Hello from germany,



I already wrapped my casting rod the fourth time, OK, was my fault.

Now , everything looks great. Black thread with gold trims.

So, I coated the wraps wiht Flexcoat and found some bubble in the coating.
No problem I thought. Using a small candle to heat up the coating. All bubble
bursting. Looks great.This is now 4 days over.

Now, I looked a bit closer to my work an saw inside the coating a kind of
smoky shine. I tried to polish it away, no chance. Its inside the coating.

Do I overheat the FC ???

Best wishes

Joachim




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/2005 09:02AM by Tom Kirkman.

The candle does not burn with a clean flame.It produces soot(black carbon type substance).A better option would be either an alcohol lamp(suppliers at left),propane torch or using a straw and your breath to blow the finish and release the bubbles.

Freddwhy (Rapt-Ryte)

Hi Fred,

No NO, the smoky shine is not black. It looks like white/grey cigarette smoke and waves through the
coating. Its not from the thread, for sure.

greetz joachim

That sounds like finish that was not thoroughly mixed. As you mix the epoxy, you'll notice that it quickly turns somewhat cloudy and as you continue to mix, it tends to clear. But if you don't mix long enough, or completely mix all that is in the cup, some of the finish will retain the streaky cloudy look.

Fred's advice is still worth remembering if you do heat your finish. I would add that you should never allow the flame to touch the finish. Just hold it under the wrap for a brief second or two and keep it moving, but always a few inches under the finish. You're only trying to warm it, not cook it.

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

Could be from the oils in your hands on the threads? I am super oily I guess, I had something similar happen and I never even got a flame close to the wrap and mixed the epoxy very well....thanks to Tom's book I still remember the rule :) I assume the problem was my hands and always keep them washed to the point of dryness and it hasn't happened since.

Of course if you used CP this would not be the case.

I had the same thing happen using a lighter. In order to avoid smoke contamination which could look black or like an oil slick or grey, you have to use something that burns clean. Since I switched to an alcohol lamp, no more smokey finish!

Keep lighters to the SIDE of the finish, never underneath, and you'll have zero problems with soot in the finish.

Putter
Williston, ND

At no point did you ever mention that you did or did not use a color preserver before you applied the finish. If by chance, you used the Flexcoat CP over black thread the milky way look will certainly appear. You can not use the Flexcoat CP, due the the white particulate solids in the liquid, on black thread unless you want the Galaxy look! If this did occur take it out in the sun and it will really show up. There is no back up from this unless you splash glitter over the whole thing with another coat.

Gon Fishn



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/23/2005 06:29PM by Bill Stevens.