Hello all, after 4 years of collecting dust I decided to wrap the last few rods I had before getting rid of my equipment. I used flex coat polymer that had been stored that long and it has yet to harden after 2 days. I might have mixed it light on the hardner side or maybe it's just old but it didn't harden which brings me here to ask this question:

I've got alcohol and acetone and am wondering if I use either to strip the still-soft polymer off of the guides will it damage the thread causing me to have to start over again? Since these are for personal use I don't care about appearance as I'd rather not have to re-wrap them. I've also considered just going over the un-hardened ploymer with a fresh coat but I'm thinking that wouldn't work.

Any advice would be appreciated. Oh yeah, they are graphite surf rods, some domestic and a couple purglas from south africa.

There's nothing wrong with your Flex Coat - age won't change its properties.

What you can do, is carefully mix an exact 50-50 mix of resin and hardener and apply another thin application. That should take care of it. Do be very precise with your measuring and mixing.

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Thank you Mr. Kirkman, I'll try it again tonight.

Jason,
Normally acetone or xylene will strip the epoxy off of the thread without hurting anything. You have to be careful to not to get it on the rod finish, or you may strip the finish from the rods.

In addtion to Mr. Kirkmans comments, be sure to mix the 50:50 mix slowly but for a long time.
Use a clock and mix for a minum of 120 seconds or two minutes. Three minutes is even better. When first starting, I made the mistake of not mixing my 50:50 mix long enough and ended up wiht an uncured finish.

Take care
Roger

Which is preferred? 120 seconds or 2 minutes? I'm confused! LOL

Freddwhy (Rapt-Ryte)

If you look at your mixture when you start stirring, it will have a sort of pearlescent look to it. Mix until this is gone and then for another minute. Accuracy in measuring is important, but mixing is more important.

If your FlexCoat has crystalized, you can nuke it a little. No more than 10 seconds at a shot. The crystals wil dissolve and your FlexCoat will be just like new. If one shot in the microwave doesn't do it, repeat, but not for more than 10 seconds. That stuff heats up fast and you really don't want to explain to your wife why there is gooey stuff all over the inside of the microwave.

I take a popsicle stick and break it in half long wise and mix with that Check for - splinters
A box is cheap and will last a long time

Bill - willierods.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/02/2012 10:25AM by bill boettcher.