Today I had to remove the windings from a cracked rod. I found it a drag to stand around with a hot air paint striper softening epoxy. So I boiled up a pot of water and set the guide to be removed over the water and let the steam soften the epoxy. Ferrule sections I dropped into the pot and let them soak for 5 minutes. Either way I was very happy with the ease the epoxy simply peeled away. Final cleanup was to steam the blank then rub the area agressively with terry cloth. In 5 minutes time I had a blank looking new again... ???Will heating graphite blanks in boiling water cause internal damage???... Thankyou
Bob
Bridgeton, NJ.

Possibly. Anything much over 200 degrees is getting you close to the danger zone. Most graphite blanks will begin to soften and delaminate at much over 250. Boiling water shouldn't reach that kind of temp (unless you're at a very extreme altitude) so it's often deemed to be safe, but I have to wonder what the point is.

I find it easier to shave the thread off the top of the guide foot and then pop the guide off and peel the thread from the blank. Takes about 30 seconds or so, maybe. How long is your method taking? I'm not sure I see any advantage to using heat. I could see going back and using a little heat to remove any small specks of epoxy left, but that's about it.


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Keep it low and slow..........even steam causes 2nd degree burns on skin ....(that I know!)

I like Ken Preston's method. Pass an alchol flame over the Guide feet enough to warm the Epoxy, then cut the thread off the top of the feet and pull the Guide off. The wrapping is the pulled of and the rod cleaned.