Ive built many, many, rods over the years, the most time consuming being beachcasters for my local tackle shop with under-whips, over whips etc 2-3" long on 1" diameter blanks, and have never saw the benefit of using a 'rod wrapper'. In the case of fly rods, the blank diameters are that small that it realistically only takes a few spins of the blank between the thumb and forefinger and the thread is on. I could see this only being made more time consuming complicated by introducing machinery into the process.
'Rod wrappers' are essentially designed for having multiple threads on the go at the same time, as you would with a diamond wrap or similar, which the yanks seem to be quite into.
I would recommend you save your pennies and knock up a simple wooden jig consisting of a base made from a lump of 3/4 x 4" timber approx 3feet long, with a vee notched piece at each end in which to sit the rod as you whip it. Once your away, youll be able to refine it to suit what minor niggles you uncover.
However, if you do end up doing a few rods, I would certainly would recommend a rotary drier for turning the blank while the whipping high/low build is going off, like the stonefly one, or in my case, and old microwave motor! But again, if you only end up doing 1 or 2, its just as easy to stay indoors for a couple of hours and turn it round 1/4 of a turn every few minutes yourself!
My two penneth anyway
Rod Wrapper
Linear Mode
