I have a rod i would like to redo and put my own set of guides on it but i am not sure how to remove the old guides and epoxy...what do i use and what can i do to make it look right???

You can file off the finish/thread on top of the guide feet until they are exposed and just pull them off. Then all you have to worry about is getting a hold of one of the threads and pulling on it till the whole wrap is off. It might take a few tries because the thread is severed on top but eventually it all comes off. Use 600 grit sandpaper to smoothen the surface. Clean with alcohol and let dry. Thats what I've done

Cut the wraps and epoxy along the top of the guide feet with a stiff
sharp knife being careful not to nick the blank. Remove the guides.

Peel the old wraps and epoxy off with a thumb nail and then use
a plastic scraper and hair dryer to remove stubbord old finish.

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

As always, be cautious with the application of heat to a blank. Even a hair dryer gets hot enough to cause blank failure. This I know - from experience......

Jeff Shafer

Scrape/cut down to the top of the guide foot with an exacto knife, You can heat the reamining threads, or use denatured alcohol to soften the expoy to unravel or remove the old thread. There will be some epoxy that has sealed the thread as it was placed onto the blank itself, you can sometimes pick at this and it will come off in flakes or an entire clear semi circle of thread epoxy will loosen and pop up off the blank. Try not to blemish the blank if you plan on moving the guides otherwise place the new wraps over where the old ones were and you don't have to worry so much about blank blemishes when preping/reoving old guides, but it is best to return the blank to as smooth flat and uniformas state as posibble without blemish.

Retie the guides back on with in the confines of the old thread foot print, apply color perserver, wait 24 hrs , apply thread epoxy in thin coats, For information on how to do that or just about anything else that concerne rod building: Do a SEARCH on this site, it will help imensely without asking and waiting for the varied number of responces and most all questions have already been answered before in a number of ways.

thanks for the help guys...i appreciate that

A suggestion that I may have missed in the posts above: When making your cuts, if you cut only on the top of the guide foot, *towards the guide*, on both sides, if you do slip, the guide will stop the blade from careening nto your finger, or worse, into the blank.
Your finger would heal, but the blank would suffer a perm. wound.
You can then take that band of thread and remove it, just like a band on a duck's foot. The remaining thread can be simply unwound. The tag ends usually makes their presence known. If not, it's not hard to locate them, and unravel the rest of the wraps.
Another trick that you can practice, ***on a tramp rod***, is to heat the blade of a click click knife (those break off blade types) to red hot, and slice thru the resin on the top of the guide, like butter. By the time you get the blade positioned, it's still very hot, but not red hot.
Best to use a metal-housed knife, like Olfa.

Greetings,

I have done what you are considering, manytimes. Perhaps, giving that 'prize' blank a new life.
And on one occasion, I used a Dremel tool (producing heat) to assist in the parts removal and cleanups. Please dont use heat sources unless you really are ready for bad news.

The re-finished rod looked absolutely beautiful as a fishing tool. 'Then' and this only happened 'once ', after perhaps 30 minutes of really encouraging and long casts.
There came a resounding Kraack!
The parts were re-harvested and the main blank pieces became 10 1/2 feet of handle 'reamer candidates'.
And beforehand, (a 'must do') I had carefully evaluated the potentials of that blank and these were 'all' very positive indicators.
In short, if the 'underlying blank' is a piece of junk its unlikely that the end result will truly be worth your efforts and your signature.
Lessons learned:
o For blank survival; no heat and as a few others have stated use a dime-store 'razor-knife' for making parallel cuts on the top of the wrapping (over the guide-feet and within the epoxy coating). After enough 'wrapping' has been removed; then you'll be able to roll the guide off from its footings.
Also do 'cleanup' by making 'planing-type' parallel cuts.

About heat; I would suggest if I didnt know what 'X'-amount of heat is going to do to that 'prize' blank. Why would I be using 'heat'?

Tyson, I have done this 'reguide' operation manytimes and excepting the once (just mentioned) with excellent results. I'll do it again.

Good luck,
Bob