After reading the fuji K r link , how do I determine the size of the first choking guide, is it the height of the level wind of the reel above the blank, and after that is determined, are the rest of the guides based, on line size, sorry for all the questions, just trying to understand the why of what I am doing,
The first guide can be a size 10 for general applications and low profile baitcasters. Size 12 is ok, but can be overkill and add unnecessary weight. You can even go smaller than a 10, but that’s just standard suggestion by Fuji. Set the guide approximately 20” from the face of the reel and then static test to place the others. For number of guides, a general rule of thumb is 1 for every foot of the rod (rounded up), plus one, plus the tip.
As an example, a starting place for a 7’3” rod would be 8 guides + 1 additional runner, + tip top. Again, that’s just a starting point. The beauty with rod building is you can do whatever you think works best. Lighter action rods will probably need more running guides (especially with casting rods), heavier action might need less. For casting rods, you just want the line to follow the natural curvature of the rod under load without the line touching the blank. Then add or remove guides as you see fit to accomplish that while trying to reduce weight. Then go out and cast to see if it’s desirable.
to determine existing guide sizes, grab a pair of calipers and measure the O.D. of the ring insert in mm. If the insert is missing then you measure the I.D. of the frame ring.
Tip tops are measured similarly. But the tube size is measured in 64ths of an inch. So a tip top that’s sized 4/4.5 is 4mm ring and a 4.5/64ths tube size.
Last edited by ECobb91; 07-24-2022 at 08:36 AM.
1995 Ranger 481v
1995 Johnson Fast Strike 175hp
thank you starting to get a little clearer...I think
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