Comments deleted



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2016 04:17PM by John E Powell.

Randy,
When I apply finish, I quickly apply the finish starting at the butt, moving to the tip of the rod. I just get the finish applied, making sure that there is enough finish to wet and fill the thread.

Then, I hit the finish with the heat gun as the rod is turning about 15-20 rpm. As the finish begins to warm, any bubbles in the finish tend to get rounded up and are in one line. Then, as the rod continues to turn with the warmed finish, suddenly, all of the bubbles move out of the finish and are gone. Then, I go onto the next guide and continue the process.

However, I do heat passes on each area and then give the finish time to react and for any of the bubbles to flow up and out of the finish without adding more heat. Just a quick burst of heat as necessary to move any bubbles up and out of the finish.

I little - not a lot of heat is all that is necessary to temporarily thin the finish to let the finish to better penetrate and flow.

There was one comment about the use of a tooth pick to put finish in the valley of the guide tunnel. With the finish at the right viscosity, none of this is necessary. The finish will flow into the tunnels and with reasonably rapid turning of the blank will result in dead straight edges.

+++++++++++++++++++++++
When one looks at the various videos of tours of the rod manufacturing plants, almost without exception, the person dong the finish work has a butane torch, that they use to flash heat the finish on the rod, for better flow and penetration as they produce the rods. When you look at these videos, the person doing the finish application takes about 2-3 minutes to completely apply finish and flash heat the finish before putting on the dryer. Most of these plants use two coats of finish.

Look at time stamp 9 minutes and on.

[www.youtube.com]

Also, note the comment by the tour guide that "the rods are wrapped by out wrappers". Apparently the rods are not wrapped in house.
Also, when looking at the machine used to turn the rods when the finish is applies, it appears that the machines are using constant speed motors driving magnetic clutches that are connected to a membrane style pvc chuck.



Be safe



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/09/2016 06:35PM by roger wilson.

Roger as always thanks for the time to post a lengthy informative post! Do you think it will be necessary to remove those last couple guides? I think they will be fine (I hope, planning to fish this in about a week.

Also the reason I used a tooth pick is because this was a triple wrap and the first overwrap had a very thin coat of urethane coating on. So the epoxy literally couldn't get into the tunnels by soaking up into the thread.

Roger as always thanks for the time to post a lengthy informative post! Do you think it will be necessary to remove those last couple guides? I think they will be fine (I hope, planning to fish this in about a week.

Also the reason I used a tooth pick is because this was a triple wrap and the first overwrap had a very thin coat of urethane coating on. So the epoxy literally couldn't get into the tunnels by soaking up into the thread.

Here is FL I have been trying to cool my epoxy either in ice water or a ice pack. It does cause the epoxy to be thick but once on the rod it will start flowing. It allows a lot longer pot life and The end results seem to be the same as just doing it without the ice. I am using threadmaster.


. I am testing a batch that I left in the freezer for several hours. It never set up and it still was workable once it warmed up. I am now testing if it changes the finish product so far it looks good.

Before you finish -- blow off the area - Let the dust settle - I then use a spray bottle and WET the area The bench - and all around Heavy with the spray of water -- DON'T WET THE ROD !!!
It will help to hold down the dust

Bill - willierods.com

jASON
tRY THE LIGHT BUILD iT WILL STAY WET LONGER AND RELEASE BUBBLES BETTER

Bill - willierods.com

Took it out fishing yesterday, there was nothing there to fish for with it, but I jigged a couple times just to get a feel for it. Surprisingly, the bubbles were virtually unnoticeable in full sun, even under close inspection. The only ones I could really find were in the epoxy in the junction of the rod and guide foot where the guide wrap ended (aka near the end of the tunnel). The only place all the bubbles on the rod were readily apparent was directly under the lamp on my work bench with a high wattage bulb sitting a few inches from the rod. I figured full sunlight would have brought every single one out.