Well I have a couple things to add. The first one is a rod holder. This thing isn't to complex at all, but it works fairly well for what I use it for. Then a ancor. Next a little modification to my hockey puck (Plueger). Then a planning form for building bamboo rods. Then a scraper to build the planning form. Lastly I will though in my cheap little rod wrapper that I am planning on upgrading.
Let me give you a little background. I have a little boat that is about 12' I think, I don't even really know, we picked it up for really cheap, and it floats so that is all that matters to me because I only use it in small lakes. Well this boat has some wierd placed holes in it right behind the oar locks and it is a nice place to put a rod holder so that is what I did.
Ok, now to explain how I made it. I took a PVC pipe about a foot or so. I then stared at it for a while trying to figure out how I was going to do this. After exampling it I decided to just cut some stuff and hope it works out. I decided to leave the last inch of the tubing alone, so in everything I mention from here on (unless I indicate that I am talking about that bottom inch) does not involve that inch. Ok, I cut a strip down the middle of the tube the long way. I made this strip fat enough for my rod to sit in. This was kind of tricky to do with out it turning, use clamps :thumb , I used a lot of them. I then made the strip even fatter at the base so I had a place for my reel to sit. Now here is the tricky part, how to secure your rod in there. Well I used a lot of duct tape, I put some on the sticky sides where it might have a chance of touching my rod, but I left it sticky on the places to attach to the tubing. I guess if you really wanted you could get a piece of tubing that fits right over the holder and cut a slit out the same size as your rod so it fits in it and then just turn that little piece of tubing so it closes it (I wonder if that is understandable?) but I found my way cheaper. I made two this way, and I attached them in different ways because I had two different sizes of holes. The first was smaller so I drilled a hole through the base of the holder and put a really big nail in it that was held there by large amounts of duct tape. I then used some more magical tape as arbors on the nail so it would fit snugly in the hole. The second way was very similar but instead of a hole in the base of the holder and a nail I just duct taped a piece of tubing to the holder. Now if you choose to follow these crazy directions and build a silver rod holder like mine than the last bit of advice would be to file/sand down the edges of the tubing because it can get sharp. I figure for some left over tubing and a couple rolls a duct tape it wasn't only fun but also cheap, and with the right tweaking and amount of tape I guess it does work too.
Ok the second thing I built for this tiny floating divice was an ancor. This was very creative. As I mentioned before I only use this boat in small lakes, ponds and puddles so I don't need much ancoring power. Ok what you need is a large tub of Adams peanut butter, (jelly, bread and milk are recomended but not needed), rope, a big bolt with an eye at one end (if I used the wrong turm for this I am sorry, a big bolt with a circle on one side if that is easier to understand), water, and some cement. Alright, what I did was take a large pastic peanut butter tub I don't know the exact size but I do know it was Adams peanut butter so you might need to look into that, do some research or something. Well I guess any tub would work, a coffee can would probably do the job, but I find that a Adams peanut butter tub works best because a coffee and jelly sandwich isn't the same as a peanut butter and jelly one. Ok eat all of the peanut butter, you can make sandwiches, that is why I added the bread and jelly into the materials needed, or you can just put it some place else and eat it while you are working on this great ancor. Now that the peanut butter is gone lick the inside of the tub clean. Now what you want to do is use your water and cement to mix up some cement. Pour as much cement into the tub and place the big bolt eye side out into the middle of it. Make sure you fill the tub. While it is drying go eat some more peanut butter and drink some milk because too much peanut butter can get hard to get down. When it is done tie the rope on to the end of the bolt using whatever knot you would like. Most people choose a knot that will hold, I prefer the made up knot that looks very odd and is twice the size of my ancor (not literaly). You now have a great ancor in my book
. I am sure many of you are upset now because you either went out and spent a lot of money on an ancor that you could have made or another reason would be that your boat is bigger and needs more ancoring power, or you take your boat in the river with flowing water to pull on it. Well if you were the first kind of person I am sorry, I don't have a solution for you, but if you are the second or third than I do. Use a bigger tub, try using a 5 gallon bucket. Want more gripping power? Well take some of those really big nails that I used for my rod holder and nail them into the side of the bucket before you pour the cement. I hope this helps some of you out there
.
The last thing is not an invention, but actually a modification. Well I am sure that many of you can tell that I don't like to spend money if I don't have too, so that helps explains why I am a user of a Pflueger Medalist. Don't get me wrong, I am not saing it is a bad real, mine has taken a beating and it still works great. After stating that I will get back on to track. I am sure that many of you know that Pfluegers have fat butts on them, and they don't fit many reel seats. Well what I did to solve this problem was just file down the butts. It works great and didn't take long at all. I would recommend putting some sort of finish on it to protect it.
Onto the planning form. Well if you don't know what I planning form for building bamboo rods is I will explain it really quick. It is two piece of material steel or wood (mine are wood because it was easier to make this way) that are bolted together. The bolts include a push and pole bolt every five inches for about 6' or so (depends on the size of rods you want to make). There is a v down the middle and someone uses this to create tapers when building a bamboo rod. This is not as fun as the others, and I am sure many of you have stopped reading my post because it is so long so I will just keep it short. I took a 2 inch thick 4 inch wide and 6 feet long piece of hard maple. I cut it down the middle and planed and sanded the sides to make them smooth. I then drilled a bunch of holes, put some bolts in, then scraped down the middle. It you would like more details just e-mail me I would be glad to help you.
[email protected]
The scarer is what I used to get the v shape in my planning form. I took a trianle file and epoxied it to a piece of wood. Pretty hard huh?
Ok, not my wrapper. A couple heavy books with the thread down the middle of the one on the bottom. Apply different books of different weights to get the desired tention.
I know I kind of just drifted off there and didn't finish to strong and I am sorry, but I am pretty tired, and I lost interest in typing. I am sure you will understand if you look at the time I posted this, I have been up tying flys for my first trip over to the Lenice trio this saturday. Any input on what to use and where to fish would be great, I have never fished there. Well I hope something in this post was useful to someone out there. If not I hope it was at least enjoyable.
Sly
