So I re-wrapped a rod for a friend of mine. Looks great. Applied a good coat of Threadmaster. Looked great. Leaned over my bench and my shirt touched the epoxy and wrapped around the rod. Messed up a guide wrap and the butt of the rod. Epoxy was like an hour and a half into drying. I know better than to mess with it now. When it's dry I will assess the damage. I hope I can take 600 grit and light sand it and fix the issues. Anyone have any suggestions I'm all ears.

Robert

Always tuck your shirt in ! LOL Seriously, do wait until the epoxy has well cured. Then you can assess whether sanding might work. If you have ridges and lumps, 600 grit wont do the job, you may have to use a grit that cuts a little better.

Robert,
I would have attacked the problem with acetone before the epoxy cured; but hind-sight is always 20/20 and that is now water under the bridge.
It will be virtually impossible to sand off the epoxy without sanding some of the blank as well. Consider applying mild heat to the buggered-up epoxy and scrape, as much as all possible, off using a plastic or wood scraper (a credit card works well also). In an inconspicuous spot, test the (non)compatibility of the blank finish with acetone. If the blank finish is unaffected, use the acetone to clean-up the final, thin layer of epoxy. The sooner you can do this the better while the epoxy has had the least amount of time to cure.
Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

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

If you are careful, using a sanding block to keep the sandpaper (probably 200-300 grit, more aggressive than 600 as Phil said) working on the high spots, you may be able to smooth it out adequately. Keep in mind that another coat of epoxy will add thickness, and in itself will hide some distortion of the surface. You cannot let the sanding get to the thread or the blank surface or you will have fuzz and a damaged blank. If only cosmetically damaged.

I've fixed some pretty messy epoxy jobs this way, so I would opt for the simplest, least "intrusive" approach before trying something like heat, softening, scraping, etc. I think that will inevitably lead to to total rewrapping of the guide. Which may not be necessary if the sanding works. If the sanding doesn't work, then get aggressive.

Mark, I agree with a lot of what you propose, but I don't agree with acetone. I've built many rods and fixed many problems, and I've never used acetone for anything. It's much nastier than alcohol in many ways, including the fumes. Good advice to check to see if it's going to melt the blank surface if it's going to be used.

Thanks guys yeah I think I can sand some of it,I loaded the epoxy on there good and thick so I should have some leeway. I have some 400 grit I will try. I'll go slow and easy. I was thinking no solvents would be wise so I did nothing. I think I will be able to at least knock down some of the imperfections to where another coat of epoxy should hit it.As for the blank this is an old beater of a rod . I was trying to spruce it up and I had those wraps looking tits! Never lean over the bench again thats for sure lol

An hour and a half in you probably took the right action by leaving it alone. I'd wait at least 2 days, if not 3, and keep the rod in a warm place so the epoxy sets hard enough to allow easy sanding. Sanding soft epoxy results in the sandpaper loading up and clogging. Make sure the epoxy is hard enough to sand. Dry powder residue is the tell-tale sign of epoxy that is hard enough to sand.

You have another option on the guide wrap - just cut it off and redo it. In the long run, this may be just as quick and perhaps easier.

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

I agree with Tom's last suggestion. If it's just a guide wrap and nothing more. I think you'd be ahead to just cut it off and start from scratch. The big bummer is the amount of epoxy you'd have to mix just to do a single guide wrap.

To me, it's a bite the bullet kind of thing.

Robert,
The best suggestion is to wrap rods in the nude.
That way you will never ever have any clothing getting caught up in the rod or epoxy.

Best wishes.

Sometimes the best solution is the simplest one.

Let it dry and look it over, You might be able to slice high spots off with a razor blade and recoat it. If not Michael's block sanding method works very well. Then re-coat. I use only 3 solvents for building/repair, DNA, Acetone, and Isopropyl alc. Each has it's place. A 2nd coat can work wonders at times. If not cut it off and re-wrap. nothing lost but the 2nd coat.

roger wilson Wrote:
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> Robert,
> The best suggestion is to wrap rods in the nude.
> That way you will never ever have any clothing
> getting caught up in the rod or epoxy.
>
> Best wishes.
>
> Sometimes the best solution is the simplest one.

Haha . Nobody wants to see that!

I looked it over and it's got some bubbles and rough spots but I think I can fix it it a bit of care. Tom thank you yes I will keep the rod warm and give it a couple days before I proceed. I may have dodged a bullet. I would strip the wraps but it's also a good deal of butt section so I will attempt to remove what blems I can and apply another coat.

Don't know how heavy a rod this is. If it anything med or less once you sand you may want to top coat with a light build finish. Say you already applied epoxy heavy might look excessive with another coat of high build. Also IMO light build tends to level better when you are going over a uneven surface which you will have no matter how careful you sand.

X 2 on Tom Kirkman suggestion. I would let it completely cure then just cut it off and start over. It should come out like new!!

Please let us know how you went about the repair and how it went.

Michael Danek Wrote:
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> Please let us know how you went about the repair
> and how it went.

Merry X-mas.

Rodger, I tried that once and got old man chest hair caught in the Epoxy when leaning over the rod to grab something. LOL

Figured I would update this. So this was a boat trolling rod with roller guides. I ended up taking a fresh razor blade and gently cutting the fuzz and bubbles out as much as I could. I then took a super fine scotch brite pad to the affected wraps and wiped the dust off. I re-coated the guide wraps with the threadmaster finish . 1 thick coat. Another light coat. The rod came out damn near perfect. To the naked eye it was perfectly good,save for a couple small blemishes that I could see. My friend was happy. Thanks all for the advice.

Robert