths, the sixths split into halves and those halves are split into halves. Giving you 24 strips of more or less equal widths.

Once you have 24 strips, you need to pick out the best 18 strips. 6 for the butt and 12 (6 for each tip section) for the tips. Sort them and get them aligned.

Once you get your eighteen strips, one of the tricky parts rears it's head...knowing where your ferrules and tip top will fall on the rod.

The general rule of thumb is no node closer than two inches to a ferrule or tip top. That means you need to know how much longer you need to cut your strips, how much of that length will ultimately be cut off and removed and that your ferrules and tip tops will be in the proper portion of the rod section.

Now this particular rod is is going to be a 7'6" 4wt. The finished length of each rod section is approximately 45" long. Since that length depends on the length of the male and female ferrules and length of the tip top, to make each section 45" long now means something is going to be long or short when the time comes to mount the tip top and ferrule, so...the thing to do here is make the sections longer. In my case 5" longer as the adjusting stations on my planing forms are 5" on center. This actually makes life MUCH easier.

SO...I slide around the groups of 3 strips. The first thing is to get the nodes even spaced out.

There are quite a few different methods and reasons to space out one's nodes in a particular way. I'm not going into why you should or shouldn't space your nodes in any way in particular. I'm just going to leave you with I space mine 2x2x2. I have my reasons and if you want to know, ask.

After I get the nodes spaced, it's time to decide where to make your cuts for section length. Again this depends on where your tip top and ferrules are ultimately going to end up on the glued up rod sections.

I decide on this piece of bamboo, it's going to be here...

Now on this end (butt end) the actual end of the rod section is going to be about 5" to the left of my red cut off mark...5" from the mark will put my final cut-off between the first and second sets of nodes on the left. At least two inches from any male ferrules and on the tip side it works out the same. No node closer than two inches from the tip top.

Many times it's not anywheres near as easy as this rod and you have to do some finagling...but this one is just fine!

More or less later...

Mike