put a rod on the dryer last night, went to shop this morning before work, the belt (rubber ring) had broke, and the rod was not turning, thank goodness it ran long enough that the epoxy has set to the point it would not sag or i would have been a sad man. turned out good, had a spare band and plan on ordering another couple spares.

forgot to mention that i had left it running 4 days



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/2011 10:05AM by Jim Creed.

I feel for you. I had something similar happen to me. I didnt tighten the plastic thread screws on chuck which hold the rod blank. Before I realised what had happened several hours had past and I ruined the job. I normally check on the job every now and then but this I left the house and disaster struck.. Lucky for me it wasnt a rod I was doing for someone else. Lesson learned.

After some twenty years or so of using Flex Coat's Self Adjusting Chuck, I have never had a rod slip out while drying. It is such a simple idea that works so well.

I have had too many things go wrong with a rod left alone to dry. I semi babysit them depending on the finish I put on. Personallly I feel you must babysit for the first few hours if you want a good finish.
Even with a power dryer. 1 to 2hrs. usually until I think it has set right then it goes. I do still check on it. Hey this is what its all about . The finish.
The chuck can and usually does slip. I have used 2 face tape and thread ties on a low cost Pac Bay rod dryer. I have a Pac Bay xl but I still check.

as I read this, I am at the mall with my wife while her gift is turning on the dryer...I hope it doesn't slip...

Had the Motor die last week, Lucky I was Sitting there working on a Different rod. It was a Fire Drill

Jim,
It must be catchy,
I had just finished coating a big Musky rods and had put it on my drum dryer.
Due to the length of the musky rods, I had extended my dryer - temporarily to handle the added length of the rod.
As a result, I had placed a temporary table at one end of the shop to support the longer dryer end.

The rod had been drying for about an hour, when suddenly I heard a crash. I had to interrupt what I was doing to run to the shop to find that the dryer had fallen off of the table and was lying on the floor.
Fortunately, the drum kept all of the guides and wraps off of the floor with one small exception. After righting things, I found that I had severely bent the shaft of my drive motor. I used a hammer to straighten the shaft well enough so that I could get this rod finished drying. I used a heat gun on the one wrap that had been affected by the crash to thin and level the finish.

The rod is back turning and will be ready to take off of the dryer in another hour, so that I can install the backup motor with a straight shaft to finish out the rest of the rods needing finish.

Clamps on the temporary table next time to prevent a recurrence.

Always something.

Roger

Bought two of these chucks many years ago and never had a rod come off Never have used the center pieces I just change the rubber bands when they get dry roded [www.cabelas.com]|/pc/104793480/c/104776380/sc/103942080/Streamside-Designs-Rod-Chuck/744440.uts?destination=%2Fcatalog%2Fbrowse%2Ffishing-tackle-craft-thread-wrappers-dryers-spine-finders%2F_%2FN-1100412%2FNs-CATEGORY_SEQ_103942080%3FWTz_l%3DSBC%253Bcat104793480%253Bcat104776380&WTz_l=SBC%3Bcat104793480%3Bcat104776380%3Bcat103942080

Bill - willierods.com

Bill,
That is actually an advantage of a drum dryer.
No chucks to worry about.
However, as in my case when I set the dryer up temporarily on a table to accomodate the longer length and did NOT clamp the dryer down to the table - I had a case of "dryer walk". i.e. the dryer decided to go for a walk and walked off the edge of the table.

The good news is that no serious damage was done. The bent shaft on the motor was straightened, the one small spot on one guide that was affected was fixed and the that rod, along with the rest of them are drying nicely.

Good luck
Roger

After having a rod butt pop out of the chuck once I never trusted them again. Now I always run some masking tape around the chuck and then down over the butt and back up over the chuck as the rod is turning. This is after observing that everything is turning properly of course.

This past winter I set 4 rods in dryers at the end of the day. I checked them before I went to bed all were turning nicely sometime during the night the power went out. All had to be cleared of droopy finish. Luckily they all stopped with the guides NOT in the down position

got my first power wrapper at the expo, american power wrapper and am well pleased, i still wrap by hand but like the ability to move the rod supports and the easy roll while wrapping also it gives me the ability to put the thread carriage near handle for split grip work, that was the only thing i did not like with the hand wrapper.
only had one rod come out of chuck, (purpose of this thread) but with the rod held by the support brackets it did not fall. i just make sure if it was to push out of chuck the supports are far enough away from a guide that the movement will not push guide into a support. I should mention the problem was me, i left the rod turning for 4 days. life tends to get in the way of my rod work.