It's also really easy. I've built a few in the last year,and the very first one turned out better than a factory rod. The first one I built was a Rainshadow 1143. Since it was my first attempt at building a rod I had nothing. For all the supplies I needed to build it the rod cost $115. That includes a trip to Home Depot for wood to build the rod jig. Like SH said,you can't build one as cheap as buying a Berkely,but you get a much nicer finished product for not much more.

I didn't take a class either. I bought a book called " Rod-Building Guide ". The author is Tom Kirkman,and it's a Frank Amato publication. Lots of pictures,easy to follow and it's all I needed to start.