I've never seen this before. A guy brought in a 2 year old rod which appeared to have been placed on something hot although he didn't say anything strange had happened to it. The wraps on the lower two guides appeared to have melted. While taking the guides off, I found something very sticky on the guide feet. This stuff was on the guides and about half of the wraps, as I removed wraps past the ends of the guides it was fine. I was able to get it off with D-Alcohol but I'm wondering if anyone has an idea of what might have caused this. The other guides appear okay but if something was done incorrectly during the building I might have doubts. Thanks

The guides might have taped on with Duct Tape or similar, which as you might know tends to leave a pretty sticky mess. He may have just gone ahead and wrapped over it.

Could be any sort of adhesive, really. Hard to say what the last man used or tried to do there.

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

This was more than tape residue, since the wraps appeared melted, distorted or sunken I was thinking maybe the finish mix was done incorrectly and it nevery dried? Is that possible, especially with the rod being two years old?

Is it possible that the first coating on some of the guides was mixed improperly resulting in a tacky finish which was second coated with a properly mixed batch?

Maybe it's residue from Flex Coat guide feet adhesive.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/09/2007 09:00PM by Randy Search.

I'll bet it was someone who never could get the 1st coat(s) of finish to cure so they mixed new finish and re-coated them. I never have understood why so many say to do this "fix". If the finish wont cure, remove it and start new! Covering it up is just that..... covering, and it wont cure a finish that will never cure underneith.

DR

I've had a few factory rods that I repaired that had what felt like uncured epoxy below the outer coating, those looked ok but when I cut into the wrap to replace a bad guide, the inner layers and thread were still sticky or wet. I've seen this on quite a few rods lately. I just sort of figured that it was due to a rush job at the factory or a bad mix of the epoxy if that was indeed what they had used. I have had a few that I have wondered whether they were using actual epoxy or some other coating, I would think that a factory building rods would use something faster than epoxy?
I haven't had any that looked melted, but I have seen a few older customs that had a burnt look, sort of a severe case of yellowing and even some surface blstering.

You'd think if like he said, the sticky substance was only on the wraps where the guide feet were, and not on the wraps that were on the blank, This would rule out a bad 1st coat thread epoxy mix, otherwise the stickness would be more uniform and over the entrie length of the thread wraps. Who knows if guide foot cement was used some other substance which from some of the facts presented, would fit the bill more closely. He did not say if this melted apperance was sticky on the surface also? Melted looking yet cured? Hard to narrow with the info provided

I am always enlightened by others perspectives. I agree with Chris that if the mix was bad the entire wrap would be bad and this is not the case. Once I unwrapped past the foot, the remainder of the wrap and the trim wrap were fine. The wraps were hard and dry on the outside. Tom's reply that someone used duck tape or some tape with a large amount of glue somehow sounds more understandable now that I've read your replies. In any case, I got the stuff of the blank and rewrapped the guides today. Looks as good as new.

Thanks
Jim
Rim Country Custom Rods