I have a split grip that I put together and noticed the paste rod building epoxy that I used left a stain on the split grip area. Just one part of it, and it left it semi-milky looking where the epoxy had sat on the split before clean up. Clean up was with alcohol and the blank is not a "delicate finish" brand of blank, the blank was matte charcoal. Also the same milky look was very hard to get off the reel seat during cleanup. Anyone ran into this before? I took 1200grit paper and cleaned it off the reel seat and marbled the split area to cover the milky spot, I just want to avoid that happening again if I can.

DR

DR,
Alchol works very well for most cleanup jobs.
However, if there is an issue with semi dried epoxy that doesn't budge with alchol; I will reach for the Xylene.

Xylene is more than a bit toxic with respect to breathing, but it is really the cleaner of choice when it comes to cleaning up partially hardened epoxy.

If you have to use Xylene very often - you should be using a rebreather mask and or even piped in air to avoid breathing the fumes.
Better yet, do the cleanup out of doors with a fan behind you blowing away any fumes.

Take care
Roger

When get the epoxy on a rod blank, it's important to clean it off as soon as possible. Then, after a good wipe with alcohol, wash it with water. Sometimes this returns everything to normal.

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If you do not get absolutely ALL of the epoxy off a matte blank, you are in effect "filling in" the surface with the epoxy and this could appear milky.