Are any of the finishing epoxies more flexible than others? Lately I have been having a problem with my stand up tuna rods that flex quite a bit, this is true using aluminum guides and stamped metal, once you start to flex the rod you can see a crack in the epoxy, customers don't want to see this and neither do I , any suggestions?

Nearly all will do that. If you feather the ends of the feet to a very shallow taper, you can reduce it to a great extent, but you may not eliminate it entirely.

Aftcote seems a tad softer than other common finishing epoxies so you might want to give that a try.

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ProKote is also advertised to be quite flexible.

David Dosser
Coshocton, OH

I'm with Tom and Dave. Both Aftcote and Prokote keep that to a minimum

I use Aftcote on my longrange stand up tuna rods, rail or harness. I have tried most all epoxys and the first dish of aftcote that I mixed up 4 years ago I left the remaining in the dish to harden. I fliped out the 3 inch disc of hardend epoxy finish and to this day I still can flex it to a 180 degrees and it will not break. I haven't been able to do that with any of the other finishes that I have tried even after a month or two, they break. The one thing about Aftcote that I don't like is it is a softer finish so it doesn't take abuse well especially the butt wrap area. So I use Aftcote for the guides and threadmaster II for the butt wrap if I don't have a guide incorporated into the wrap. If I do I will do my first two coatings with Aftcote then use the harder threadmaster as a top coat. I don't have anymore cracks at the guide feet anymore. I do a very good job at preping my guide feet and no matter how thin or tappered I get them I still get the cracks with the harder feet on west coast stand up blanks, Super Seekers and Calstars with American Tackle titianum guides.

Thad
Dutchman's Creek Tackle

[northeastrodbuilders.com] some info on my page\

Billy has done the testing. Thad has caught the COW. There is a time to be humble and listen. I only wish my fish were big enough for cracked finish to be a huge problem. I'll be giving aftcoat a try.

Russ in Hollywood, FL.

Thad, good point about the finish cracking like that over time. I have a bunch of sample I poured out on waxed paper, and I flex them at the gatherings. 2 weeks ago I cracked my TM, I assumed it was beause it was cold in my shop, but I know that I've been using that same sample for 3 years at gatheirngs doing the same presentation.