I'm trying to remove the thread wraps from an early 90's Daiwa rod. This stuff won't budge. It took me about two hours to get the guides cut loose, and what's left behind is the most stubborn epoxy I've ever seen. Tried heating with a hair dyer, lighter, alcohol lamp and hot water; to no avail. It simply will not soften.

Any ideas?

What you have there is an early version of UV cure acrylic. It is VERY tough stuff (but you already know that). Your best bet is to try to get a tag end of thread and unwind the material. It's quite brittle so weak eye protection because it will come off splintering and spraying shards. I've yet to find any other way to get that stuff off.

Same here.

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

heat It

It will get soft and be easer to get off

maybe it is a urethane ??? Stripped a lot of old rods and they all seem to soften

Bill - willierods.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/2012 09:20AM by bill boettcher.

Im talking about a new rod I had to strip. I took some Goof Off and placed it on the blank for about 5 min.It was not harmful to the blank. I heated the guide then ran a razor across the foot of the guide and carefully cut both ends where the wrapping. .Heated the blank again and scraped with credit card. Soaked , not wipe the remainder of the wrapping in Goof Off for 5 min then scraped with a credit card again . For a new wrapping worked like magic very fast for your old rod not sure.

Gary,
Perhaps the best solution for a rod like this is a great big garbage can with a new blank pulled out of stock to do the build.

Another thing to try would be to try (say in the area of the butt) a good paint stripper. Maybe - it would help. I don't believe that paint stripper will hurt the blank, but test in a butt section to be sure.

By the way, in addition to the heat - what else are you using to remove the wraps and finish?

Are you using a blade?

Even if the finish is not too soft, normally you can cut through the finish with a razor blade. I hold a single edge razor blade at 90 degrees to the blank to scrape the unwanted material off of the blank. By holding the blade at 90 degrees to the blank, you are not going to cut a strand of graphite and lift it off of the blank. If you use a blade, do not hold it like a carving knife to carve the finish off of the blank, because you will surely slip, cut through the graphite fiber and soon have a rod that is in multiple pieces.

But as I said in the beginning, when the labor begins to run much more than about 15 minutes, your time ( and $$ per hour) value, soon outstrips(sorry for the pun) of the blank that you are trying to strip. Grab a new blank and go build the rod.

Be safe
Roger

maybe you are not getting it hot enough ?
I have also used a candle to heat finish Just for the guide wraps

Bill - willierods.com

Hi I recently stripped a Century sea rod with epoxy hi-build on the wraps for rebuild. I used a hair dryer and a scraper made of bamboo. The bamboo if sharpened makes a good scraper, won't harm the carbon blank.. You will need bamboo with a dia of about 3 - 4 inchs. Cut in into longitudinal strips of about and inch wide, grind the tip like a chisel and both edges like a knife/scaper. Heat the epoxy and scape, this will remove it without inparting undue heat into the blank. The edge will last for the whole rod, one point wrap some masking tape around the bamboo to make a handle as it can be very sharp. I hope this is helpfull

Many of you are not reading the posting thoroughly. It is NOT epoxy! It is an acrylic that is impervious to heat and strippers! About the only way to get it off is by scrapping and prying, even then it will leave somewhat of a mess.

I have taken finish off blanks with a little heat and a - dull - knife Scrapping

never found any thing really hard to get off

After scraping the finish off a good wet sanding with 220 then 400 should clean it well

Check for scratches when painting it
make sure it is DRY before painting

Bill - willierods.com

Bill,
Phil raises a very good point.
The Acrylic that this rod is coatd with for finish is very very hard and heat has very little effect on it.

Roger

Thanks Ken, for letting me know I'm not completely off my rocker. I had come to the conclusion that this was not epoxy but had no idea what it could be. You are correct, it will unwrap a little bit at a time. This is going to take quite a while.

Roger, I hear you. If this were my rod, it would already be in the scrap heap. But, this is a project for a friend. He loves this rod. He was my mentor when I first starting teaching at the college, and has since become a very good friend and my number one fishin bud, so I really need to get this done.

I owe him a lot more than this.