After babysitting my fly rod for 3 or 4 houors while it dried, I've decided buy a dryer of some kind. Call me lazy, but that sure became a pain on the second coat. Sully has a 2-rod dryer for $90. Does that mean it will dry a 2-piece rod at the same time or 2 entire rods. Sorry if that's a dumb question. Bruce

Bruce, it will do either one. It has two "spindles" that turn at the same time (actually 2 rubber butt caps). It comes with a separate stand with 2 v-notches covererd with felt that support the other end of the blank(s). I bought one of the Sully 2 rod dryers last summer and love it. I bought mine after reading good things here about Sully products, customer service, etc. The only "problem" is that most of the time I cannot turn 2 rods at once because most of the rods I am dealing with are saltwater/surf rods and the guides are large enough that 2 rods cannot be turned side by side without the guides interfering. It's still nice when I am puttting the first coat on underwraps to be able to do 2 rods/pieces at once.

Scott Hunt

You'll never get as good of a finish on a dryer as you will by doing it by hand. Even master finish maker Ralph OQuinn stated that this weekend at the show. You should not take more than 1and 1/2 hours or maybe 2 hours to hand rotate your rod. It should be set way before the 3 and 4 hour mark.

I don't know about the Sully dryer. I think they will do 2 rods. To do a 2-piece rod you just put it together and make it a one piecer.

I have never used a turning motor. I use flex coat lite and regular and if applied thin enough, usually need 2 coats (rarely 3). I hand turn 180 degrees every 10 minutes for first 30 minutes, and then every 15 minutes for 1-1.5 hours. I always stop with the guides down and get excellent results. I never actually see the finish sag and if you do you are using too much finish for this technique and may need to turn it more often. I've done about 40 rods like this.

HTH,

Lou

Well, Lou, I certainly put way too much epoxy on my rod. I learned a valuabe lesson the hard way.
You know, I turned my rod 1/3 turn every 5 minutes for an 1 1/2 hrs. and every 15 minutes for another 2 or so more hours.

Bruce. You can get an inexpensive 7 rpm motor with stands for under $50, if I could just remember where! If you have a wooden stand you can sometimes mount a motor onto it with one screw and a peg, swinging it out of the way when you don't need it. I tend to agree with the hand turning, but with very thin finishes a 7 rpm motor gives you an excellent finish. Don't get the faster motor.

Pac bay

You can get a good rod drying motor with stands on @#$%& for around $30.

Thanks, Barry, I should have thought of that myself. I'm wondering now if I even need one? Most of these threads seemed to recommend turning by hand. I haved no idea what to do now.

Here is a site where you can buy small low RPM electric motors. The stands and chucks for drying motors are pretty simple to make.
[www.allelectronics.com]