Trondak U-40 had their strongest Expo ever! We talked to more people than ever before. This was head and shoulders past last year. Some of our dealers even sold out of their U-40 product by the middle of the first day and needed more product from us. The attention at our booth was busy all day long. Even with the poor economic conditions the crowd seemed eager tp acquire rod building products. T
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Mike Chuck There is nothing wrong with twisting the ferrule off after it has been soaked in boiling water. The water doesn't need to be boiling --- about 200 deg is hot enough, and the adhesive (I'm assuming an Epoxy was used) will be soft enough that no twisting effect will be felt by the blank. If you want to make a new fiberglass ferrule (recommended), full instructions are available in
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Cody You should try LS Supreme - Hi Build. You won't have any cure time problems, it has a pot life about the same as the LS Supreme, and is not a problem with bubbles. Ralph
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I think that all of our distributors have distributed the new Quick Bond in their territory and comments are coming in from all over the country. It seems that we are a bit faster than I expected in the real hot areas like Florida, southern Texas. Reports coming in state that most are getting about an 8 minute work life in those areas, which still gives plenty of time to do the job. Some of t
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Lance Lacquer thinners are invariableyl 51% Acetone plus other ketones (acetone is a Ketone) and solvents of various and sundry strengths and dry times. Each formulator of Lacquer thinner has his own pet idea on what to include and what not to include, but they All start with Acetone. Ralph
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If you have two coats already applied, why do you think you need another coat --- of anything? Ralph
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Did anyone ever wonder what was used for this purpose before today's two part epoxies -- and sometimes Permagloss, became the standard for the rodbuilding world. There was a time when the standard was whatever was the cheapest finish available for a particular batch of rods being produced. The cheapeast was usually some sort of varnish (not spar, just plain varnish) In custom buiilding it wa
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Finally were a gonna do it. A 10 minute Rod Bond has been in the mill for almost a year, and were finallly going to do it. I had it ready about 4 months ago, but had to hold things up and make another change. I made the first formula to industry standards and formulated it to have a 10 minute work life at 75deg.F I forgot the boys in florida and most of the South do their thing in 90 degre
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As an epoxy formulator I agree with Tom Kirkman 100%. The post by Dennis Brown above, is entirely erroneous. I have been formulating epoxies for about 50 years, and have never heard of any international brand of epoxy thinners and doubt if such things exist. The nonsensical statement that thinners get between the molecules of two epoxy components and stops their reaction-- is just exactly t
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Barry: There is no such thing as an OLD epoxy. Epoxies simply do not age. You are merely experiencing what the epoxy was designed to do. Another case of a product not designed for the market it services. Another reason to stick with products that were designed for the rodmaker market. Incidentally the new LS Supreme has a real long pot life -- nearly an hour at room temperatures. M
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The reason the guide foot tunnel is hard to fill properly with no voids, is because air in the tunnel blocks the epoxy from properly wicking into the entire tunnel. The answer to the problem--- fill your tunnels FIRST -- the wrapping of nylon thread around the guide and tunnel is not an air barrier, but it is an air barrier when the epoxy finish is applied to the threads. So fill your tunnels
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Greetings to all The big event is about upon us. I will be leaving for Hi-Point this coming thursday, merely 3 days hence. I wish to announce that we will have at the Trondak booth our new 10min. Rod Bond. It has a working time of 10 minutes at 75 deg. F. I managed to whomp up a large lab batch and packaged it (by hand yet) in miscellaneous jars laying around just waiting to be used for som
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Phil All the epoxy systems packaged for our rodbuilding industry will have the same forgiveness ratio. There will be a very slight deviation from this rule of thumb to be found among the many various brands, but the deviation is so slight that it is impossible to detect it without submitting to very hi tech instrumentation, certainly no mere human observation could detect. In general you h
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Tim The Trondak plant was supposed to have mailed the answer to your problem, but I will post it here as well so all can see You must have a pot of water large enough to hold your reel seat and handle. Fill the pot with water sufficiently to cover the reel seat, and set the pot on the stove. Boil the water -- it must reach boiling temperature which is when the bubbles begin to form. A m
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I'm with Tom in principle but I must take some exceptions with a few of the details since I do this type of repair quite often and have seen both success and failure. Parafin or any wax is not sufficient to keep a good epoxy (Rodbond) from adhering to the waxed surface. I have learned to use Ferrule Lube as a mold release and it never fails to release. This type of split is usually caused b
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Matt There is no shelf life on Rod Bond, which is true of most epoxy systems. Check the epoxy side ( the white colored one) to make sure it is not crystallized. If it is crystalized, soak the jar in hot water for 10/15 minutes, or zap it in the micro wave for a half minute followed by 10 second bursts until it is creamy again. It is not hurt, and should be just as good as the day you bought.
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As Stan has mentioned, the latest LS Supreme is designed to give almost an hr of pot life, yet the turn time and useable time is about the same as always. I was thinking of the myriad of times out there where so many people just have to mix multiple batches to complete a rod. I know its nice to do a guide wrap in 15 to 20 seconds as Tom has stated, but that ability usually takes years of pract
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For whatever its worth, this is the way I do all my short rod/small stream rods. The requests for these rods has far outnumbered the time/desire I have to build them. Start with a fast action 9ft, 4,5 or 6wt graphite fly rod of which there are many available today, in all price ranges. The cheapest blank makes just a as good a rod as do the more costly ones, get a second or a reject if you c
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Bob You have been handed another witches tale of which our little rod building world is so full of. Fast cure epoxies have the same resistance to shear as do the so called slow cure epoxies. The rate of cure of the mixed epoxy resin is controlled mainly by the hardener section which in our industry are mostly amines of one kind or another. The mixed epoxy really doesn't give a tinkers dam
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Gary When room temperature cure epoxies are properly measured and mixed -- there is no a part A and Part B. The two have blended into one cohesive mass and they are simply epoxy. This mass will take some time to harden (cure) but the two cannot possibly be seperated into a part A and part B IT IS NOW A ONE PART COHESIVE MASS Your evaluation of the problem is in error, providing that the m
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Phil I would certainly like to know just how they DEMONSTRATED in that class how a bubble filled epoxy is weaker than a non bubble filled epoxy. I have been trying for years and years to find some method of demonstrating in a class just this same thing. All of my research has told me that you can purposely fill your epoxy's with jillions of bubbles and there is no way on gods green earth you
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LS Supreme was developed specificially to meet the same thin viscosity that normal epoxies exhibit when thinned with Acetone. Rod manufacturers have reasons for thinning their epoxies during application, but these reasons do not concern the custom rod builder. Rod manufacturers thinned epoxy also suffer from a reduced quality of coating which can effect the overall quality of the rod in the y
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Gary Take a look at RodMaker volume 4, issue 4. I wrote a rather lengthy article on doing EXACTLY what you consider so humerous. If you've never done this before, the article may help you get started. There is nothing unusual or humorous about this condition, it is a rather common job, and there is no reason why you shouldn't perform it to the complete satisfaction of your customer. There
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Robert Number 1 and number 3 YES. Emphatically YES. Fiberglass tips on Graphite butt sections make very fine rods. I don't slip one inside of the other though. I make a FIBERGLASS ferrule and slip it over the Graphite butt section and the fiberglass tip section fits into the ferrule. I have made several very fine rods in this manner, mostly spin and casting rods, but a few have been fl
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Greetings to one and all Rejoice, for I bring you tidings of great cheer. The problem of LS Supreme hardener turning brown in the bottle on the dealers shelve, is a thing of the past All the data is in - and the program is complete. Production quantities are being manufactured at this writing. I was bound and determined to maintain ALL the unique properties of LS Supreme while researchin
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Volume 4, issue 4, of Rodmaker is the issue you want. I wrote the article, and part of it deals with exactly what you are trying to do. It isn't difficult, I do it all the time with 100% success. Forget about spigot type, you want to go with over sleeve type like is already there. When you are finished, the rod will have practically the exact same action that it now has as a two piece, and
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Regarding the permeability of epoxy resins---- In general (there are always exceptions to the general rule) epoxy resins that we use in our rod building world are impervious to LIQUID water. They are not impervious to WATER VAPOR. This is why we can strip the guides off of old rods and find the guide feet very corroded. A slice of amine cured epoxy under a microscope lookes like a piece of s
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Joost Enamels are hard and brittle. I've seen them on rods and they always tend to crack and peel in a very short time. Like Tom has stated, the epoxy will darken your threads depending upon the color of the blank. Keep in mind that without a color preserver, the threads tend to take on the color of their background except against white where the color of the thread will remain unchanged.
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Mo Stripping Permagloss finished guides is much easier than stripping epoxy finsihed guides. I've stripped hundreds of them, and it is a pleasure compared to stripping epoxy. Tough as Permagloss may be, all you have to do is cut the threads on top of the guide foot, remove the guide, then the threads will stay intak and simply peel off the rod finish and all. No big lump of epoxy to scrape
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John There are NO amines in the resin. The resin contains epoxides, which combine with the AMINES in the hardener, to produce the cured epoxy resin. Polyamine Blush is certainly not caused by excess amines, as you imply. Polyamine Blush is technically an "Amine Carbamate", and there must be ample amounts of carbon dioxide and water vapor for it to form. This is why more appears
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