My first rod rebuild

[Bubba_Bruiser]

Well, I finally finished my first rebuild of a rod, minus the handle, a few weeks ago. I started off with an old 5'6" MH-F Berkley Lightning rod. I stripped the rod down, and several phone calls and text messages to Waffle & Jrob, I finished. I figured I would rather ruin an old $25 rod, than my St. Croix blank I bought for my first build. I made quite a few mistakes, but that's what we learn from I reckon. I learned first of all, don't put a lighter near the blank when trying to remove the tip top guide, because it will twist off, therefore making the rod 5'5" now. But here are a few pictures from the process.

Lesson learned on the tiger wrap; don't pull the line off, back it off by turning the rod by hand and let it fall off.

This is the finished wrap, but I applied too much pressure while I was laying the epoxy. And I think I wrapped it too tight which didn't allow me to burnish it much. But it will do for me on my first one.