Just curious, does anyone know if you can use paint stripper to clean the old glue off a blank when rebuilding a rod? It doesn't hurt wood or glass but do you think it will eat the graphite? Any opinions would be welcome.
thanks,
Tom

It's unlikely to remove epoxy so it's probably not worth the trouble to begin with.

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

Also I would be real carful using something that strong. Tom I use a razor blade at a angle and scrape. It's a lot of work so I don't do it cheap. After I have scraped the whole blank I wrap it top to bottom and apply lite tm. No color presever. Sometimes it takes 2 coats but usually one will do. Oh I forgot to mention after scraping I sand grits 100 thru 2,000 somtimes 4,000 if its a fine rod. Like I said it's a lot of work so the guy better be prepared to pay for it.

I've tried some of the gentle citrus based strippers on rods, and like Tom say's, they don't touch epoxy or any hard urathanes like Permagloss. Any of the other chemical strippers are just too aggressive for rods. I do like Billy, and use a razor blade and fine grit sandpaper. I don't wrap the rod though, just a couple of sponge wipes with Permagloss and ti's like new.

I have used all types of strippers. I start with the old fashioned type [harsh] wipe on with rubber gloves and let it sit for a minute and sgueggee off with the same rubber gloves, take off rubber gloves and scrape blank with a razor blade, put on a new pair of rubber gloves and do exactly the same with epoxy stripper. The final coat is citrus stripper that I let sit for as long as it takes to clean up my mess, then its to the razor blade again for any heavy build ups, wet sand with fine grit and thats it....you can put a coat of finish on if you wish.
REMEMBER...on the harsh stuff don't wait long.
I am happy to say the only thing I failed on was a old solid Zebco that I was curious about,so no loss as it was a junker anyway.

Tight Lines
Tight Wraps
Fishin'Stix by Fred

Most paint stripper is methylene chloride. I would not touch a rod with it!!. I also doubt it would remove epoxy. Acetone might be a better choice for epoxy but both acetone and methlyene chloride can damage the resin in the blank. I have found if you want to remove epoxy, sand it off with 220-400 grid sandpaper! If CP was used before the epoxy it can be picked off with a needle. I don't use organic solvents on rods in any shape form or fashion!! (and I am a Chemist)

Ed Smith

Thank you for all the replies. I tried some stripper on a broken rod tip and it didn't do much. I will stick to a razor blade and sandpaper.
Tom.

The product you want is called Goo Gone.

Uncle Russ
Calico Creek Rods

Goo Gone works great for intermittent paint cleanup.

Another alternative, which is nearly identical to Goo Gone, is Xylene.

Take care
REW

p.s.
I don't use any type of paint stripper on a blank.
I do use Xylene and Alchol for general cleanup however.