After all the great info I received on my grip post, im in need of some more feed back like that.
I am wanting to make my own color preserver, and have some questions.

Is it really just Elmers glue and water?
if so, what is the ratio of the mix?
Is their anything else that needs to be mixed in it?
Is it even worth making myself or should I just buy it?
And if I should just buy it, whats the best?


Im building all saltwater rods. I like to make as many things as possible myself.
thank you so much in advance.

No it is not Elmer's Glue and water. Not even close. The glue is a Polyvinyl Acetate. Most popular color preservers are either water based acrylics or urethanes.

...........

I have read (but cannot substantiate) that Minwax water based poly-acryic will do the job.

Just buy it...it is inexpensive and will last you a very long time. Why take the time to build a nice custom rod and not use what is proven.

______________________________________
Super Tight Lines......Don

Hi Keith,
I'm with Don, just buy some quality stuff that's designed for the job and you won't have any worries.

ESFNEM Col
Port Kembla, NSW
Australia

I think Swifty Diamondite CP was Minwax. IT was the worst CP ever.

There are much better ways to spend time than trying to reinvent somthing that has already been invented AND PROVEN, and you will not even be at the start of proving it. (color fidelity, strength, sun resistance, to mention a few) I know it really ticks me off to have to do over work that has taken many hours of my time, so I use materials that were designed for rodbuilding and have a reputation of doing what they are suppossed to do. We can innovate in mechanical areas and have a pretty good chance of success, but getting into the chemicals side of it is beyond the expertise of probably 99.99% of us.

Thanks for all the input. Im gonna place an order, get a few
and lay some thread on a practice blank, and see what happens.
Thanks again for all the great input.

Keith,
Or course you could just forget about using CP.

Many many rod builders build thousands of rods, without ever using a drop of CP.

It is up to the builder and the effect that they wish to achieve.

Be safe

Roger is right that what you want to accomplish could mean not using CP, but I submit that sooner or later you will want to use CP. You should understand what he is talking about, so if you need more detail, just email me. For some colors/effects, you will need CP. There are even times when you may want to use color fast and regular nylon in the same winding without CP.

Mispost



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/05/2013 12:51PM by John E Powell.

I've taken all of the colors that I have and wrapped 1/2" with a 1/4" space between them. I've done this on four different dowels painted black and buffed the surface some before wrapping. Two of the dowels are with CP and two are without CP and they are all finished with thread wrap epoxy. The client can then compare colors beside one another with and without CP. You will find that your color options have basically doubled when you look at your sample wraps. By the way wrap each color dowel in the same order.

Chester

May your line be tight and your beverages be cold!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/05/2013 11:45PM by Chester Kiekhafer.

As for demonstrating the effect of using or not using CP, I have taken a 3 foot piece of Matte blank and wrapped 1 inch of every color I stock. I then apply CP to 1/2 inch of each wrap and leave 1/2 inch without CP. I then applied epoxy to all the warps. This very clearly shows my clints the effects with and without on every color of thread. As I only build fly rods, 95+% of them chose "no CP." Again as I have stated above, most fly fishermen disdain the bright colors and prefer the more organic look. Some simple trims on the wraps are sometimes the exception.

roger wilson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Keith,
> Or course you could just forget about using CP.
>
> Many many rod builders build thousands of rods,
> without ever using a drop of CP.
>
> It is up to the builder and the effect that they
> wish to achieve.
>
> Be safe


Thanks Roger, If im not using any cp, must ncp thread be used.

Keith,

You can either choose to use CP, or choose not to use CP on both Regular and NCP threads. There are no musts or must nots with CP use.