On the topic of Alchol wipes, you posted never to use them after scouring the surface..lest you loose the water break free, etc..

[www.rodbuilding.org]

But..in your book you wrote to wipe the surface with alcohol after scouring (pages 19 and 24, I believe).

This was for installing the grip and the reel seat.

Maybe I am understanding this wrong?

thanks

Ernie

as i understand it dont use a STRONG denatured alchohol or "soak" the scoured blank but yes it does need to be cleaned for the glue to grip i use those handwipes ( but i wouldnt on carbon or graphite)

Ernie,
The topic you mention was talking about thread finish between coats, not bare blank prep for grips. Two different things.

Never use an alcohol or solvent wipe as the last step before applying finish or adhesive.

The sidebar on water-break-free surface prep was left out of the book (I wrote it, but Amato did the layout, editing and publishing - it is their book) and I really wish it hadn't been. However, the subject of surface prep has been covered in several RodMaker articles, one of them is in the online library page here.

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

Ok thanks,

I read those articles in the magazine, but have been using the book as a guideline.

So if I used the procedure outlined in the book, which calls for cleaning, what are the chances of the bond breaking down in the near term? I assume it is fairly low?

thanks

You do want to clean the surface, but do it that first, before you abrade or sour the surface to degloss it.

It you do the procedure the other way around, in most cases you'd probably still be okay - we really don't put much stress on our fishing rods. Not like that of other very demanding applications. There is a right way for doing this, but I don't want it to sound like if you clean the surface last, that you'll necessarily have a catestrophic failure. You probably won't. But if you're going to be doing this anyway, might as well do it right.

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

Ernie;
Everything said covers your question well. FWIW though the biggest reason for cleaning BEFORE abrading
is that .... for the most part contaminants that really affect the bond are not solids. Oils, waxes and silicones really
keep the epoxy away from the component surface. If you start sanding / scotch brighting before the component is clean
all you are doing is moving those contaminants to the newly exposed surface. The contaminants will cling to the abrasive
and migrate right back onto the component. By cleaning FIRST you hopefully remove most or all of the contaminant and the
microscopic roughening of the blank will now allow the adhesive / glue to actually get on the component.
The alcohol wipe down can actually contaminate the surface to be bonded. Even medicinal grade alcohol contains 12 to 15
percent of somthing that could be a contaminant to an adhesive joint.
Just a little reasoning behind the sequencing
David A.