All,
Disclaimer: It's long
Brand new to rod building (finally got tired of paying for garbage in the stores and am always looking for ways to get more involved with fishing) and even newer to the site and forum.

I purchased the kit from mudhole to get started and built my first rod, everything went great until the epoxy finish. The kit came with two syringes of ProKote thread finish epoxy. I'm not a stranger to epoxy so I knew the importance of ratios. I went ahead and mixed 2ml of resin and 2ml of harder in the supplied mixing cup with the supplied stirring stick. I mixed thoroughly for 5 minutes and applied to the rod. I flashed some areas with flame to remove air bubbles and left it to cure in the CRB dryer. The room I did it in was 75-77 degrees. After 25 hours there was no change in the consistency of the epoxy on the rod nor the leftover in the cup. I chalked it up to a rookie mistake somewhere in the process. I carefully wiped the rod clean of the epoxy with a paper towel (it came right off and hadn't cured at all). I then began to mix another batch. I paid even closer attention to the ratio and was dead on with 2ml or each parts. I mixed thoroughly for 6 minutes careful not to stir too aggressively and applied to the rod in exactly the same fashion. This time I didn't apply any heat since I figured that's where I might have went wrong last time. I then placed a control drop of epoxy on a flat surface external of the rod and the mixing cup. I came back 27 hours later and it still had not changed in the slightest and was the same result as the first attempt. I gave it another 10 hours (37 total) but still no change. The only thing I could figure is that the hardener is not activating for some reason. So I carefully hit it with a heat gun in hopes of raising the temp of the hardener enough to activate it and will wait for the results overnight. What am I missing ? Did I just by some small chance end up with a bad batch ? Or is there something that you with more experience can point out where I went wrong ? Any help, advice or directing me to an existing thread would be appreciated. Thanks!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/25/2019 11:15PM by Stuart schley.

If you mixed hardener and resin at the proper ratio, it should cure. If you mix them improperly they should cure to a point but will remain tacky. You mentioned that there was no curing at all which makes me think you mixed hardener with hardener or resin with resin. I have done that before when I was paying attention, but haven’t done it two times in a row. If you are sure you used each syringe, then check the color of the contents inside each syringe, they should be different. The Resin will be water clear and the Hardener will have a yellow or amber cast. If both syringes are the same color then you may have gotten a bad batch, if not you screwed up.
Norm

Norm,
Thank you for the reply. Im positive I used equal parts of each because the remaining amounts in the syringes match one another (they came pre-filled). However, both the resin and the hardener are crystal clear so I suppose I got a bad batch or at least an incorrect batch.

?Pro Kote works fine, generally. Never had a problem. I thought it remained softer for a couple of days longer than anticipated, but it the end, it's been a good finishing epoxy for me. I use it or Thread Master light for all builds.

I'd stop all the heating with various methods. Your environment for curing sounds perfect.

The one thing I will say is that the 1:1 ratio of hardener to resin must be perfect, and then well mixed. Otherwise the results will not be predictable.

Wasn't this issue mentioned in a previous post or on a recent facebook group post ?

Looks like there might be a batch of both syringes containing the base.

I'd contact Pro Kote directly.

10-4 on Adam's comment.

The only logical conclusion that one may conclude and that is that you have two syringes filled with the same material.

i.e. you received two syringes of either epoxy or hardener but not one of each.

Since there has been no curing at all, it is not a big deal. Clean the material off of the rod, and obtain a new set of finish syringes. When you get the new material you should be able to look at the material from the two syringes, and you should see a slight difference in either color or thickness. The material should not be identical.

But, to be sure, just take a drop of each and put in a cup and mix it up and let it cure overnight. The drop should have cured. If it does, then go ahead and mix up a batch and coat your rod.

Good luck

If the contents of both syringes are equally clear without the slightest amber tint to the Part B hardener I would bet you've got two syringes of resin.

Thank you all for your input.

The rod sat for 12 additional hours after using the heat gun in an attempt to activate the hardener. Once again it made no difference and their is no change to the consistency (~50 total hours).

Due to the fact that both the resin and the hardener supplied to me are of the same crystal clear color and equal viscosity, I have determined mudhole sent me two syringes of resin.

I will be wiping the rod clean and switching to flex coat.
Stu

What colors are the two component parts? Generally, resin is very clear while hardener is a bit amber or light yellow. If you cannot see any difference in color between the two, you may indeed have two of the same component parts.

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

Tom,
Yes they are both the exact same crystal clear color. If it weren't for the labels you couldn't tell the two apart.

Stu

Resin is also generally a bit thicker than hardener. If you turn the bottles upside down and watch the bubble flip from one to end, does not do it quicker than the other, or are they the same? If the same, you almost surely have two of the same component parts.

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

If it turns out to be two of the same Pro Kote better fix it asap as i bet a lot of builders have bought it and continue to buy it.

So Drew, it sounds as if you are at both ends of the spectrum as far as finishes are concerned. Which do you prefer?

Tom,
Flip test revealed exactly what you are saying. Bubbles traveled at the same speed and hit the top at the same time.

I'm not sure how mudhole goes about putting together their starter build kits. They could hand load the 12ml syringes from much larger bottles supplied by ProKote when piecing it together which means someone accidentally loaded two syringes of resin. Hopefully it's an isolated incident and I'm just the unlucky guy instead of it being a large production scale batch issue. Unlikely, but possible. I will call them as soon as I can since it's a Holliday.

Also managed to wipe away the lettering of the custom decal I had put on when trying to remove the resin. It's going downhill fast fellas. But hey all part of the learning curve I suppose. I gotta start somewhere!

Stuart, the curve never steaightens out..lol.

I think the syringes themselves are color coded one red and one blue.

Lynn-

I have tried to reply several times but keep getting an error message that one of the words I am using is banned. It's very strange since none are inappropriate or rude in any way.

Anyway, I prefer the TML generally.

Both finishes are similar and low viscosity and not at opposite ends of the spectrum.

Drew

Drew, i experience the same message sometimes and in every instance there is nothing that could even be considered remotely inappropriate, has to be some type of bug .

Don't think Mud Hole wouldn't be making up the ProKote kits as ProKote themselves supply the single Rod syringe kits. Hopefully you can reach out to Mud Hole or ProKote so they can track product and stop it happening to more people which I'm pretty sure it has.

Stuart
There should be a batch number on the syringes. Email me directly so that 1. we can get you taken care of, and 2. I can try and get the product info so that we can get ahead of the problem and inspect the batch as well as reach out to other customers that might be effected. I'd be happy to arrange replacement finish of your choice at no charge.

Look forward to hearing from you, and very sorry to hear about your issue.

Kind Regards,

Brook Oliva
Mud Hole Custom Tackle, Inc.
brook@mudhole.com
(866)-790-RODS