I finished a rod last night and the decorative wrap -- only in about a two-ince section where the wewave is -- has lots of micro-bubbles. Can I give it a light sanding with 1000 grit and recoat? Will that obliterate the bubbles? My appreciation in advance, JC

It will only remove the bubbles if you sand far enough to reach them. And with 1000 grit paper, you'll be sanding for a long, long while. You'll want to start with something more like 320 and the progress through finer grades once you reach the level where the bubbles are. Whatever you do, don't sand into the thread.


.......

You applied too much finish for the first coat. The 1st coat needs to be very thin, just a wetting coat that does not build up any thickness. Many of the bubbles you see are trapped where the finish was applied to thickly.

A good way to get rid of these bubbles if to flame the finish before the finish sets up. Do a search of the archive on how yo do this.

What finish are you using?

Lou

Lou, I was using FlexCoat. In the past, I have had similar problems with DuraGloss, but the directions on DuraGloss say not to flame the finish or it will cause MORE bubbles.

Tom, I sanded a little with 340, then 1000 grit and put on another coat of finish.

All is well, now. Thank you both, JC

When sanding, do not skip between grades. If you start with 320, then go to 400, 600, 800 and 1000. That allows each to remove the sanding marks left by the previous grade.

Glad all is well and that things still worked out for you.

.......

Jim'; On the butt wrap I found there is always air under the wraps where they over lap. The worst time I had was when I used a alcohol burner to pop a few bubbles. I used heat repeatedly on a couple of areas and when I went back later had more bubbles. What I figured out was I was heating epox. and it was expanding air under wrap causing it to leak up toward surface , now I heat a bubble and let cool for a bit then go back to it. It has saved me a lot of headaches Hopes this helps it has worked for me.Ed.... In fact what I've done a few times was to heat wrap with hair dryer before applying epox. that way the blank cools as epox. is applied and @#$%& it in as it cools and shrinks. It made sense to me but I'm new at this and may have spoken out of turn.. Caution. Flex coat set up pretty fast......

JC
Give me a call when you need assistance or when you are going to do something new and exciting. I like to watch and sometimes, I even try to help with a word from experience. Don't be a stranger.

RC