Pug,

I haven't made a single hand rod in a long time now, but I bought close out Lamiglass blanks for $50 and $55 at Angler's Workshop. They don't offer that option any longer. I didn't know about Rainshadow then, but I've since built 3 rods on their blanks. The blanks were inexpensive, and made really nice rods.
I don't know if Rainshadow makes a 9 1/2' for 8 wt, but that length and wt make a nice steelhead rod. FWIW, 9 & 9 1/2' 8 wts are the two most popular rods for steelhead in the PNW in single hand rods. If you decide to have a fighting butt, make that an add-on from an extra piece of rod blank. Don't waste any length of a 9' blank for that.

I seldom make more than a couple rods a year, so I never bought any special equipment. I put the thread on a fly tying bobbin and hold it in my fly tying vise while I wrap the guides on the rod blank. It's easy to adjust the tension (you can wrap the thread once or twice around a leg of the bobbin if you need higher tension, but I usually don't). For a rod drier, I just cut "vee" notches in the ends of a cardboard box and rest the finished rod sections in that, and turn them a quarter turn every 10 or 15 minutes until they're dry enough to not sag. I usually make the grip from individual cork sections rather than preformed grips. I made a simple jig to hold one end of the rod blank while the reel seat end fits a wooden dowel that gets chucked into my drill motor that's held in my bench vise. Not as fancy as a lathe, but works just fine to sand the corks into a shaped rod grip.

Have fun and enjoy.

Sg