Hey Everyone great site! I posted this question
on NCBF.com and was directed to the experts.
Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Well I have nearly completed my first rod
and tragedy strikes. I had completed all
my wraps and my first coat of finish. After
a few days drying time I noticed that I
thought several wraps could use a second
coat of finish. So I gently sand all of them
down with 600 paper and get to work. After
the recommended 3 hour drying time I let the
rod alone for 24 hours. To my frustration
when I came back to see how pretty my work
was I found that the rod had slipped while
still tacky into the support felt and it dried
into finish on a single wrap. Needless to
say I was devastated as anyone who knows
the amount of work that goes into this.
My plan at this point to try and save the
rod is to gently try to sand past the second
finish coat back to the first layer and
re finish it again. This is difficult because
if I go to far I may expose the thread where it
sits up on the eye foot. If this happened I
will need to somehow remove the entire wrap
and finish without damaging the blank. I
can not be the only one who has had to remove
a bad eye on a finished rod without totally
destroying the blank. Any ideas or thoughts
on how one might take a single finished wrap
off to be cleaned up and redone? This has taken
me weeks
to get this point and I really don't
want to give up on her.

Thanks,
Mike

At some point you just have to bite the bullet and start over. You can certainly try to save the wrap by sanding, but as you are aware it is difficult to sand these wraps. Give it a try - you have nothing to lose at this point.

If you end up having to redo some of the wraps, shave the thread off the top of the guide foot (do not cut against the rod blank - only the metal guide foot) and peel the thread off. Catch an end and unwind the rest. Any epoxy left on the blank can be popped off with a thumbnail. You may find that heating with a hair dryer for a few minutes will soften it and make this a bit easier.

While you're here, do a search in the archives to uncover many, many finishing techniques that could help you in the future.

And no, you are not the first to have this sort of thing happen. In fact, I doubt you are among the first 10,000 to have it happen. It's part of the learning process - learning what not to do.

.................

Mike,

That happens! Don't panic. I do not know what epoxy you used or how thick you applied it. That info would help answer your problem alittle better, but, yes, try to sand down with 400 grit or 600 if you feel more comfortable. I would normally say, shave off the lumps of felt with a razor knife, like a #11 Exacto. Sanding might be safer for you, you do not want to get into the wraps. If the worst happens and you do mess up the threads, you can remove it and rewrap the guide on. No big deal, honest. Cut the threads on top of the foot, so you do not scratch the blank, and peel the threads and as much of the epoxy away as you can. Gently soften the epoxy that is left by heating with a hairdryer, and scrape it off with your thumb nail. Then just re-do that guide wrap. You will run into these problems from time to time. Good Luck. Let us know how it turns out.

Bill Doherty

Thank you Tom and Bill. This is great advise. I was
afraid I was going to have to toss the entire rod.
I did not realize that you could actually get the
wrap off after it has been finished. I will try
the sanding and if that does not work will cut the
wrap off. Great information about using the guide
foot as the cutting surface so not to damage the blank.

Thank you again for your time and guidance. Being it
is my first rod I can appreciate what a learning
experience this has been. Its fun but also very
challenging.

Thanks Guys!

Mike Rexford

Mike,

Well there you go. I guess I was typing in my suggestions while Tom was posting his. You could not ask for a better consensus.

Bill Doherty

Mike,

As a fellow newcomer to rod building I feel your pain. A week ago I made the mistake of removing my third rod from the drying motor too early and the finish sagged on 6 of my guides. I saved one by sanding, but found that it was easier for me to just rewrap. The guides were actually very easy to remove. Good Luck.

Chris

My favorite trick is to remove the rod from the dryer after a few hours and put my fingers right in the sticky mess (usually about 1:30a.m.). You would think I would learn after doing this once. Nope

Tom

you mean you only got felt stuck and not bugs or cat hair! Boy you sure are lucky! I think everyone here has run into something like this at least once, probably more! Just hang in there. I don't think I could add anything to what was said above, so I won't even try, good luck.

Welcome to the world of rod building. Rewrapping a guide for one reason or another comes up occasionally. The only thing I have to add to the above is to be very careful and don't extend the area where you remove the old epoxy. Don't be tempted to sand the blank to make it smooth like it was on your first wrap or you will have a bit of ugly that you will have to cover with thread. You definitely want the same width as before or you will have an unbalanced appearence.

Capt. Harold