Josh just keep at it. The small end of the rod is the most difficult to finish in my opinion. Reason being its very easy to get too much finish on which results in lumps bump and football shaped guides. In all honesty I find the best thing to do to get a nice finish is do nothing. Just get the finish on and rotate the rod 180 degrees by hand and only as it needs it. Don't let it sag don't play with heat. The trick is getting the proper amount on and then determining how often to turn it. The only way to do that is practice. The most important part of practice is to do it the same way each time so you can figure out what works well for you.

phil, i was think of hot glue strip it on wood something like that that show on flex coat video and when u get glue strip and put it in tip tube it might be mess less ?? but i'm not sure what brand of hot glue might work well..
i just done practice finishing coat and still have some practice more but not dry or hard yet after 3 hours on rotating so i'll have to check it tmw to see how coat is doing .

Josh