At my wits end. I've been building rods for 15 years at a count of around 40 and I've never had this happen. After finishing the decorative butt wrap with double diamond cross wraps (a staple in my bag), I applied a coat of color preservative as usual. After about about 5 minutes the threads softened up and lifted right off the blank, completely ruining the cross wrap. I used the same color preservative (U-40) Color Loc that I've always used. No change there. Wrapping technique was no different than I've used many times in the past. I had thinned the U-40 with about 25% water, also as I'd done in the past. So I thought I had a problem with the color preservative. I completely removed all of the cross wraps, wasting the hours spent laying them down and started from scratch.

After the re-work, I thought I'd try a different color preservative (Roddancer Chromaseal) this time, though. I finished the cross wraps again, laid down the color preservative as before and guess what....SAME THING! The wraps lifted off the blank and softened to the point that the delicate diamonds were in complete shambles. Another tear down is looming. And this is for a customers rod, not mine.

The only thing different on this job is that I had never used the PacBay Nylon thread before (Orange, Yellow and Ruby Red). It's my only suspect.

Has anyone ever experienced this before?

Thanks for any help,
Brian

hi Brian..nylon thread absorbs water, some more than others..it looks like pac bay is one that absorbs way more. maybe if you used more tension, it would hold up when wetted.

For starters, don't thin the CP.

Thread will tend to stretch a bit and lose tension when wetted with water. This is fairly normal.

Another thing you can do is to "tack" down the centers of the wrap with a drop or two of CP. Let that set, and then come back with your full application of CD. The earlier spot drops will tend to cement the centers and threads in place.

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

Thanks for the advice. I'm about to have a third go at it today. I think what I'll do, based on your suggestion, is to tack down the centers before I do the trim bands. Also, I failed to mention that I never worked this brand of blank before. It's from a supplier that I'd not dealt with in the past. After I remove the old wrap, I'll scuff up the blank to see if it will hold more tension for the cross wraps. Will let you know how it turns out.

Thanks,
Brian

If your centers are too elongated, you'll have trouble putting much tension on the wrap.

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

While I don't recall hearing of this happening with their regular nylon thread, (doesn't mean it won't) the NCP type is notorious for doing what you experienced. I would follow Tom's suggestions. I seriously doubt it has anything to do with the blanks manufacturer.

Brian for what it is worth the ONLY wrap that I ever had the threads sag was one in which I had used Pac Bay thread . I needed a shade that I could only get from PB. I use ChromaSeal CP

Tom

I wanted to close out this thread (pun intended) since I found the problem. On the third attempt for the cross wraps, I switched to Fuji thread. Bingo. Problem solved. I applied the color preservative (ChromaSeal) and the wrap behaved like it should. NO stretching at all! Lesson learned.

Brian

Brian Bowers Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I wanted to close out this thread (pun intended)
> since I found the problem. On the third attempt
> for the cross wraps, I switched to Fuji thread.
> Bingo. Problem solved. I applied the color
> preservative (ChromaSeal) and the wrap behaved
> like it should. NO stretching at all! Lesson
> learned.
>
> Brian

Good to hear you found the problem and got it done !!!