I saw some posts about this problem awhile back but lost it, Aftco Bigfoot's on Calstar 6455XXH. i have fallen into it with the mentioned components....anyone know how to avoid this.??
rigid rollers on a flex blank does not work.

Hi Owen,
Think this is a fact of life with game rods. Doc Ski's video had a fix with mixing some acetone with the first finish coat so it stayed flexible. Haven't tried it so can't really comment. All you can really do is make sure the feet are thin at the ends so they will bend with the blank and hopefully not crack the finish. All of mine that have caught a few fish have got small cracks right at the ends of the feet even a few non game rods.

ESFNEM Col
Port Kembla, NSW
Australia

Hi,

This has been a problem forever. Eventually the crack will show up. I try to slow the happening down. Yes you can grind the ends of the guide foot but look at all the metal still on the guide foot that is strong and stiff.

I spoke with a Texan years ago who used Flex Coat and did not get the cracks. He stated that he started his guide wrap two thread turns from the end of the guide foot. I can see this working. Question is how it would look to the customer? Not my cup of tea.

My approach is to use a 2 part epoxy that takes longer to cure and stay softer. Flex Coat is a very hot chemical reaction over a short period of time BUT the finished coat is so hard it is subject to cracks. I can coat a rod with Flex Coat, dry the wraps for 4 hours and then go fishing. My choice of finish has to be rotated for 10 hours for each of 3 coats. Then I like to have the finished rod sit in the holder for week before the owner picks it up. I feel this finish takes a month to totally cure under the wraps. My guides take a lot longer before they start to crack, if they do in fact crack.

Many of my friends have used and still use Flex Coat since it came on the market and would use no other. They have learned how to work with it towards their benefit. The above paragraph is my experience when I used the product not a complaint on the product.

I have tried many other finishes and they were good but did not meet my total end needs. Keep trying different finishes, give them a good test and you will find one that works for you, cracking and all else. Heck, there may be a new finish out there that may be the answer to all my needs but I am happy with what I use.

Capt Neil Faulkner

Owen,
I build big game rods exclusively with Aftco bigfoot, Aftco wind on and Winthrop tool rollers. Cracking of the finish has been a problem.
Capt. Neil is correct, one step is to let the rod dry for weeks or even a month to get a complete cure before the rod is put to work. Also, I find that double or triple overwraping each guide foot with D thread helps prevent cracking. Since switching from Flex coat to ProKote, the cracking has not been an issue for me at all. I use the ProKote for its clairity and exceptional flexability.

James Carnes
Osprey Custom Fishing Rods
Charlotte, North Carolina
www.ospreycustomfishingrods.com
704-589-9601

The way to fix this problem is to explain to your customers that over time the epoxy IS going to crack and that there is nothing that can be done about it and it has no negative impact on the rod and isn't a sign of poor workmanship. If it's a rod for yourself, understand it's going to happen and acccept it. There are things that can be done to reduce the amount of time it takes to crack - thread tension, layers of thread, type of guides, thread size, foot prep > you have to tinker with things and find a method that works best for you, and that might take several rods and several years.

For me what works was using the proper amount of thread tension (everyone has a different classification for tight, loose etc...I wrap on the tighter side but keep in mind it's relative). I also use the lightest guides I can for a particular application, and imo that is the #1 way to combat guide cracking and that's not really an option with Rollers. I also switched to the Afcote & ProKote, but one thing I found is that when the rods were fished and banged around on a party boat the soft flexible finish would get scratched fairly easily. So what I have been doing since Threadmaster hit the market I guess 5 years ago is mix 50% Aftcote with 50% Threadmaster (I now use Pro Kote). This mix gives me the "best" properties of both epoxies > flexibility = not as rubbery as PK, not as hard as TM, durable and resistant to scratching, and the pot life/dry time is not as long as PK, but not as short as TM.

THere are hundreds of people using this mix in the North East, and it's startingto catch on in other areas, I recieved this e-mail form frequent forum contributor Rch Gordon the other day: " BTW, I tried mixing the TM and PK finishes like I read you do on one of the boards. It set up and handled well. If the hardness is in between as you suggested, I'm all over it! Keep up the good work....., I couldn't understand why anyone would mix different kinds, until I read your post. I've had good luck with both TM and PK and had a hard time choosing between them. Your post made me realize that PK was so soft, it scuffed really easy, and that all of my rods with TM had lots of cracks around the guides. Mixing them gives you something in between. Then the lightbulb came on!". HEre is a kit I put together for the Billy40 epoxy mix: [northeastrodbuilders.com]

Ive been a threadmaster user for awhile now and i had no idea it was one of the hardest, (I love it for light build for the first coat ) .. i rarely build rods heavier than 10kg so this cracking is relatively new to me.. I have taken all messages onboard with grinding of feet and the more i look at these big foots, the more determined i am to get it right... and to be honest i would rather use an epoxy that scratches than cracks... Prokote just ordered...
thanks everyone.

Hey Owen,

I think I was the last person to ask the same question along these lines. I took onboard the advice given on this forum and I've since built three 37kg Calstars with Aftco bigfoots or wind-ons, and have reduced (not omitted) the cracking significantly. The best way I found was to complete only one overbind and then apply the first coat of epoxy, making sure the epoxy is thin enough to seep into the thread and onto the roller foot. I allowed it to dry, strapped a reel to it, and loaded it into a full working curve, bending it up and down a number of times. It was then just a matter of adding two more overbinds and completing the epoxy job.

Haven't tried it with different types of epoxy (I use flexcoat), but after these comments I might have to. Either way, I'm happy with the way they turned out, and so were the customers.