In a prior thread, most people mentioned they put a light coat of finish or CP only on their underwraps and then overwrapped. My question is why did you leave the u-wrap "rough" instead of finishing smooth like the overwrap would be finished. Do you finish the exposed part of the u-wrap when you finish the overwrap? Seem like it would be somewhat difficult to get it under the guide foot evenly. I can see a weight consideration but other than that I see no real advantage to leaving them rough. Personally, I only underwrap heavy SW rods and I am not too concerned about the added weight of completely finishing the u-wrap before I start the overwrap. Am I missing something?

Will,
I would not leave the finish on the underwrap in a 'rough' state. In other words, a light coat and then rotating it to level and smooth for the next thread application.

Also, I agree underwraps with double overwrap is better left to the bigger SW or heavy duty freswhater applications. (eg. muskie, h.d.trolling, sturgeon, offshore, etc.).

As a side note, if the lite coat of finish is applied between thread wraps my feeling is it better 'casts' or cements in the threads rather than wrap several layers and putting on a heavy coat over all that.

just my opinion, and it works for good strength. Not necessarily a good idea for lighter wt. cast, spin, or fly rods where weight reduction is a bigger consideration.

Rich
Solyrich Custom

I guess my confusion came from the post by Tom and Capt Harold. Tom said he used CP on the u-wrap and the Capt said he put on a coat of finish and then wiped it off leaving a hardened thread. This sound to me like they would be exposed, yet sealed, "rough" thread. Perhaps they just did not mention in their post that they eventually finish the u-wrap after the guide was wrapped on. Seems like this would make the job more difficult beacause you would have to finish the u-warp around an obstacle. Maybe one of them will post a follow-up.

After the overwrap is made, I finish the entire wrap. Nothing is left exposed and getting finish in the tunnel between guide and wrap is not difficult. Much of it just wicks in there and you can also put a drop of finish at the junction with a toothpick.

I feel pretty sure that Captain Harold does the same thing. He wipes off the extra finish on his underwraps as he is only wanting to seal and harden the wraps at that time, so the overwrap can be made without those threads digging in to those in the underwrap. Afterwards he surely also coats the entire wrap (overwrap and underwrap) with finish.

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I have never considered doing it that way, Tom. I will give it a try and see if I like it better than my current method. As I mentioned, I currently completely finish the u-wrap, and then move on to the o-wrap and wrap it as if it was on a finished blank. On the blanks I am working on now, it could save me several days of work per blank.

I don't CP or finish my underwraps (when I use them which here lately is not unless I have to) prior to the overwrap.

If you will tighten up and completely pack your underwraps as well as loosen up on the overwrap tension, the overwrap shouldn't dig in. You can then CP all at one time and finish all at one time. No use in duplicating effort and spending extra time.

I have found that only CP'ing the underwrap before overwrapping actually makes it more difficult to burnish the overwraps. I also don't like the thicker look when the underwrap is finished first.

What Mike has told you is also correct. I have done many rods without putting anything on the underwraps other than making sure they are nice and snug. I use a bit more tension on the underwraps than the overwraps since this isn't going to harm the blank.

I have also had the opportunity to replace damaged guides that had been wrapped this way. I found in every instance that my CP had fully penetrated two layers of overwraps and the underwrap - these are usually 50 to 130 lb trollers hence the double overwrap - right down to the blank. On some only epoxy finish was applied and it penetrated at least the two overwraps and got to the blank at least in places. But I have never had a wrap fail.