I have always been suspicious of applying 2 light coats of thread finish vs one heavy one. My concern is that the first light coat will not penetrate all the way through to the blank and will not penetrate into the voids under the guide foot areas - and will seal the thread such that the second coat will also not penetrate.

I performed a little experiment using Diamond II. It seems that my concern was unfounded.
The pictures are on the Photo section under guide wraps. The pictures show that the light coating penetrates to the same degree that the heavy coat does and secures the guide foot as securely - even when the tunnels are not filled. Although, the filled tunnel does provide more support.
Herb

Thanks for letting us know Herb. I think you have brought up quite an inportant point here. It would be interesting to see if there is any difference between manufacturers?

Thanks Herb, that's good info. I've been wondering about that myself. I just replaced all the guides on a ST Croix Pitching rod and I unwound the thread out of curiosity to find most of the guides were very well stuck to the blank by way of finish penetration. The thread was penetrated completely through to the blank. Probably wouldn't work as well if one used CP. I have never unwound one of my own.

J.B.Hunt
Bowling Green, KY

Herb, In my opinion, the reason you get good penetration with a light coat of finish is because to get that light coat you are applying a little more pressure to the wraps with your brush. This causes the finish to penetrate and at the same time fill the tunnels better. If you lay a heavy coat of finish on with the intent of leaving it heavy, you are not going to press the brush as hard and thus not "press" the epoxy through the threads.

Penetration is dependent on two things - first, the thickness of the finish. Second, how long the finish takes to set. The longer it takes to set, the thinner it remains and the more penetration is achieved.

For most of what we do, however, any and all of the popular epoxies will go where they need to go. But you do need to move along and not spend minutes at a time on each guide wrap.

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

I just recently played around with checking out how well CP penetrated or if it stopped the epoxy from penetrating...
[www.rodbuilding.org]

I used lightly wrapped silk thread so I can see inside the wrap and used three heavy coats of CP. After the solvent evaporated there was very little solid matter remaining and the tunnels never got filled. The cured CP didn't stop the epoxy from getting in the tunnels but the lightly wrapped threads would have some effect on that.

If you apply enough CP and it penetrates the thread, which it should, then the epoxy can't penetrate because there is nowhere for it to go. That area has already been filled with CP, which is what you want.

But as you note, there is very little solid matter in CP which is why it's always a bad idea to thin it. Once you do that you're just putting water on your wraps which evaporates and leaves next to nothing behind.

The tunnel needs to be filled with something to ensure stability. Whether it's CP or epoxy makes no difference, but if the tunnels are filled the guide will be prone to "rocking" after a bit of use.

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

Tom,
I hope you mean that if the tunnels are NOT filled they will rock.
Herb

IMHO, I have found with testing the finishes on the market, Threadmaster has penetrated very well and helped with guide pull outs. Especially with micro guides. But I still do a Forhan locking wrap because I really dont want to chance pulling any out on customers rods. Now they just break them off when putting them into the rod lockers with the built in rod tubes. Although I dont think it is always necessary to do with this finish.

Sorry, yes, if the tunnels are not filled the guides will rock.

..........

I use a light coat of Threadmaster Lite as my first coat and have noted that the finish fills the voids and seals the ends of the feet without having to push the epoxy. It takes about 10 minutes for the epoxy to do this on its own and usually results in some bare threads when it cures, but that is all taken care of another coat of Lite or another coat of high build depending on the nature of the rod. I've had to repair a few braced wire frame boat guides and got the pleasure of taking apart some of my triple wraps to find fully filled tunnels through two layers of thread - I'm sold.

Thank you whoever you are

WWW.WeSeekHerRods.com