Thanks for the initial answers about cane for salt.

Tom, you mentioned that there are several ways if you want to impregnate cane and I got some answers in England about using heated tung oil or a heated mixture of oil and terpentine (50/50) - not too hot i guess :-)

Could you (or others) describe some of the ways of doing this ? Will the describes methods (using oil) work ?

Another guy mentioned that saltwater actually would do less harm to cane than freshwater - had something to do with osmosis ??? Does this sound familiar to any of you ?

And finally - is it possible to varnish an impregnated rod ? (double protection - but added weight)

thanks
Peter

You could varnish an impregnated rod but there would be no need. A coat of wax would be all the extra protection you would likely need.

Most of the processes you describe are such that the resin is absorbed into the cane. Even varnish may penetrate the cane to some depth so it results in much the same thing. That is not what I would call impregnation.

The best impregnation methods I am aware of are those where a resin/plastic is forced into the cane through pressure/vacuum. Few rod builders have the type equipment to do this with. I have not actually done this with cane so I don't feel I could give you any really helpful information on this. Perhaps someone else here can.

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If you come across an impregnation process that seems adaptable to a small home shop, I'd sure like to hear about it. I've been tracking down and reading the patents issued for impregnation at the USPO site, but most seem too involved for a small set-up.I've found a few that use only baths of heated solutions and they might be the most promising.

Actually, the impregnation can be pretty simple. You need a 1 1/2" steel pipe, long enough to hold the rod sections, and about 4" - 5" longer. Thread both ends, and fit pipe end caps on them. On one end, drill and tap a hole, so that it'll take a pressure fitting that you can pump air into the pipe from a compressor. Next, get a bunch of Lexan, bust it up into small pieces, and some acetone, enough to fill up the pipe with the rod sections in it, and let the lexan dissolve in the acetone. Put the rod sections into the pipe, pour in the lexan/acetone solution, cap it and let it sit overnight. The next day, put pressure into the pipe, say 15 or 20 psi, and again let it sit overnight. The next day, let off the pressure, unscrew the top cap, drain the solution, hang up the rod and let it dry overnight. Viola, impregnated rod.

Can you provide more info? What does it do to the color of the cane? Will plexiglass work or only lexan? I found a reference to disolving acrylic in acetone and I think plexiglass and lexan are acrylics. I seem to remember that the article mentioned days or weeks to disolve the plastic though.

Seems pretty simple Mark,

but how do you prepare the rod for this. I remember reading about this process somewhere and there was something about creating a vacuum first to drive out the moisture from the cane or do you use heat to do this ?

Another think - what is Lexan ?

Thanks
Peter

I did a search - is it correct that Lexan is a polycarbonate product used for channel plates for light roof constructions ?

Peter

So I did another search and found out that the vacuum is not used to draw out moisture, but air from inside the bamboo.

This is a little hard for me to explain, but its something like - place the sections in the "tube" - draw a vacuum on the tube for a while - then slowly introduce the impregnation fluid into the tube as the vacuum reduces letting the vacuum suck the fluid into the tube - you are basically replacing the air with the fluid. Some even apply pressure to the tube after this to force even more fluid into the cane.
I read that Bob Nunley did the same with thinned varnish and then broke the cane to see the effect - impregnated all the way trough.

Someone wrote that Orvis left the sections soaking in a warm bakelit solution for 30 days - no vacuum or pressure.

So I guess there really are several ways to go about this, but I really still need to know if I got the Lexan thing right and if I did - would I not be making a "plastic-cane" rod ?

Another thing - should a special glue be used for an impregnated rod ?

Thanks
Peter
(sorry about all the post - just very interesting I think)

I was just going on memory, from some experimenting that was done on the cane rod builder's list. I may be off on some of my times, so your mileage may vary... ;^} Experiment with it, and see what you come up with. If I recall correctly, you can either use vacuum or pressure. I'll see if I can dig up some of the original posts on the subject.

Oops, my bad on the Lexan. one of the bamboo rod makers, by the name of Bob Nuley, uses regular plexiglas, and acetone. According to the article in the July 2001 of Powerfibers, he takes small chunks of plexiglas, drops them into the acetone until the solution gets to the consistency of pancake syrup. He then soaks the rod section in the solution in what he calls a vacuum/pressure tube, like I mentioned above. He then goes on to say that the vacuum/pressure setup isn't necessary, you can just soak the components for 48 hours, and it will be completely saturated. After the 48 hours, take the component out of the solution, and let it cure for a few days, so that the acetone will evaporate out of the component. He was doing this for bamboo ferrules, but I would assume it would also work for rod sections. He mentions that other folks do this for reel seat fillers also.