Hi everybody,
i came from Germany and found this great site during search the
net for rodbuilding details. I´m a absolute beginner in rodbuilding. I´ve build my 4 rod in lifetime yet and i wonder why most of my guide windings showed a different brightness after varnishing. I´ve used a Gudebrod 396 dark brown thread an Flex Coat varnish. Some windings became really dark after varnishing but in the same winding there are some bright spots in which the thread has not been shade. The colors move from really dark brown into nearly original unvarnished color of the thread in the winding. I´ve dryed the rod by turning every 30 second for about 2 hours. But the different brightness has been showed directly
after varnishing the thread.
What´s the reason of this color difference on my guide windings?
Could be a not constant thread tension the reason for this?
I´m really not happy about that s... My last two rods would look really perfect except for that.
Hope that anybody could answer my questions and please excuse my
bad bad english.

Flex Coat does not make varnish - you are probably using their two-part epoxy. There is another product they make, which can used before finishing, called color preserver. This fills and seals the threads and prevent any sort of finish from penetrating and causing the thread to turn dark.

Some builders like the dark, translucent look which results from apply epoxy directly to the naked thread. Others want the thread to retain the same color that it has on the spool and thus will use a coat of color preserver first. Either way is fine, just depends on the look you prefer.

.........

Thanks Tom,
yes i have used the two-part epoxy. I know about the color preserver but
thats not what I wanted. I like this dark look but it should be uniformly on the whole winding. Not dark in the begining ,in between brigther and at the end dark again.

If that is the case, then your threads may not be packed consistently. It's also important to get the finish on the thread quickly - get them covered while the finish is still fairly thin, and then come back and touch in or add more. If you wait too long the finish will be almost too thick to properly penetrate the threads and it will go deeper in some areas than others, which can cause differences in coloration.

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

Thorsten,

Another cause of the splotches could be contamination on the thread. I used to wrap using my fingers as thread tension. I had to wash my hands with hot water after every other guide. Any oil that you get on the threads will prevent the epoxy from soaking in. If you think you have oil on the threads after the guide is wrapped, you can sometimes use denatured alcohol to wipe the wraps. Use a lint free wipe and you can get most of the oil out. Just a little bit of sweat is enough.


Rick
rkoontz@andrew.cmu.edu

Thanks Rick,
guess that this was the problem. I sweat out of my hands during wrapping. But I washed my hands , maybe not often enough. Nextime
i will try the denature alcohol.

Thorsten,

If you look around on the web, you will find that several companies sell thread tensioners that you can mount on a very simple rod wrapper that you make, or you can buy this very simple wrapper already made. It will eliminate all of the fuss around oil from your fingers, and make the wrapping job more pleasant. I find building the tools to be almost as satisfying as building the rods. A thread packing tool will also help. These are available for very little money from many sponsors of this board.

Dave

If you don't want to use CP on your threads, you can thinn the first coat of Flex Coat with a little acitone to help it penitrate the threads