Okay, so I put the second coat of TM lite on about 6 hours ago and my 2.5 year old decides, "Hey cool looking rod Dad, what happens if I touch it?". Well, I don't know if that was his exact thought, but I have big problems now. This rod I'm donating to a DU banquet and it's tomorrow. So how do I get the finger print and what appears to be either lint or cereal dust out of the wrap?!! The only thing I can think of is let it dry for another 6 hours, hit it with some sort of abrasive to get the "lint" out of the wrap and quick hit it with another coat yet tonight so it's dry by tomorrow eve.

Deep breath, in..................out...................in.......................out..................

Put a light on it and "bake" the affected area. TM Lite takes forever to cure on its own. Then remove the impurities and recoat, bake again. Truthfully, you were already in trouble since the finish needs to be left alone for 2-3 days before handling in a public environment.

Thanks Jim. Just so I'm on the same page as you and understand what's going on. By "baking" it I'm essentially speeding up the curing process. Then I can somehow remove the lint (which there seems to be quite a bit of) and recoat from there.

I'd recoat with regular TM if it were me - after you do what Jim suggested.

Good luck! Hope it works out.

Tough time problem. If I felt I could remove the bad area in some way now, such as razor blade or solvent, I'd do so ASAP and recoat. If it isn't too much work, perhaps cut it off and start over. Given what is on the line I'd feel better knowing it was taken care of now.

I don't know if I could get two coats built up quick enough if i were to cut it off and start over.

I guess if all else fails tell the winning bidder that I'm not satified with the craftsmanship and I'd be happy to deliver or send the finished rod to them. (That's Plan C)

Plan A - Bake it and see if I can get the lint out quick and recoat. See how it looks. If not so good see Plan B.

Plan B - Cut the whole thing off and rewrap and try and get two quick coats on ASAP. (Not sure how long between applications) If still not satified.

Plan C- (Stated above).

Plan D -- don't get into this type of situation. It takes time to do certain things -- coating and drying times. You only have so much control over this. tell him it will take so much time - like it or not ?? What else can one do. I can not walk on water either !!!

Wade,
If the finish is still soft, hit it with Xylene.
This will strip off the finish pretty quickly without affecting the wraps. (If it does affect the wraps, cut the guide off the rod and retie the guide back on the rod and recoat.
Cutting the guide off and retying will be quicker than letting a coat cure, trying to clean it up and putting on another coat of finish. You should be able to cut off the old guide, clean up the rod and have the new guide tied back on with a coat of finish on the rod in under an hour. When working on the rod, don't touch any of the rest of the fnish that is still tacky.
Recoat, and heat up to quicken the cure. You will be good to go.

I had the same thing happen to me a couple of years ago. I had coated a rod, and left it in the dryer for about 3 hours.
When I came down and checked, I found that the dryer had moved down the bench and one of the guides and interferred with the felt lined rod rest. As a result, the guide was well coated with lint, felt etc.
The cure was too far along to just wipe off. Since I was under the gun to ship the rod the next morning, I hit the guide with some heat and cut the guide off the rod. I wiped down the rod, put it back on the wrapper and rewrapped the guide - being very careful to stay away from the rest of the finish that was still tacky. I lined up the guide, recoated, let it flow out and hit the entire room with 95 degree heat for the rest of the night.
I pulled the rod off the wrapper at noon the next day and had it in the afternoon shipments to the client.

Good Luck
Roger

I've not tried this, but I am wondering what would happen if you were to take some 600 800 or 1000 grit paper and wet sand the area that is finger printed and cereal dusted.

I had to chuckle, I have a 3-year old that thinks fishing rods are the bomb, particularly the ones that Daddy is in the process of working on.

Good luck.

Steve Bro
(BroCo Custom Rods)

Those darn 2 and a half year olds are something aren't they......all my rod work gets done at nap or bedtime or in a room that I can keep him out of for this very reason. He got into some of my epoxy marbling one day while it was wet......at least it was a first try at marbling and a practice piece, I feel for you wade. I would let the winner of the rod know what happened and do it right.

Well the winning bidder was understanding of the situation and he's a local guy. I'll be rewrapping those two wraps and delivering it to him in the near future. Thank you all for your input. I'm going to chalk this one up to a huge learning experience.

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