I have been building rods for about forty years and have recently been baffled by what happened to a perfectly good crosswrap.This rod sat idle for two months before I used it and one day on a fishing trip took it out of rod locker only to find the wrap milky white like I had just applied cp. Any idea what happened?

Muskyfsh

Moisture under the wrap

If the finish epoxy was thinned with a solvent it will not cure to it,s maximum hardness allowing moisture to get into the epoxy..fully cured epoxy will not allow moisture to penetrate..by the way, there are cps that can be soaked in water and not cloud over in the least.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/16/2022 01:35PM by ben belote.

Thanks guys, the epoxy was not thinned which I never do and set perfectly fine. I can't believe moisture can get thru the epoxy, I used Flexcoat lite which I use on most builds.

Muskyfsh

Jeff,
I expect that there was moisture in the rod locker that somehow make its way into the rod.

I would expect that if you leave the rod out in the sun for a couple of days that the milky condition would disappear.

Also, open the rod lockers and put a fan in the lockers for a week to really dry out the interior of the rod locker.

Note:

Whenever I come home from a fishing trip, I open every compartment and the bilge. I have a number of squirrel cage fans that can blow high velocity air.

I leave a fan on blowing into each compartment for 48 hours - whether I expect any moisture or not.

But, it is a boat - boats get wet.

For myself, I never leave any rods nor tackle or depth finders in the boat when I am not fishing.

I have just seen way to many folks ending up with issues with all of the above - when items are left in the boat.

I also never leave any soft goods in the boat like clothing, rain gear, or life preservers.

I have a dry bag in the garage, so that when I come home it only takes a few minutes to empty the soft goods into the dry bag which is stored in a dry clean place.

Overkill - maybe. But, I have seen and repaired too many rods that were left in a boat that ended up getting chewed up with varmints, black with mold - because of some long forgotten moisture in a corner of a locker. Tackle boxes that are left in a boat and end up with every hook in the box, rusted away from forgotten moisture.

Best wishes.

It is likely Amine Blush, caused by humidity. Storing in a moist or humid environment can be the cause. If the surface feels waxy or oily a damp cloth may clean it off, if not add a little soap. If not on the surface a hair dryer or warm sunlight often clears it up.

Hey Jeff.....how about an update? I am interested.