I made a rod to give to a friend that has done me a lot of favors, but before giving it to him I wanted to test it out. After fishing with it a while I notice some of the finish on guide wraps turning a milky white. Not all of them just a few. I had applied 3 coats and waited 48 hours between coats. The last time I mixed it by volume, but I had also mixed the finish by weight on the first coat. Both mixes cured VERY slow. Tonight I lightly sanded with 320 and plan on recoating. Should I bump up the hardener a tad? Afterward, I am going to put it on the dryer in a bedroom with additional heat to help with the cure. I like the clear finish, but not satisfied so far with the results. Any other suggestions from more experienced builders? TIA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/25/2020 10:27PM by Albert D Allbritton.

from what I know, [ not much ] , the milky color comes from water / moisture got into your thread some how, it did not have A good sealed , could be wrong but don't think so .

William Sidney
AK

I have not had this milky white problem with Crystal Coat. Bill is correct in saying that it is a moisture problem. Drying should resolve the problem.
Norm

It is primarily caused by moisture called amine blush The moisture does not have to get to the thread for this to occur. And it will occur with most 2 part epoxies not just Crystal Coat.

It can usually be gotten rid of with the application of heat, like from a hair dyer., or even left in a warm room or sunlight for a period.

I had the same problem with a rod I built a decade ago. Went fishing in salt water and soaked it in the pool for an hour. I meant for it to be a few minutes but got distracted. When I pulled the rod out of the pool, all the wraps were milky. I put the rod in a sunny area and let the heat dry it out. The wraps cleared up once the drying process was complete. Now I pay better attention during the cleaning process. Dry yours out, I think you'll be fine.

from what i,ve read, epoxy needs to fully cure/harden to resist moisture penetration..maybe it just needed more curing time to harden..CTS does cure very slowly..was it raining when you tried tthe rod or were you getting snagged up alot, just curious..

I have seen this happen on both commercial and custom fly rods, especially when they are put in a tube still damp. In every case, drying the rod thoroughly made the blush disappear.

Ben Belote, I was getting hung up on snags a lot, how did you know? I have put the rod in a heated room to help dry the threads. How to prevent thi from happening again on this rod? Do I recoat the wraps after the blush clears? Thanks, everyone for your help.

Albert - Did you happen to use color preserver on the thread wraps before applying the CTS Crystal Clear. If you did use color preserver and did not extend the Crystal Clear beyond the end of where the color preserver was laid down to encapsulate the color preserver, the color preserver will wick moisture underneath and create the cloudiness.

Bob McKamey
Mud Hole Custom Tackle
bobm@mudhole.com

Hi Albert..just a good guess i guess..lol..i never used CTS epoxy but i do know that it has a very long cure time and if any epoxy is not fully cured it wil not be fully hard which it needs to be in order to resist moisture absorbtion..i would give it another week or more to cure fully..maybe it will never get hard enough to resist moisture, that may be the nature of the beast..i would say that Thread Master is the hardest and most moisture resistant epoxy i ever used and it stays pretty clear..and i never had moisture problems with Flex Coat either but all bets are off if you thin them with a solvent..lol..good luck.

Bob McKamey, yes I did use color preserver.

Hello Albert - I believe we have found the culprit. You have to make sure and extend the thread finish beyond where you laid down the edge of the color preserver to completely cover the color preserver and encapsulate. Otherwise when exposed, the color preserver will wick under moisture from now on.

Bob McKamey
Mud Hole Custom Tackle
bobm@mudhole.com

i have three flipping rods i fished with for about 15 years from a float tube or kick boat, nothing but flipping..i think i forgot how to overhand cast..lol. anyway these rods use CP and the epoxy is just applied to the tops of the wraps and not down the sides for sealing purposes..i think they spent more time under water than above to free up snags..at the days end there was not even a hint of a cloudy wrap..for years this went on..i had to conclude that when CP is fully dried before epoxy is applied it seals the wrap as well as epoxy and is not affected by water in any way when fished..there is a lot of myths about CP and i don,t know why..

: Bob McKamey, Does this mean I need to start over or just recoat with the CTS and make sure that I encapsulate the threads especially the edges. TIY

I did a rod with CTS epoxy and was very careful to mix according to instruction. The finish ended up tacky. I let it sit for several days and it never did cure. I mixed up a batch of Flex Coat Lite, recoated, and the finish was cured within 12 hours. CTS may be a good product, but I find the ratios are hard to manage. Maybe others who have had success can share their knowledge of how to mix the CTS.

IT IS NOT A CTS issue !The blush is caused by moisture and the moisture DOS NOT HAVE TO get to the threads to occur!! Of course if the thread can get wet, it makes the occurrence more likely. There are other factors that make this more likely, the presence of CO2, temperature and storage conditions all can contribute. It is more prevalent if the epoxy is not thoroughly cured!! CTS does take very long time to cure thoroughly., so much so that a heated drying cabinet is almost a must! And, yes the ratios with CTS are especially critical!

As I mentioned above, I have seen it on commercial rods, some of which were 5 or 6 years old.