Archive for September 2010

*I had planned to finish up the series on the RodMaker facility here in North Carolina, but today’s rain precluded taking any good outdoor photos. So we’ll take a break and talk about thread coatings for the time being. I’ll return to the previous series, tomorrow, weather permitting. 10 months back a  heavy package showed…

Among other things, my dad was a woodworker. I grew up in a home that had a workshop and to this day can’t imagine any adult male not having some sort of workshop to knock around in. I had acquired several hundred square feet of my own shop space by 1988. The current RodMaker building…

The original RodMaker Magazine offices comprised all of 900 square feet. In just a few years the place got more than a little cramped. Taking photos for the magazine required moving shop equipment out of the way.  Doing any shop work required putting away assorted administrative fixtures and paperwork. I decided that when I moved…

The International Custom Rod Building Exposition is a lot of work. I start on it each year around the middle of May and finish up 10 months later, just a few hours before the doors open for the event. However, for all I’m able to do during the many months preceding the Expo, there is…

Dear RodMaker Magazine: I have not been getting my issues. I moved a few months ago and filed a change of address with the U.S. Postal Service. Why haven’t my magazines been forwarded to me? I’m getting other magazines that have been forwarded? A Subscriber I get several such letters each week. It’s an ongoing…

Volume 13 Number 5, our largest ever, is scheduled to mail on October 7th. It includes more articles than any single RodMaker issue has ever featured along with more authors than ever before (including new columnists Billy Vivona and C. Boyd Pheiffer). Here’s a peek at what to expect… Hidden In Plain Sight – Unique…

Folks that have been building rods a long time often fall into ruts. I often feel the same way when working on various articles for the magazine. After 30 years in this business, there’s not much I haven’t seen or done. Like most anyone, there are days when my job isn’t very exciting. But then…

Considering their generally superior hand skills, it seems odd that more women are not involved in custom rod building. Then again, there may be more than is often assumed. There are roughly 300 women listed on the current RodMaker Magazine subscriber list. Now that’s only about 2% of the total, but it still represents far…

Dear Rodmaker, I do not think it is fair that  rod builders in Canada have to pay half again as much for your magazine as rod builders in the U.S. Why don’t you lower your price and get more Canadian subscribers? Until you do I will pass on a subscription. Name Withheld Fair enough. This…

What if you gave a party and nobody came? Well, it would obviously be a huge disappointment after going to a lot of work and trouble. And yet, this happens more often than not where rod building events and gatherings are concerned. The #1 problem in getting rod builders out to an event or gathering…