Ice fishing rod

This is just a very simple traditional style ice fishing rod. The design aims to be easily printable and not use too much additional hardware. It is made of multiple parts to avoid needing any supports. This also makes it easy to use multiple colors.

Printing instructions

PETG is preferred but ABS/ASA might also work although I haven't tested it. Print all parts with at least 3 walls, 4 tops/bottoms and 20% crosshatch or similar infill. Increase for extra sturdiness. Rod part is best printed with enough walls (10 should be more than enough) to make it solid. You can experiment with different settings/infills/materials to achieve a proper stiffness for your use case. Layer height 0,2 mm and 0,4 mm nozzle should work fine. The parts are designed with 0,2 mm tolerances so they should be printable with any reasonably dialed in printer. Supports are not needed for any parts. Brims might be required for the smaller parts. I managed to print without with textured PEI build plate. You need one of each part.

Assembly instructions

Before gluing any parts it is of course best to first try them. The parts should be snug but not too tight.

Additional materials required

• M5 nut of preferably marine grade stainless
• M5x20 bolt of preferably marine grade stainless
• M3x4 machine screw/bolt

Optional addons:

• 2 heat inserts (outer diameter of around 5mm)
• piece of steel wire

1. Insert the M5 nut into the slot on the frame. Make sure it's flush.
2. Glue the spool guard to the main body. Make sure no glue gets into the nut.
3.  Glue the turn knob to the front side of the spool. Make sure it is flush.
4. Glue the front and bottom parts of the spool together.
5. Insert the M5x20 bolt to the thumb screw. Ensure it's pushed all the way in.
6. Glue the cap to the thumb screw.
7. Glue the tip to your chosen rod type.
8. Push your rod into place and screw a M3x4 machine screw/bolt to the hole in the backside to hold it on place. A longer bolt works fine but it will of course stick out more. You can always glue the rod if you wish but then it is not replaceable if broken or different stiffness is required.
9. Assembly complete.

Optional parts

1. Bend a piece of steel wire and glue it into the holes. You can use this loop to hold your lure by the hook.
2. You can insert some heat inserts to the holes if you wish. The threads in my inserts are not sharp at all but if you are worried about it damaging your line you can always drill out the threads.

Usage

As the reel does not have any brake or ratchet system you might want to brake the reel a bit with your thumb when pulling out line in order to avoid tangles. When reeling the line in you should loosen the thumb screw enough so that reel does not re-tighten but not so much that the reel comes off or wobbles very much. The reel and tip are easily changeable if you need different amounts of line or need rods of varying stiffness. This way you can also change broken parts without having to re-print the whole rod.