... but can they catch fish????

Fishermen catch fish.....not the gear. The second is an old school glass rod and wouldn't make a very good pro bass rod for sure......its for collector and reminiscent purposes only.....but I WILL fish with it and it will be more fun than a heavy action flippin' stick for sure! The first one is pure performance though, total weight is under 10 ounces and its not limited edition so it can be used heavily without much worry of scratching it.......its replaceable.

Nautilus, you gotten your hands on any of the new carrot fiber rods by E21?

Man those are nice rigs man, thus making me step into my shop this morning (as I have too much time on my hands and nothing else to do) to customize a reel of mine. I will post the results when I finish.

Paul, saw those and wish they had come out before I bought my Airrus PulsR.....anyone want it? I don't need two of those rods so until I sell the PulsR I won't be buying the Carrot Stix......kool rods though.

Rich, what do you have in-mind? What kind of shop do you have and what kind of work can you do? Metal working? Carbon Fiber? Anodizing?

Well my Father Owns a knife shop but we have all kinds of equipment metal and wood lathe's surface grinder, pantamil (for making inlays) I use to be a custom car mechanic (installed hydraulics and powdercoated and chromeplated frames and other parts) So I can pretty much do anything. I have a Abu-Garcia Pro-max that I havent used for a while so I took it apart this morning and am playing with it a bit gonna try to lighten it up and give it a new look. As far as adonizing and plating and powdercoating we have a couple of friends that do this sort of thing for us now as I do not have access to the equipment anymore.
Why? did you have something in mind. feel free to PM me i am always up for a challenge in customizing just about anything.

Oh by the way I chose the Pro-Max cause its still in pretty good shape and I didnt wanna use my curados or calcuttas first just incase I mess something up rather loose a 60$ reel then a 200$+ reel Lol and i like the round reels a lot anyway

Cool! I wish I had some of that equipment. If you have a lathe, you should get into making custom flashlight housing. Go to www.candlepowerforums.com and lurk around in the custom section and you'll see that people are getting hundreds of dollars for light bodies, bezels, etc. They are also getting paid for all of them BEFORE ever buying the materials.....AMAZING!!

No, nothing in-mind, just curious......make sure and post some pics.....if all goes well I may have you do some work to a few of mine. I'm an ABU collector and have many that are tricked out and custom and could always use more attention.

will do man I just got back from running to pic up some materials so I am headed back to the shop ill post some pics later.... Im going with the silver scheme from the pro-max but I am gonna use some yellow highlights and am even contemplating using bowdark (however you spell it) for the crank handles should be interesting........

Nautilus and Rich,

I fish with Scorpion 1000 MGs. I'd be interested in any input you have on handles. I have 1 ZPI and 1 Bassart now. The other 4 have stock handles and they're too small. The jury is out on the ZPI and Bassart with respect to size/weight. I also think they're too expensive.

Sounds like you both have an interest. I sure don't mean to highjack the thread. Those are beautiful setups. I'm just hoping to make mine that nice/functional!

Snake boy - None of the handles I would use would be bought ... nothing against any of them im just more into doing it myself you know. I will be making the handle and crank for my reel tomorrow so I will post some pics then.. its gonna be Titanium Crank with Water buffalo handle... should be a nice combo with the recently polished Pro-max.

This is the Side plate that I finished tonight off of my Pro-Max I sanded all the paint off of it then polished it out. The inset area is sandblasted and polished over. Then I engraved the word Ambassador on the side in Royal Script lettering.

This is the Main body of the Pro-Max all taken apart down to the bone. Tomorrow I will be assembling the Thumb clicker Probably of Water buffalo horn..

This is the handle crank originally it was a two handle crank I cut it down and sanded and polished it out. Engraved on the crank is T.R.I. (The Rich Inc.). Still might make another one tomorrow not sure if im happy with it. The actual handles will be made of water buffalo horn.

WOW!! Cool!! Nice job for sure! You won't like the short handle unless you counter-balance it with a weight on the short side. Otherwise it will feel strange when cranking. I can't wait to see the bone/horn button.....sounds like a good idea. The polishing is nice.....I wish I had something to polish my Titanium with.

Snake Boy, Did you use the Bassart knobs with the handles? If so, that is why you are unsure of the weight. Without the knobs, the Bassart and ZPI handles are very light but you need to buy some coated cork knobs or use the stock knobs. There really isn't much more out there but I am personally working on coming to market with my own. I have to invest $10K to get the price I want so it may be a few months before I even start the process but they won't be $100.....especially for TFF members. I have prototypes and they work great. For what I KNOW they cost to make, those guys are making a killing selling them for $70-$100.

Dang Rich! That's nice work. You must have a nice shop.

Nautilus I used the knobs that came with the handles. I'm with you, they're making a killing. Please let me know what you come up with.

For what it's worth, I'd like to have single handed counter balanced handles. What do you think?

You can anodize at home. I've never tried it but I have thought about it. Have been thinking of anodizing my 10/22 receiver.
Anodizing at home