I’ve read a few posts on here recently about installing rod tips and they all talked about using the hot melt glue. I almost always install my tips using the 5 minute Rod Bond. I was just wondering does everyone else use the hot melt glue? I’ve been building rods for about 38 years. When I first started I used the hot melt glue,then I read an article I think it was in Rodcrafters magazine, about using 5 minute epoxy to install rod tips and have been using it ever since. With the 5 minute epoxy you can still use heat to remove the tip,but it does take a little more heat to do it.
Does anyone remember the Rodcrafter magazines from back in the 1980’s?

I tend to use a high-quality hot-melt adhesive for most all tip-tops other than those used on larger, heavier saltwater trolling and IGFA class types. Used properly, hot-melt is a lot stronger than many think.

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Hello All.

I use hot-melt on everything 50# and lower, 90# and over gets epoxy.

Tight Wraps & Tighter Lines.

RodCrafters are still active.

Dennis J. Danku
(Sayreville,NJ)

The Rodcrafter magazine that I’m talking about was back in the 1980’s and was made by Dale Clemens who wrote a few books on custom rod building and had a rodbuilding supply company near Allentown PA.

The RodCrafters organization ceased operations sometime in the early 2000's.

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Tim,
Epoxy works just fine.

The only issue is that if one ever needs to change a tip top for any reason, the epoxy secured tip top is a bit harder to remove.

But, if you like using Epoxy - then continue using epoxy. As you have found, it works and works well.

Take care

Hot melt,
Herb

The key to getting good results with hot-melt glue is to make sure you get some glue inside the top so you have adhesive between the tip-top tube and rod blank. If you simply smear some on the rod blank and then push the top on, most if not all of the glue will simply be pushed down the blank. There are many ways of getting a good bond with hot-melt. I typically heat the tip-top tube and then push the open end into a piece of hot-melt. This stuffs glue inside the tip-top tube. Then another very brief application of heat on the tip-top tube and push the top onto the rod blank tip. That's really all you have to do.

When you make your thread trim wrap (if you do) wrap up and over the tip-top tube end for a few winds and epoxy over the entire wrap. This provides a bit of additional strength against top twist.

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I cut little slivers of hot melt put them in the tube then heat it and put it on.

Tim

Your choice whatever you feel comfortable with, both do the job.

Hot melt is plenty strong enough to hold broadheads on arrow shafts - when it is applied properly. On fishing rods hot melt greatly simplifies and speeds replacement and readjustment of tip-tops. For rods used to catch fish under 200 pounds sick shellac or its brand-name equivalent should work just fine. I'll bet over 90% of world-record fish were caught on rods using hot-melt, not epoxy glue to secure tip-tops.

For tip tops mounted to rods of virtually any pound-class, my apprentice (I’d like to believe I have graduated from novice/newbie status) opinion is PROPER tip top/ferrule adhesive (hot melt) is the ultimately preferred method for at least two reasons; 1.) From a strength perspective, it is not as though a 300lb fish is exerting 300lb of force directly attempting to pull the tip top off the blank simply due to the line merely passing through the tip top rather than tied to it = think about it. 2.) Tip tops are certainly not exempt from requiring replacement, possibly more prone than any other guide, and the milder heat required to remove them installed with a proper hot melt adhesive virtually eliminates the chance of applying too much heat and (possibly without knowing/undetected) damaging the blank. Although using an epoxy to mount a tip top is certainly secure, so is tip top adhesive when applied properly as Herb, Tom, Paul and Phil alluded to, and replacement is not only easier but much safer.

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.

Tom Kirkman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The key to getting good results with hot-melt glue
> is to make sure you get some glue inside the top
> so you have adhesive between the tip-top tube and
> rod blank. If you simply smear some on the rod
> blank and then push the top on, most if not all of
> the glue will simply be pushed down the blank.
> There are many ways of getting a good bond with
> hot-melt. I typically heat the tip-top tube and
> then push the open end into a piece of hot-melt.
> This stuffs glue inside the tip-top tube. Then
> another very brief application of heat on the
> tip-top tube and push the top onto the rod blank
> tip. That's really all you have to do.
>
> When you make your thread trim wrap (if you do)
> wrap up and over the tip-top tube end for a few
> winds and epoxy over the entire wrap. This
> provides a bit of additional strength against top
> twist.
>
> ...........

Geez, why didn't I ever think of that.

Well I found out what I wanted to know ,almost everyone but me uses hot melt. I think 35 years ago if I remember right one of the problems with hot melt was on really hot days with your rods in your car or even fishing the glue would soften and the tip would turn. I don’t know if the glue back then had a lower melting point or what. The hot melt today is probably better. That being said I’ll still use epoxy most of the time.

[]

Rodcrafters Journal is still going.

Flex Coat Company
Professional Rod Building Supplies
www.flexcoat.com

Our tip top adhesive is quick, easy, and strong.

[flexcoat.com]

[flexcoat.com]

Flex Coat Company
Professional Rod Building Supplies
www.flexcoat.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/2020 10:46AM by John Cates.