What is the best way to clean off fresh epoxy, (before the epoxy sets up), from the reel seat & cork handle when installing these components and some of the material squeezes out? TIA

Wipe off as much excess as you can with a dry paper towel. Then follow on the thin remainder with an alcohol wetted towel.

............

Hello Dave.

I use either regular alcohol or denatured alcohol.

Bob,

New Bern, NC.

Dave, I use denatured alcohol on a paper hand towel or a clean cotton rag/cloth & wear disposable gloves (nitrile) to clean up excess epoxy when gluing real seats & grips. I find the larger isopropyl alcohol wipes to be very handy also. Just make sure you have plenty of either on hand, and pre-soak your paper hand towel/rag with DNA before you assemble your grips and real seat.

The 91% isopropyl alcohol from the drug store works great. Avoid the 70%.

Or denatured alcohol as mentioned above.

The blue automotive paper towels work better than regular paper towels.

Drew



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/23/2012 10:17AM by Drew Pollock.

Agree with all the posts on denatured alcohol and paper towels. Works well. Be sure to remove as much excess epoxy from the surface before mating the pieces together. As you slide components down or up the blank, a lot of excess builds up at the end of the grip or reel seat. Scrape as much of this off before the final clamping. Even back off the grip or seat to scrape off excess to avoid epoxy pushing out of the joints. It will make clean up easier and your resulting mating surface epoxy-free with no glue lines.

Terry

If the epoxy has began to setup, alcohol will not do a very good job of cleaning up the epoxy.

But, if you use Xylene, the solvent will do an excellent job of cleaning up the slightly set up epoxy.

Just be sure to use good precautions and be sure to do this work only in a well ventilated area. Since solvents can be absorbed through the skin, it is also a good idea to use latex gloves when using any strong solvent.

Roger