Someone made a post about 10 days ago that said they had a rod bond joint that did not get hard in place on a reel seat but got hard in the mixing pan. Sounded impossible to me at the time but while putting two rods together last night, in a hurry, the same thing could have happened to me.

1. Fixed procedure - open resin jar - remove glob on popsicle stick 1 and place on an inverted plastic cup - close resin jar - open hardner jar remove glob on popsicle stick 2 - rub two sticks together to get it all - throw one stick in trash - mix resin and hardner with remaining stick . All this goes on right under the V block that the rod is resting. Apply Rod Bond and fit parts together.

2. There is an error of judgement and a potentially serious mistake for the person who takes medication for the rodbuilding dissorder. If you can stop reading this post here and look above and see if you can figure out the mistake.

I was working quickly, not watching what I was doing, and instead of using the application stick to get more mixed product I must have stuck the application stick in the open resin tub that was sitting in the work area. The only way that I noticed this is when I shoved the foregrip in place I noticed the "brownish" color that oozed out the joint and luckily caught it! I suspect that the builder who wrote the earlier post did something similar.

Solutions: Close all open containers - Request Medication Change

I am sure the "Living Legend" will be amused when he reads this post!!

Gon Fishn

yeah, i got a little chuckle from it. thanks! ;-)

eric
fresno, ca.

Bill: You need to tweak your procedure a bit more - the 2nd popsicle stick that you actually use will tend to have unmixed hardener close to its surface, and that could get on the blank. I do basically what you do, but I use two smooth metal spatulas, and after mixing I wipe them clean and then use one of them for the application.

I use just one metal mixing spatula and open on jar at a time and get out the amount I need and place it on a small sheet of plexiglas and then wipe the spatula clean with denatured achohol and then scoop out the hardener and start mixing.

Good Glueing,
Neal Cissel
Neal's Fishing Products
www.nealsfishingtackle.com

I use Neal's technique. So far, I haven't had any problems with Rod Bond, in fact it is the most user friendly, trusted item on my rodbuilding table. I love the stuff.

Mark Janeck
Custom Rods, Campbellville, Ontario

Ditto Neal...and Mark! I love the stuff and have never had an issue by "spooning" out the resin, closing the lid, "spooning" out the hardener, closing the lid, then double-checking my two "globs" (sorry for all the technical terminology--hope you can keep up!) ;) to make sure they look ABOUT equal and then mixing. I think it's similar to mixing finish--develop a consistent procedure that works and then stick to it! :)

I've only been using Rod Bond for about 6 months and I love it. I am curious though as to how critical the 50/50 mixture is. Coming from the epoxy side of the fence, I am using measuring spoons to measure out my portions of Rod Bond. Is this necessary or is the eyball method close enough? I do close each container as soon as I'm done with it as I came close to doing what Bill did soon after I started using it.

Jeff Hunter

Eyeball is good enough! Just eyeball it pretty good!

Mike

Thanks Mike. That'll make things a little easier.

Jeff Hunter

A very important point that all of you have missed pertains to the METHOD of mixing. All of you merely state to mix it--without stating HOW you mix it.

I believe Bill Steven's problem stems mostly from placing his mixture to be on an inverted plastic cup. An inverted plastic cup is much to small an area for proper mixing/blending of rod bond or any paste adhesive. This small of an area means that you are mixing the components by stirring. To properly mix rod bond, place the two components onto a flat surface of about a 3"X6". I usually use a piece of cardboard, but I have a piece of tile, a piece of 1/4" thick glass, and a piece of teflon on hand for this purpose. Merely eyeball the two components, then sweep them across the flat surface as if you were buttering a piece of bread. a half dozen sweeps and your rod bond is thoroughly blended, and is entirely free from air bubbles. Never stir the mixture as that merely introduces air bubbles. When using the mixed materiel, leave it spread out in a thin mass and it will increase your pot life considerably. The reason you sometimes get rod bond that is cured on your retained sample but didn't cure properly on the rod, or vice versa----is usually due to incomplete blending caused by stirring instead of sweeping. Sweeping is best done with a steel spatula, but completely satisfactory results can be obtained with a sucker stick or any similar object.

Ralph

The furthur definition of my "plastic cup" is a flat bottomed clear plastic pint container. This container is inverted so that I can use the bottom. The bottom is quite large, flat and has a 1/64" lip around the outside. My popsicle stick is one of the wide ones used for the manufacture of cross linked fudge buddy bars and I mash, smear, roll, twist, fold and smear the elexir of the Rodmaking Gods for exactly 34.5 seconds and let it stand for 2.3 minutes before applying it to the surfaces being bonded. The size of the pint container is approximately the size of the "tub" of Rodbond and contributed to the initial mistake noted in the original post.

Thank you Ralph for watching the board and commenting on the use of your products!

Second question - Do you think the Rod Bond soaks up in the new Flex Coat foam arbor material and increases its internal strength or is it just coating the surface of the stuff?

Gon Fishn

The urethane arbors Flex Coat sells don't really soak up anything - they're not porous. But that's okay as they do exhibit a water break free surface condition. Any good epoxy is going to adhere to them very, very well.

There is a common misconception that epoxies must somehow penetrate the surface or be applied to a heavily scarred or gouged surface in order to adhere well. But this is not the case. In fact, the best bond is usually obtained on a somewhat smooth, but deglossed surface which exhibits that water break free condition.

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