Hi All

A friend asked if I had any old rods that I could cut down to a 5' spinning rod, he said his wife has one and for some unknown reason it casts further than anything he has.

I told him that I had a 6'6" Zebco rod that I picked up at a yard sale for 1.00 and that it was made in China and if I could remove the reel seat and butt guide undamaged I could rebuild this for a cold one the next time we were out fishing.

I cut the cork butt off and put the real seat in boiling water for about 30 minutes, it would not come off so I just drilled the inside of the blank out of the seat and to my surprize it worked.

Now came the easy part just remove the butt guide. I am not sure what they use for epoxy but I want some, this was the hardest product I have ever saw it took me 15 minutes to get that butt guide off and I almost broke my razor knife doing it.

Do any of you rod builders out there happen to know what they may have used for epoxy?

Hi Frank
since i live in Indonesia, many fishing tackle here are made in china
maybe 50% my job is rebuilding those china made rod
removing reel seat, handle and guide on those rod are very hard to do..put them on boiling water can't help...the only way to do is to cut the reel seat and replace it with the new one
their reel seat and handle glue is like glass solid epoxy. they did not flex at all. so i think it's regular clear epoxy glue like i used for lure building many years before

for removing guide it's relative easy just like usual cut from the feet and find a thread that you can pull up,I suggest you wearing safety glass when pulling this thread
those finish will scattered around your face like tiny glass. i don't think they use epoxy it's more like varnish
they become harder over time and will crack and peel it self after few year

Most likely it's a UV curing urethane.

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Next time try a little heat to soften the epoxy.I will use a heat gun for 5-10second s then cut the epoxy at the guide feet.I have stripped and rebut upwards of a 100 rods now and haven't met an epoxy I cant get off quickly with this technique

www.southriverrodsllc.com

chris stevenson Wrote:
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> Next time try a little heat to soften the epoxy.I
> will use a heat gun for 5-10second s then cut the
> epoxy at the guide feet.I have stripped and rebut
> upwards of a 100 rods now and haven't met an epoxy
> I cant get off quickly with this technique

You just haven't met a nice import rod featuring layers of hardened UV finish. Ernest has it covered in his post.

Maybe not Jim, but I have gotten some old varnish/epoxy coatings in the past and did not have too much trouble.I get alot of practice stripping rods as rebuilds account for roughly 60% of my buisness.if I haven't got one of these imports in my shop im sure one will walk in soon and I'll have this thread to thank LOL!!!

www.southriverrodsllc.com

x10 on Jim's comments.

Yes, I use heat to soften and generally it is very easy to remove a guide, handle or what ever.

However, I was up against it when one rod came into the shop.
One had to almost chip the junk off the blank. Heat has absolutely 0 effect on the material. You literally had to grind it off the blank with a grinder. Heat and a knife did not touch the material.

I have had the issue with only one rod.
For that particular rod, I sold the client another blank and we simply chopped up the old blank. Just too difficult to work with.

Be safe

Roger

Do you know the blank name and where it was wrapped? I have know problems removing guides until I ran up against this one. Got it done but took awhile,

UV curing finishes generally do not respond to heat.

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

I deal quite a bit with the UV cures on the budget overseas OEM rods simply because that is what is typically used on the heavier offshore gear at this point. It's not fun and as stated, is a heat stable product, and will chip and shatter. Do wear safety glasses when you encounter this material. It takes a little longer to do than a typical guide would be, but usually if you can get underneath it it comes off in about 2 giant crackling flakes. This stuff will also eat razor blades like there is no tomorrow. Around 2-3 per guide wrap. It can be worked with, just a bit more time consuming.