After putting on a 3rd coat of Threadmaster Lite finish on my wraps, I am left with small shallow circular divots in the finish surface. It seems that the first 2 coats went on and cured ok but just the last thin coat left voids. Should I be able to just apply a 4th thin coat over the last one without any cleaning or prep, or is there some step I should take to up my odds of getting a smooth final coat? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Rog

Take a piece of 400 grit wet or dry sand paper, put a flat piece of wood behind it and sand the surface just enough to take off the high spots. If you feel that you can't do that without exposing the thread, apply another coat of finish and after it dries do the sanding. If for some reason you do expose the thread, and you used color preserver be sure to use it again, prior to applying the finish. You also want to find out what the contaminate was that caused the fisheyes in the first place so you don't get more.

I just had the same experience, and believe I figured out the source of contamination. I use small cans of compressed air intended to dust out electronics. A full can blasting dust off a rod causes no trouble, but milking the dregs of a can does. Took a couple of sanding replays & a fresh air can to resolve.

Pesco Ergo Sum

This is kind of long, but good points on finishing. To avoid fisheyes, keep your hands clean, clean razor blades and tools with alcohol. [rodbuilding.org]

Never mind ...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/2010 06:59PM by Jim Gamble.

Did you do anything to the wrap before the last coat of finish? Was anything sprayed in the shop. Was the wrap wiped down before the finish was applied. These are the questions you need to ask yourself. Have heard of many problems introduced by wiping down the wraps before the finish goes on. When you do the sanding on the wrap use a brush to remove the dust. Do not use DNA or any other solvent as that may introduce a contaminate.

Freddwhy (Rapt-Ryte)

Thanks for all the pointers! I try to keep a very clean finishing process - clean hands & tools, no solvents used, brushing off thread wraps, etc. I've only built about 20 rods but this is the first time that fisheyes of any sort have popped up. I think I'm going to have to chalk this one up to "stuff happens". My wife was "putting away" a bunch of stuff near my drying bench and..............I'll give the sanding and recoating a shot.

Thanks again for the replies.

Rog

Ether ask her to wait or you wait until she is done. Any movement will stir up dust and who knows what else. And make sure she does not polish furniture while you are finishing - Lots of fish eyes.

Bill - willierods.com

Go with Jim's suggestion. Fish eyes was caused by some kind of external contamination. Such as oil from hands , spaying a a silicon product or having waxes around. Scented aerosol will raise havoc with finishes

Good Wraps Bob