A few years ago I got a great deal on 2 gallons of high strength epoxy. One thing though, the material was in liquid form not paste. Purchased a quantity "colloidal silica" on an online @#$%& and used it to thicken the epoxy into a smooth paste as I mixed it. It worked great. Look around colloidal silica is widely available. BTW, there is booklet available by "The Gougeon Br
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1-2 lb blues make good live bait for cobia and smoker kings. Smaller ones are amberjack candy - use them all the time towers SE of Virginia Beach, VA. I hate them when they chew off expensive tackle. Lou
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You have to get the rubber with the right amount of stretch for this. Rubber products have varying amounts of stretch so you may have to look around a bit. When the rubber material in a flex coat finishing motor (cup) ripped I cut up a piece of rubber automotive tire inner tube to make a piece that would fit the cup. To cut the hole I used a regular 1/2" ratchet socket (referring to nut s
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It is especially bothersome when it creeps up the edge of a hypalon or eva grip - you wind up with a fairly sharp edge around the circumference of the grip where the finish wicked up onto the grip. the finish wicks (creeps) up the edge to a taper naturally then cures. When you squeeze the are with you hand the synthetic grip gives by the cure finish does not. Jay Hunt's suggestion to not touc
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I use a yahoo account for all online registrations. I don't care if I get spammed there, but they have a decent spam filter that is active.. My personal cox email account is never used for registration anywheres and is protected to the point that if a person is not on my e-mail address book they are filtered out as unsolicited. Lou
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Spammers - I don't do business with them. Lou
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No mixing ball. Like Marc Morrone I gave up using a mixing ball and opted to go with a stationary mixing stick on an alligator clip. The advantage is not using the mixing ball, which in my case I was a 50-cal lead musket ball. I toss the mixing stick when its done mixing. An added advantage to using this method is that you can hold the mixing cup absolutely upright and fill to near the top o
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Get a PVC pipe of appropriate diameter and length to accept at least half the length of the rod. Buy two caps to fit. Glue one cap to one end. Fill pipe with white vinegar. First immerse one-half of the rod for a short period of time, remove then immerse the other half. How long is a "short period"? Keep checking the cleaning action of the vinegar on the immersed parts every five mi
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Yes, have used long pieces of panty hose not to apply materials but to run through the guides. Any snags are caught by the panty hose material indicating a need for a closer look. Lou
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I dislike (but stii do it) working with triangular grips for this reason, that they are difficult to taper and retain the original shape. I have used the procedure Tom recommends - using a belt sander clamped in a vise. I place the grip on a piece of wooden pool cue being used as a mandrel or sorts and bring the grip to the belt sander. I feel I have more control controlling a lite grip vs a heav
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Personally I have been waiting 30+ years for a masking tape arbor to come loose. When I first started I used to use twine or cord to make full length arbors to fit under the entire reel seat. I then used scotch tape to make bands for arbors. Then finally went to masking tape. About a year ago I posted some pics here of a rod whose reel seat I had cut away to reveal the bond between the blank and
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Personally I would use another type of epoxy, with maybe a filler, for boat repair. For excellent advice on this topic get the book, "BOOK FIBERGLASS BOAT REPAIR" by Gougeon Brothers. it costs less than five bucks ($5) and is well worth it. It will cover most all topics and projects you might encounter along with materials, characteristics, etc. In it you might also find some ideas
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I make epoxy ramps from thread and rod building finish. I use them mainly in transitions between the reel seat and the blank on rods with flocked shrink tubing. I found that if I apply the finish at this junction without first building up the area with thread that the finish will want to sag more or be so thick dimensionally that it'll be hard to get all the bubbles out. So I make a ramp with thr
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If the thread twist were allowed to go onto the rod as you're wrapping the twisted mess would not materialize. I regularly pull a band of 6-8 threads on a regular basis and sometime even more up to 10-12 threads at once. I was having trouble keeping all those threads from tangling as they went through my hands and fingers. I then tried using a 1" square piece of hook & pile velcro to ke
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I second the TAP Plastic pigment suggestion. I've had great results with their pigments. When I first tried marbling with pigmented finish it was diffusing into the surrounding background color - not good. On the next attempt I let the background color set up for 30 min before applying the tinted finish. This time the colors did not mix and the boundaries between the two colors remained sharp
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Some 15 years ago while browsing through the stock of a surplus store I came across a small 3oz container of reflective glass beads. The beads were as small as large dust particles and in bulk appeared not very reflective. After applying a coat of finish to a 3" section of the rod tip I dusted the material onto the still sticky finish with a salt shaker. In daylight the treated was hardly
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It is a great idea you came up with. Here in Virginia the minimum length for an ocean-run striper is 27". For many trolling rods I have been placing a thin trim band at this spot on the rod so that all an angler has to do is hold the fish against the butt section of the rod to get a measurement. Work and keep angler from fumbling around for the tape measure... I see we have similar luck f
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Making a gaff out of them may be a good idea. Another option is to make them into planer rods for offshore trolling. Lou
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Curiosity was about to kill the cat and I had to go look at these things. The device is a "cement mixer" type that used the weighted bead or small metal rod as the agitator. It also works well with a swizzle stick held stationary by an alligator clip on a flexible goose-neck shaft - it allows you to stand the cup upright for more capacity. The design is not new. I saw the fir
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Phil, what Justin is trying to ensure is that the reel seat is perfectly aligned on the same axis as the guides. I am one of the ones that uses the reel seat foot from a smaller penn international reel, placed and tightened in a reel seat already mounted on the blank, to align the stripper guide to the exact axis as that of the reel seat. The reel seat foot self-centers in the reel seat hoods as
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Before they stopped making it I bought enough Hobby Poxy epoxy enamel two-part paint to last me a lifetime. I use a testors airbrush to spray the material once it's mixed. I have adapted the airbrush to use the air supply from a standard air compressor. It works great. The small 1oz glass cup is perfect for the 1/2oz batches I mix. It doesn't take much paint to coat a blank. Lou
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Apply a first thin wetting coat of finish. Work quickly so finish is as liquid as possible and has not started to gel. Apply this first coat right up to the edges of the thread but preferably not over. DEFINITELY do not go over the edge of thread over the tunnels - tunnels must stay open to vent the air bubble. Quickly turn rod guides down and let it rest like this for 10-15 min. The finish will
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Ditto on what Chris says about crushing cork. Been there done that and the the cork will not hold up to a plate seat working on it day in & day out. Cork rubberized tape holds up well as does urethane rod grip tape. One person I build surf rods for never has a reel seat installed - the rod is grip from butt to a point about where a foregrip would end. He tapes on his plate seat. I kno
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It's an aluminum butt cap. I have not had much luck with removing components bonded with rod bond or kardol paste epoxies, but it is worth a try for you. For something as inexpensive as this aluminum butt cap I would not risk damaging the cork grip or rod though. If it does not work after a try or two I would simply spiral cut it and carefully pry it off. Get another for a clean re-install.
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Ditto on the 6-8 hours. As soon as the finish is tack free I have applied another coat. Lou
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Removing the oil completely will speed the reel up. Of course now you'll have to deal with the issue of lubrication. You can try various oils - not only those thought of as "lubricants" - to find what works best for you. There are already oils on the market specifically designed for reel spool speed control. One oil is named "Rocket Fuel" and comes in the Red, Yellow, and Tou
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What Marc and Burton are saying is true, at least in the Sportscast long distance competitions it is. The narrower the spool the less the mass that needs to be instantly accelerated when the thumb is removed from the spool. The Ambassadeur Ultramag reel releases the level wind mechanism to reduce the drag the level wind would induce on the revolving spool, but this mechanism is removed on tou
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I've used deceiver and clouser minnow flies. Nothing fancy. Stripers are pretty dumb and think with their stomachs - they see something that somewhat resembles food they're going to try to eat it. Lou
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Vinegar works great. Soak the guides in a cup of vinegar for a few minutes then scrub gently. Lou
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Though I do not thin finish myself I was going to post that some do as a matter of technique to increase ease of application. Warming finish thins it too but can dramatically decrease the working time of the material, i.e pot life. Lou
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