I have just finished wrapping my first spiral rod and I used Forhan locking wraps on all the single foot guides. There is no obvious tunnel left to fill with epoxy. Is there something I did wrong or is there something special I need to be aware of as I put finish on the wraps?

Thanks,

rhr

The tunnel is still there, but, the locking wrap covers the end. I just saturate the wrap until the gap between the thread, guide foot & blank is full of finish. My first coat is a flood coat. Any successive coats are thin ones, IMO. Ralph

If at first you don't succeed, go fishing, then try, try again.

Ain't it great? Everyone else is complaining about that tunnel and yours is gone! Seriously, use a thin first coat to saturate the thread down to the blank. I suppose you can use a toothpick to apply some finish there first, then flood the rest of the wrap. I rarely use a locking wrap, but do use a blocking wrap whenever possible to block the tunnel. Much cleaner wrap, because the finish stays on the thread.

I have worried about this a lot. All the rods I have made so far, I used CP. From what I have read here, the CP prevents the epoxy from going through the thread to fill the tunnel. So, I have been using a toothpick to put a small drop of epoxy in exactly the right place, and it runs down the tunnel. Sure is time consuming, though. I think with the next rods I will not use CP, and see how that works.
I really don't want to not use the Forhan Locking wrap. It appears to give quite a bit of extra stability to the SF guides.

I Forhan wrap all single foot guides. For the benefit that it provides, for so little effort, I can't imagine not doing it. I very rarely do anything without CP and have found on stuff that I've done and stripped, the CP itself fills tunnels quite well. I will say though, that the more time you put into prepping your guide feet, the smaller the tunnels will be in the end and you really won't need much of anything for a bit of a shoulder to build up. Just put your finish on and you should be fine. If it is a heavy duty rod, you are still a bit worried, and you aren't using CP, I would suggest either thinning your finish the first coat or two, or using several coats of something thin to begin with, like permagloss or varnish, then finishing with an epoxy type, if that is what you are going for.

You don't need a toothpick or any sort of tool to fill the tunnel. Working quickly apply a thin coat of finish beginning at the end of the guide foot and work your way back toward the frame right up to the edge of the guide wrap, but not over the edge. If on an underwrap be careful and use only a thin coat - do not use so much finish that it pools up and caps off the end of the tunnel. Turn rod "guides down" and let set for 5-10 min. The finish will wick through the tunnel and completely displace the air.

Using this procedure I cannot remember the last time I had a bubble left under a guide wrap. It works pretty well.

Lou