Well, my first trolling rod finally caught a fish. I lent it to my Uncle last week and they picked up a white marlin on it! Time to order another decal! I started work recently on my Uncle's trolling uppers to go with his Unibutts. Calstar 655XXH blanks, AA Rollers, black/gold threads. I had gotten the ferrules/nuts and foregrips prepper and glued and prepped the guide feet and had everything marked out for the underwraps. Started the underwraps and had them done in under 3 hours for the 2 rods. Last time I did mine, it was 3 hours for 1 rod! Things are going much smoother now!

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Wraps look much nicer and more consistent, too. I colored the tops of tthe feet of he silver guides black so if there were any small gaps after burnishing, the silver wouldn't shine thru the black thread and put Chromaseal on the guide feet tooto seal the Sharpie marker a little more. After everything was dried and I had lunch, I started wrapping the guides. Taped them in place, put the 1/8" wide masking tape on the underwrap for my "trim" and went to town. 3 hours later, rods are ready for the decal, Chromaseal and epoxying! These look so much better than my first few rods.
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I've been working on the epoxying and getting nice, even ends to the epoxy by using tape bands left on for like 20 min or so, then removed. I have tried the method of using paper towels or coffee filters with Denatured Alcohol, but they still come out wavy and washed out, not the nice clean lines. I also had problems with the epoxy on top of the guide feet wicking under the feet and into the tunnel and then the thread texture on top of the guide feet was showing, but I've learned to use a little more epoxy to cure it. I forgot that the thread will still soak up a little epoxy and to plan for it. Wraps are much more even and level now, too. Best advice I got was "stop playing with them!" If I applied, and set on the drier, got nice even end lines, and walked away, they came out much nicer than messing with them constantly. I just let the epoxy do its job leveling itself!

My trick to getting even lines is to basically apply a full band just inside the end of the wrap. As that band does what it wants (levels itself out) you will get a 1/64-1/32 epoxy trim just outside the thread. I do this for the 2nd and 3rd coats on the heavier rods.

My first coat uses a light build and really is only enough to soak into the threads. The next coat is where I do as above. I do this for all the guides down the line and then come back to the one I start ed with and only brush the finish in towards the center of the guide. Usually you will have enough excess between the two to cover everything. But you may need to add just a little bit.

The epoxy does everything it was designed to do if you just apply and let it be. That was the best advice I was given as well a long time ago. Put it on, watch it for a bit to make sure nothing odd happens then leave it alone.

Tim,
On most rods, I find that it is only necessary to use one coat of high build epoxy.
I put it on liberally, while letting the rod spin quite quickly. I check each guide and as long as the epoxy is reasonably applied, it will self level, and also make a nice clean line at the edge of the wraps. It helps to have the rod turning faster while the epoxy is wet to accelerate this leveling.
After getting all of the epoxy on, and clean edges, I slow the rod down to 6 rpm for the night to let the epoxy harden with no runs.

Take care
REW

Good job Timothy, I to am just starting to see real pro results after a less then a year of building now. I still have problems of filling the tunnels on guides and have tried many different methods, I just have to find one that works. I mostly have problems with the small guides! But your rods look good and best part is when they catch fish since that's the name of the game!!

Thanks for the tips and compliments! To do the guide tunnels, I used the color lock vertically this time. I stood the rod up on the butt, applied CP to the tunnel area to let it soak in while I did the rest of the guides, all with the rod vertical. When I got the first coat on and it was almost dry, I flipped the rods and applied CP to the guide foot tunnel entrance and let it soak in. I also applied extra to the whole guide foot area, top and sides. When it started to dry, I simply took the brush and used that to spread out the areas it had pooled in. I let dry overnight and it looks good! I'll know for sure when I epoxy it today!

For my epoxy application, I am using a Pac Bay Dryer. I chuck up and level the rod and apply the epoxy while its spinning, 9 rpm IIRC. After I get the epoxy on the guides, I stop the motor with the guides up and put some epoxy at the base of the guide feet and then turn on again. The past few times, I used masking tape to mark out where I wanted the epoxy to stop on the blank and then removed them after 20 or 30 min or so and just had to do minor cleanup at the edges. They came out much nicer than before where I used a paper towel soaked with denatured alcohol to clean up the epoxy lines. After I get the wraps coated and the edges nice, I hand turn still in the dryer for a while and make sure it is leveling ok, no missed spots, etc. When it looks like there is no more I can do, I turn on the dryer and walk away for a few hours. I leave my tinfoil with the excess epoxy on it to check to see how tacky it is so I don't keep sticking my fingers on the wet epoxy on the rods!

With these rods, I am going to do it a little different. I had problems with getting under the roller guides before, so I am going to have it in the stands and apply the epoxy to the underwraps and area beneath the guides first before I start rotating it. This should let the epoxy level nicely under there much easier than doing it while rotating. When the underwraps are covered under the guides and the guide tunnels, I will turn on the motor and do the rest of the guides. I tried a spatula, then tried brushes. I found with the brushes the coating was too thin and the wrap texture could be seen on top of the guide feet. I will prob mix up a smaller batch for touchups and usually use a brush for that as I am just doing a touch up coat in a smaller area and don't need as much epoxy.

One thing I noticed with the dryer is that it doesn't rotate balanced usually. I know the blanks have some variance, and I level the stands out pretty well, but I still notice that the rod goes in and out, so I don't think the chuck is perfectly vertical. When I used the towel with denatured alcohol for the edgings, I noticed they were wavy and I could actually watch the rod going in and out slightly. It may be time for a real power wrapper that will be more level and consistent. This way I could use the foot pedal to change the speeds as I apply instead of using my hands. It would make the underwraps much easier, too! I can get one with another dryer for under $300, so that may be what I get next. I use the drying stands as wrapping stands as well, so I can't wrap anything while a rod is drying.