Can someone please tell me why bubbles appear in my Pro Kote at the same place over and over? I put heat on the finish and the bubble popps just like it is supposed to do. However after a few moments a bubble appears in the same spot. I went through this several times with the same frustrating results. What am I doing wrong?

You may not be doing anything wrong. Did you seal your thread with CP? Is the bubble emanating from an area where air has been trapped such as the guide foot tunnels?

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

To much heat or a start of fisheye.

I never apply heat and I never have bubbles! Bubbles can be introduced while mixing the epoxy, or if one is brushing the epoxy onto the wraps, or by applying heat to the epoxy. I very rarely use CP and with or without do not find bubbles emanating from the thread wraps. I have to qualify all this by stating that I only build fly rods and only use size "A" thread.

If you are getting bubbles initially, it is possibly that they are already in the mixed epoxy, or from brushing.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/2014 11:47PM by Phil Erickson.

It seems ProKote (regular medium) do not like heat, the High Build accept it.
With the regular I not use heat and never had a bubble.

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Eric
[www.emfishing.fr]

Try blowing through a small straw to burst an air bubble. I put an epoxy finish on bar tops occasionally and their product claims that CO2 in your breathe bursts air bubbles. It works for me but so does a clean flame passed quickly over the air bubble, I do it quickly enough to not actually heat anything though.

If that "same spot " is in the epoxi that is already applied on the wrap than you are facing the trapped air that is escaping from underneath the thread....usually due to overheating and maybe because your method of applying the finish is too quick and a good amount of air is trapped in the tunnel .

Mr. Hahn,
Try quickly applying a light coat of finish to each wrap to wet them. Then return to the first one and apply the final amount to the wet threads. Also: Try to minimize adding bubbles when mixing parts A & B (a mixer helps immensely with this), possibly thin your finish mixture out with just a little (one or two drops to start) denatured alcohol, and I highly recommend the straw technique mentioned by Mr. Kelly. I prefer it hands down to a torch.

-The Batson TEAM
BatsonEnterprises.com

Mark,

Like Tom says, it might be air trapped in the guide foot tunnels which is slowly leaking out into the epoxy. Especially on spinning rods where the guides have a wider foot it is important to fill up the guide foot tunnels. To saturate / fill up the guide foot tunnels and remove the air; I apply two coats of Perma Gloss on the threads before applying the epoxy. I let the Perma Gloss dry 1 hour between coats and then let it dry overnight before applying the ProKote. The wraps come out beautifully and no bubbles and oh so pretty!

Don Campbell
don@sensorfishingrods.com

Thanks for the help gentlemen. I appreciate all the information you gave me.

I think a picture of your problem would really help us understand what might be happening. Is that possible?

Chester

May your line be tight and your beverages be cold!

Sounds like when you heat your finish you ALSO heat any air trapped in the thread
If your place is HOT cool it down
Put a thin coat of finish on and Do Not heat

This may work

Bill - willierods.com