Just put the finishing touch on a complete build last night with an epoxy finish. Tiny, tiny,tiny bubbles imbeded in the finish, only where the weave is as luck would have it. I have never had this happen before. Weave area was treated with 2 coats CP. My question is, what if anything can be done short of starting over?

Jeff Leonard

If the bubbles are in the epoxy (most likely they are) then you could possibly sand down past the offensive area and recoat. However, if you nick the threads with your sandpaper, you'll have something that looks even worse than you have now.

I'd ask if you thinned your CP (water won't displace nor seal the threads permanently) but that won't help you on this particular rod at this point. Crosswraps and weaves tend to hold a lot of air due to the amount of thread involved. But normally it comes out in bigger bubbles.

Micro bubbles are usually caused during the stirring or brushing of the epoxy, both of which need to be avoided as much as possible.


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Or you can just leave it as most people will never notice the bubbles.

No, Tom I never thin CP and I would assume that the bubbles are from trapped air in the weave area because the rest of the rod turned out perfectly. Good idea Scott, but there are so many bubbles it is discolored and unless one is blind you can see it from ten feet away.

Jeff Leonard

PS - Lesson learned, apply finish to weave or wrap before finishing entire rod.

It could be that you needed another coat or 2 of the CP in order to fully seal that thick thread area. It's hard to say without actually seeing it.

At any rate, I'm sorry you experienced this. We all know what it's like to put that much time in on something and have it come out less than we'd hoped for.

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Here is what you might try. Only if you like sparkle. Lightly scuff the wrap with a gray 3M scuff pad. Clean wrapping with alcahol. Now mix up a new finish coat. while mixing add some micro glitter. You can get it at any craft store. The sparkle from the glitter will hid any micro bubbles. Micro Glitter comes in many differ colors and shades.
Good Wraps Bob

Bottom line here......if you can see the bubbles with the naked eye...........fix it.. If you have to wear 1.25 or stonger glasses to see the bubbles...forget about it!

For me, bubbles come when I apply too much finish or I apply finish over CP and it is a little thick.

Next time try this.................apply a coat of PG over the threads with CP on them and then coat with epoxy...BTW What epoxy did you use? anyway, this stops bubbles for me!

Anyway, to fix this.....Take Tom's advice or if it is fairly fresh, peal it off and reacoat. Sand it out??? Live with it!

The PG really cuts down on bubbles for me espically when coating gold chain, over CP or something similiar.

Hope this helps................terry