I finished the first 2 sections of my first rod and they came out very nicely but when I got to the third section the epoxy finish had begun to thicken to a molassas type consistancy. Stupidly, I continued to apply this batch and made a real mess of one of my 4 sections. I made a new batch of epoxy finish for the fourth section and it came out fine also. Is there any way I can rescue the third section by removing the finish and wraps and starting over or am I stuck with an embarassingly ugly rod?
jw;
The clean up should be easy as the epoxy is still fresh. Use something like a credit card/plastic card to scrape off the epoxy. Be very careful to not nick the blank when cutting off the wraps.
You are not the first nor will you be the last to do this!
We’ve all been there and if anyone says they haven’t they’d also lie about the size fish they catch!!
another way is to soak a coffee filter in rubbing alcohol and simply wipe it off. If you used a credit card to scrape the epoxy off you can clean up any residue with the rubbing alcohol also.
If the epoxy is too hard to scrape off then sanding it down or removing the wrap altogether is the only way to go.
JW,
If you got the epoxy off BEFORE it set up, you don’t have to ‘rewrap’…Just clean the area with alcohol and let it dry, then recoat with fresh finish.
If it did set up, then use a sharp razor blade to cut through the epoxy and thread on top of the guide foot (NOT the rod blank). Thread and epoxy should just peel off rather easily as it hasn’t had sufficient time to reach a solid bond yet. Make sure you get all the epoxy off, but don’t use sandpaper, scrape it off carefully with a blade. Just rewrap the guides and you’ll never be able to tell you had the initial problem.
As Jack noted, we’ve ALL done this at least a time or two. Luckily it’s an easy fix.
Buddy
I’ve also been caught by using epoxy past it’s ‘workable’ time, or made the mistake of touching an almost dry wrap to se if it was set, only to leave an ugly fingerprint.
I suggest two solutions…
-
Heating up a semi-cured wrap with a hair dryer or heat gun will liquify the epoxy and restore the smooth finish. Be careful, too much heat and the epoxy will run right off the rod!
-
I always place some of the left over epoxy finish on a post-it note when I’m done with the wraps. This removes the temptation to touch the rod to check for ‘done’ - now I can touch the post-it and leave the rod alone.
A heat gun can also be used to soften epoxy and aid in the removeal of a wrap that doesn’t meet your standards.