Hi all

I have just epoxied my second light weight 7 foot rod. The big problem i discovered when finished was that the guides had all moved. I single wrapped the guides (TATSG's) with NCP A and was trying out not using a locking wrap. I applied why epoxy (Classic Coat) quite thick then flamed it and removed excess. The rod may have been in the same position for up to 2 minutes.

The other thing i discovered after removing the guides was that the feet of the guides had made an impression in the blank, is this normal?

Any ideas why the guides may have turned. The stripper and second guide moved quite a bit. The rest about 15 degrees.

Thaks
Stuart Klose

Stuart
You may have wrapped the guides too loosely. Check the foot area again. Are you sure that the guide left an impression - or is it a bit of either color preserver / epoxy that was under the wraps and adjacent to the guide foot? Try to gently push an edge with your fingernail as I suspect the latter - which is a good thing because you got good penetration of finish in the "tunnel" between guide foot and thread wrap.

Thanks for your reply ken.

No i'm pretty sure i wrapped then with 'normal' tension because when i aligned then prior to epoxying they were quite difficult to move even a little. I have removed all the guides and cleaned the blank. Where one guide was there is a definite impression so my thinking is it was wrapped too tight. It is really puzzling, i even thought that the blank may have warped or twisted but that doesn't make sense.

Will try wrapping again.

Is it worth using some tip top adhesive to glue the guide to the blank before wrapping?

Wonder if flaming the guides got things a little too hot and caused the guide to melt or at least cause a depression in the blank also allowing the guide to loosen some? Kip

Why did you "flame the wraps and remove excess?" That's certainly not necessary. I can't say that caused your problem, but it didn't help matters.

The thread isn't likely to have relaxed so it appears that the guides were wrapped too loosely. The guide feet often leave a surface impression in the soft finish of some blanks.

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

MAybe you didn't align them as well as you thought? here was a pos a few weeks ago where a bunch of us admited that we sometimes make mistakes and what looks straight one night, isn't straight in teh morning (a rodbuilding beer goggles sobb story, lol)

Stuart,
Even if the guides were wrapped a bit loose, they would not have moved unless they were touched after alignment.

The key thing in rod building is check, check and double check.

I will often build rods in batches, because it is a more efficient way to build. i.e. prep rods, prep and glue up handles, tie on guides, align, and coat guides.

In between operations, I store the incomplete rods in a rod stand. In some cases, it is a day or two between the time that I align the rod and coat the rod.

Because of problems like yours, I make a point of rechecking the guide alignment 100% of the time, just before I do the finish application.

It is so easy to catch a guide sometime during rod movement, between one station and the next, and even during finish application.

So, again, after applying the finish but before moving to the 6 rpm dryer, I will do another quick glance down the rod to insure that none of the guides have been bumped and knocked out of alignment.
If a rod is on a dryer, even a correctly wrapped guide can be knocked out of alignment from hitting your hand as the rod is turning.

Good luck


Roger

There is really no good reason to "flame" epoxy, there are risks! If the wraps were tight enough, something moved them and it is very unlikely that it was anything to do with the epoxy.

If the guide that made the "impression" was heated by the flaming, it well could have been the cause.

Did you use CP ? Sometimes if you put CP over NCP thread it will make the threads loosen up, which could allow the guides to move.
(I think).

Bill

Ohio Rod Builders

Canton, Ohio