It makes sense that a metal mandral would rust when using Titebond. Titebond is a water based glue and the manderal is metal. Water and oxygen on metal equals rust. No water in any type of epoxy and hence no rust. Take care Roger p.s. As one of the other posts suggested - if using titebond, the use of a non metallic mandral is a good idea.
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p.s. Here is another fellow from Nebraska who has some good ways to prepare Carp for cooking. Yes EarnieFan I do eat Carp. I grew up in Eastern Colorado and when I was a kid we always used Carp as fertilizer in the garden. When I went to college in Nebraska one of my buddies from Omaha invited me home for a weekend. He took me to a fish place on South 24th Street called Joe Tess's. He didn'
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Lee, Ever wonder where the carp came from? Ever wonder if Carp is good to eat? Take a look at the following "history of Carp introduction into the USA" Take care Roger
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Lee, Good points all. Actually, rather than scoff, catch a couple of carp and smoke them. It is rather remarkable how good they actually taste. p.s. Don't tell anyone, but about every other day that I was fishing the mississippi this fall, I would see commercial fishermen bring in boat loads of carp. I talked to the carap fishermen and they indicated that they were netting them along
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Terry, If you check the label on Goo Gone, you will find that one of the principal ingrediants is Goo Gone. I use either, which one happens to be handy. I do think that Goo Gone is a bit less toxic than Xylene. -- Scotty, Xylene can be obtained at any paint or hardware or big box store in the paint department. It is commonly used as a thinner or cleaner for Epoxy paint. That is one
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Scotty, Whenever having a suspect location of contamination, I use Xylene to completely clean the blank with a clean cloth. By using Xylene to wipe down the blank - before wrapping and applying finish - I have solved all of my fish eye problems. Take care Roger
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Jeff, I can be nearly 100% certain that the soft finish was caused by the addition of the acetone to the glue. As the other posts have suggested, generally a very bad idea to thin an epoxy with acetone. It also sounds like (I may have misread) that you actually brushed on acetone to the finish after it was applied????????? If you did this, you certainly have solvent entrapment in the
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Tony, I always use painters tape on the male section of the rod. Obviously you won't be able to push the blanks together as far, with the tape in place compared to no tape. However, I have never had an issue with not being able to remove the blanks, nor have I ever had an issue with the blanks slipping. I think that one of the very first multi section rods that I did, was done with no t
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Eric, If done correctly, you can easily strip a standard rod of all of its finish in about 15 minutes. Just use a heat gun and or hair dryer and several straight edged razor blades. Work on about a 3 -4 inch section of the blank at a time. First slowly rotate the blank, while heating the blank - *gently* with the heat gun. Then, using the razor blade - held at 90 degrees to the blank sc
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Sir: Follow Calvins advice on using the filler. Then, rather than sanding, just wipe the cork down with acetone on a clean rag. The acetone will remove the excess filler, without pulling filler out of the cork, and you will not have any scratches. Take care Roger
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Polo, Just use a straight edged razor blade - held at 90 degrees to the blank. As you work on each section of rod, use a hair dryer or heat gun to slightly heat the blank and finish. If you do use gentle heat, the finish will soften and make removal much easier. Once you have worked over the entire blank removing finish - go over it with finer grads of steel wool to remove any residue. C
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Tom, Thanks for the update. Roger
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Steve, With respect to the blanks. About the only thing you have to worry about with ice rod guides is the size and weight. There is never any casting, and very little line going through the guides, so there is no line wear issues. If you are fishing inside, you can go with smaller guides and not worry about ice buildup. If you are fishing outside, it is a good idea to go with larger gu
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Tom is correct. Let the line do the talking for you. Guide alignment at 0 or 180 degrees is not really the issue. The real issue is to start with line coming off a reel - that in the case of a bait caster runs from side to side - both during cast as well as retreive. Also, after a bit, you want the line that starts on the top of the reel to end up on the bottom of the reel. Also, when
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Morris, Listen to your body. If you are alergic to something - stop using it and never use it again. Your body is saying STOP. Persist, and the body will be punished. It is also possible that you don't have enough ventilation in your work area. Many things that are used to assemble rods have solvents that evaporate of some sort. Many of these solvents are less than optimal for the huma
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Jason, For many years, using sections of blanks have been a very common and effective way to build ice rods. In recent years with the avaiablity of custom "solid" blanks in both Graphite and Fiberglass, many of the ice rods are now being built with solid blanks, rather than tubular or hollow blanks. A couple of advantages both ways. With hollow blanks, the rods will be lighter
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Eric, Generally, the best luck that I have had in such an unfortunate situation is to use a straight edge razor blade to scrape down the epoxy. Use the razor blade at 90 degrees to the blank carefully scraping the epoxy. It is not a bad idea to put a few wraps on each end of the epoxy coating, to avoid the possiblity of having the blade slip and scratch the blank. Work slowly and carefu
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Bill Whenever I refinish, I use the following: 1. Use slight heat and a scraper to remove the bulk of the finish. I generally use a single edge razor blade scraped at 90 degrees to the blank. That way the blade will not catch graphite and peel if up. 2. When the finish is about 80-90% gone I will use progressivly finer grades of sandpaper to finish the job. 3. Normally, I do the sanding o
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Jeff, After coating with CA and letting it set for a day, use a heat gun to go over the CA. If there is any CA that has not completely cured, the heat will KICK the CA and finish the cure. Sand down, and give it another coat. Let sit for another day - kick it with the heat, and sand down. I expect that you will find no more faults in your finish. Take care Roger
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A dremel, or other abrasive grinding wheel will work to cut off the reel seat. Also, a band saw can work well. With a band saw, you can use a thickness bar clamped to the saw bed to keep from running into the blank. If you use an abrasive wheel, you can make a slit nearly through - running full length of the reel seat on two sides of the reel seat. Then, insert a screwdriver into the slit, gi
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Bill, I had similar problems on both the pack bay as a couple of other chucks that I have. I solved the problem, by using sticky back cork tape on the face of the chuck jaws. The cork against the butt of the rod, keeps things from slipping at all. Take care Roger
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Bill, Actually, the blue masking tape is quite different than standard buff colored masking tape. The primary difference is the adhesive on the back of the tape. The blue painters masking tape has a different adhesive, such that it remains slightly tacky (but only slightly) for a long time. The advantage of the blue tape for painting and masking is that you can leave the blue tape on a wa
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Rich, I will run over this morning and chat with Lonnie. I picked up a couple other ones there last week, but didn't look for longer ones at that time. Thanks again. Roger
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Bill, Do you or anyone else have the medium solid carbon ice blanks in 38-42 inch lengths? Thanks much Roger Quite a few requests for "outside" ice rods that the clients would like to be longer than the standard 24,26 or 28 inch "inside" lengths. One can extend a rod, but it is a bit tough to extend these short rods by 10 inches and still have them look right.
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Mark, I am guessing that the reason that the guides are slipping is because the thread is too loose. I am also guessing that the reason that the thread is too loose- if it is not loose on the rest of the guides, is that the blank is moving toward the tensioner as you wrap. To overcome this problem, use a small rod rests, or roller rests which will capture the blank on both sides of the guid
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Snooker, I go over all of the thread wraps with masking tape before finishing. The masking tape seems to remove any necessary contaminants. With respect to thread handling etc. Yes, the fingers and skin do have lots of junk on them. I like to make a point to wash my hands several times a day, when wrapping rods. I also try to minimize the contact of the thread with my fingers. I use
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Does any one have a source for 38-42 inch solid graphite medium action ice rod blanks. I have checked out many sources and can't come up with this blank. Any help would be appreciated. Roger
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Wayne, It is a variable, depending on the rod, but most of the spinning rods that I build have the first rod at a distance of about 17 to 24 inches from the reel. Take care Roger
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Don, Thanks for the update. I did follow it down and found your excellent description. Sorry that I didn't do it earlier. Roger
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Bill, To get a straight cut is trivial with the chop saw. As I said in the post, I have mounted a 1/4 inch by 1/4 inch angled aluminum bar on the saw bed at 90 degrees to the cut off wheel. I simply place the blank, on the saw bed, holding the blank tight to the 1/4 inch backing plate that is at 90 degrees to the wheel. I drop the spinning wheel that is solidly mounted on the bearings a
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