Rod Building

[MO3N]

I would like to start doing some rod building because I love the nelson rod I got awhile ago. I know it will take a long time to make it to his quality but It looks like fun.

I took a quick and basic rod building class that taught me how to build a rod. but the guy that I took the class with did things very basic. He would use the guides the manufacture recommended and would place them in the recommended spots by the manufacture. He also kept his reel seat in the same location for all of his rods with no special wraps.

For me I would rather do a little more customizing, thats the entire reason I want to build custom rods for myself. Although I will probably start basic like he showed me but eventually I would like to go outside of the manufactures mold. So I have a couple questions.

How do you know what size guides to use? I understand how to place my guides, but I am not sure on how to choose my guide size. I found a few programs and charts but they seem to mostly be for fly rods. I'm guessing there is a large range of sizes that can be used because of micro guides and stuff but was just hoping to find a rule or chart for spinning and baitcasting rods.

My last question is how do you make a custom rod balanced? When I got my Nelson rod he asked me what reel I would be using and it balances perfectly. Is it just luck, knowledge from building for awhile, or do you test the reel seat at different locations with the reel to see how it balances.

I have been reading on rodbuilding.org and rodbuildingforum.com but cant find a straight forward answer.

thanks