Retired!

Well, I retired on Friday. 'Finally had enough. So I went fishing this weekend -- and I see that a lot of people here spent this nice weekend blowing smoke at each other.

Tomorrow I'm leaving for a few days of .... more fishing. Then I'm going somewhere else. I won't be back for a long while.

So, enjoy yourselves. I'll be finding better ways to use my time. I have a small boat to build before it gets cold. Hasta luego!

(if anyone wants to reach me, delete the "3" from my phony email address above)

Reply to
Ed Huntress
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What kind of fishing? My son and I are thinking of getting into fly fishing. I'd like to look into building my own fly rod. Ever done that?

Reply to
Rudy Canoza

Trout fishing for the next few days, in PA. Then bluefish, in NJ. And, if they're biting, false albacore. I haven't checked to see if they're in. They are the ultimate fly-fishing trip, to me.

I'vs been fly fishing since I was 7. Yes, I build fly rods and other rods. That's most of what I do with my South Bend lathe these days. But you don't need a lathe unless you're a real scratch-builder.

Send me a note to my real email address (the one above, but without the "3") and I'll send you a few photos of my favorite home-built fly rod, which I built from scratch around 10 years ago.

I'll be out of here after tonight, though, for at least a week.

Reply to
Ed Huntress

Retirement sounds like a wonderful concept, hopefully some day I, too, will get to experience it! Enjoy!!!

Jon

Reply to
Jon Elson

Thanks, Jon. Actually, I'll probably start writing again in a few weeks. I don't like the looks of what happens to my friends when they retire.

I'm just not going to work on somebody else's schedule again.

Reply to
Ed Huntress

The most hard corp fly angler I know has got to be John Lindsey. He has an IGFA world record or two under his belt as well (line class). He wrote a nice book on chasing big bass on the fly recently. I've read about half of it and its pretty entertaining. Might be a good guy to chat with if you are serious about getting into the whole fly fishing lifestyle. He posts on Tackle Underground and on my fishing site

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as bassrecord. If you just want to read a good book he self published it and sells them here.
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And now back to metal working. I am making brass adaptors from some generic Chinese thread to NPT threads today. The Chinese thread just seems like a sloppy M6-1. Weird. They didn't leak though. I'm making them with clamped o-ring seals wherever my stuff comes together. One of my new machines is not oiling the Z axis ball nut, so I am plugging the hole where the line comes out of the Z carriage assembly and routing a line directly from the oil distribution manifold. So far I have only had to make two adaptors and a plug.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

I am in the midst of building a boat myself. It is for my grandson. It is in three sections so it can be taken apart and put in his fathers hatchbac k. Somewhere around here they import fruit juice from South America. They shi p it in big plywood boxes about 43 inches cubed with a plastic blatter insi de the box. So a guy on Craigslist is selling the plywood pieces. 1 cm pl ywood 45 inches by 45 inches is $3. It is a bit thicker than I would have liked, but the price is right. Planing on stitch and glue construction. N ow need to find some low priced epoxy. Already have the fiberglass tape.

Dan

Reply to
dcaster

Congrats!

What a coincidence! I just bought a rod and reel... with which to amuse my cat.

Hope you have a good time.

I just got back from a long motorcycle ride. Fantastic scenery, including some rivers that looked like fly fishing paradise.

Reply to
Hot Coals

I bought a book on making fishing rods by Dale Clemens and gave it to my gr andson last Christmas. But he is not much of a DIY kid. Fortunately the b ook was from Abe and cost less than $5. I recommend the book. I learned a bout Dale from a guy that was the production manager for Fenwick at the tim e.

Dan

Reply to
dcaster

I have three of Clemens' books, and four flyrods I built on Clemens blanks. He's very good, but much more than you need to build your first rod. You can get plenty of info online.

Reply to
Ed Huntress

I am in the midst of building a boat myself. It is for my grandson. It is in three sections so it can be taken apart and put in his fathers hatchback.

Somewhere around here they import fruit juice from South America. They ship it in big plywood boxes about 43 inches cubed with a plastic blatter inside the box. So a guy on Craigslist is selling the plywood pieces. 1 cm plywood 45 inches by 45 inches is $3. It is a bit thicker than I would have liked, but the price is right. Planing on stitch and glue construction. Now need to find some low priced epoxy. Already have the fiberglass tape.

Dan

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.393 vs .250

Thats going to be a bit on the heavy side, and take some muscle to wrap around for the hull, but its doable. .25 Luan plywood seems to be the skin of choice for a lot of small boats. That extra 1/8+ is going to add up.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

That sounds interesting. There are two-piece boat designs around, but I've never seen a three-piece. Phil Bolger designed a pretty long schooner-rigged sailboat in two pieces.

I'm building a real minimalist boat -- the 7'9" Nymph pram, also designed by Bolger. It's stitch-and-glue and real easy. You can see it in Dynamite Payson's _Build The New Instant Boats_.

It's a car-topper rowboat that I can get up and down by myself; it weighs 60 lb or maybe a little less if I decide to go for the high-class imported plywood. It's mostly for pickerel fishing in the ponds and cranberry bogs in the South Jersey Pine Barrens, and I may use it in the tidal creeks that run into the NJ bays.

Reply to
Ed Huntress

Thanks. I'll tell you if it was a good idea in a few months. d8-)

Sounds nice. What part of the country is that?

Reply to
Ed Huntress

Awesome! I hope that you enjoy your retirement for a long time!

Reply to
Ignoramus7822

Thanks, me too!

Reply to
Ed Huntress

Congratulations on retiring.

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A friend, who recently retired also, and moved to somewhere in Michigan (if I remember right) makes fly rods from bamboo, and even took the time to design and build a CNC machine for cutting the taper of the sections from split bamboo. Apparently, people pay him quite a bit for the rods, so they must be pretty good.

Enjoy, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

Work is work, and there's a reason we have to be paid to do any (much) of it for someone else. But your work sounded like something you really enjoyed, and it always seemed to me you had a lot of control over the amount and pace of it. You're still under age 70, seem to have taken good care of yourself and be in relatively good health, so what made you pull the plug?

Reply to
Rudy Canoza

Every right-thinking person hopes you enjoy it.

Reply to
Rudy Canoza

The worst day fishing beats the best day working. But I guess that doesn't apply anymore, eh? Enjoy!

Jon

Reply to
Jon Anderson

Enjoy! I'm sure you will be back here sooner than you think.

Thanks for the useful advice you've given here over the years.

Reply to
doggerel

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