Has anyone used the Flex Coat guide adhesive to hold guides to the blank prior to wrapping ? It looks like a tip top hot glue stick. I've been doing mainly ice rods and ultra lights with thin , narrow blanks and small guides and it can be hard to tape them in place and stay put while wrapping. Any pros or cons to this product ? Will it reduce senistivity ? -Thanks

Technically, yes, it will reduce sensitivity. But no, it will not reduce sensitivity by any practical amount that a human could ever discern. You needn't worry about that sort of thing.

It's a very thin hot-melt type adhesive that could be just the thing for what you're wanting to do. All you do is slightly heat the adhesive and swipe the stick across the bottom of the guide foot. It makes the foot just tacky enough to stick it to the blank. You can still adjust the guide placement slightly.

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I use this for micro guides. It works well with small guides on small diameter blanks. It doesn't hold larger guides very well but those guides are easy to hold with tape. It melts at a lower temperature than tip top adhesive and is much softer when hardened.

I would caution that you want to use as little of the product as necessary. It can show through the thread if you get much outside of the foot area. It can also work itself outside of the foot if you have to move the guides very far for alignment after wrapping, just keep the alignment close and it's not an issue.

I secure guides to the blank with three or four turns of elastic thread, pulled taut and secured by a reef knot. This allows me to easily move the guides on both axes, yet still holds guides in place well enough until they are wound on. One "snip" of the scissors and the elastic thread literally flies off the blank.
When I'm feeling fussy I frequently re-adjust the guides after they have been wound down. I would worry that any adhesive uniting guide and blank would prevent me from making such fine adjustments.

I scoffed at using this product for a while, until I read on here that instead of heating the stick, you slightly heat teh guide adn pass it over teh stick. This prevented me from applying to much, as brad stated it will sho if you use too much, adn if you heat up your finish - it will melt and peek through the thread if you use too much. I us it on an single foot guide smaller than a size - I use surgical tuging to secure the foot to teh blank while static deflecting, then I use the adhesive once the guides are in place (I take them off adn put them back in teh same spot, and yes it takes longer). For me it works better. Recently I've been wrapping 1-2-3 rods with predetermined guide spacing, and it works great on larger size guides.

I do not think this product is for everyone, and I thnk it causes more problems than it's worth, but if you hare having trouble with teh smaller guides, you might want to try barely heating the guide and touching to eh adhesive, possibly passing once more over the heat before putting the guide on teh blank.

I started using the glue method exclusivly. I heat the guide feet and swipe rapidly over the glue and transfer immediatly to the blank. I then hold it it position until the glue drys. Usually have to take your fingers off very carefully or you could rip the guide right back off. Works for me.

Vern, try Hemostats like the use for fly fishing. Much easier to control and let go, adn if you screw up and overheat teh guide you won't burn your fingers.

like billy hinted, my experience has been it's more trouble than useful. i too learned it's best to heat the guide foot/feet but you need to place it accurately because there's no moving of the guide slightly to correct misplacement once it's adhered. i prefer other methods than flex coat's guide stick stuff.

eric
fresno, ca.

Eric, I had the same problem movign guides, until I used less adhesive. All you need is the TINYEST amount of adhesive for it to hold, and you'll be able to align the guides without a problem. Again, it's not for everyone and it does take some getting used to. Honestly, I had more of a learning curve with this stinkin glue stick than I did with epoxy, lol.

Pretty easy to use. Heat guide foot, swipe over glue stick end, and press onto the rod blank where you want it to go. You'll need to hold it down while it cools. If you heat the guide foot too much you'll know about it!