Wrap a guide and have it fish ready in 10 minutes? Including wrapping time!

Equipment Rod Building: Cane and Graphite
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While at the Denver Fly Fishing Show last Saturday, I got a chance to talk with Brian of Clear Cure Goo. A while back, he had been working on a version of CCG to use as a rod finish but had set it aside for a while. After I talked with him a bit, he handed me a setup to try out. Over the last 2 or 3 days, I have done some experimenting with this and it shows promise. There are some issues to work out and I am not really sure if it is my technique or a problem with the product but I wanted to let you folks in on what I have found so far.

Here is the setup. LED UV flashlight for curing and a 15 ml bottle of CCG Hydro. The bottle has an application brush in the cap that works just fine for our purposes.

The first wraps I am going to show you were done without CP and without a turner or dryer. After doing these, I did use a turner and like the results better. The first picture has bright yellow green Prowrap nylon and the second is white silk. As you can see, the Hydro does not penetrate the thread quite like varnish or other common rod finishes. I am not sure if this is due to not letting it have time to penetrate or not. I applied finish and cured with the UV flashlight. 3 coats, about 2 minutes total time. Yep. 2 minutes for a finished and cured wrap.

The next picture shows wraps of olive Gudebrod with bronze metallic tipping. This was done on a turner. Finish was applied and I moved to another wrap, allowing the finish time to penetrate and level before curing. The CCG Hydro is very thin and watery in consistency but takes very little to do the job. This is 2 coats. I cured a bit longer, too. I still need to work on application technique a bit. With the prduct being so thin and watery, it is easy to get too much on as can be seen where the guide starts to rise from the blank. Penetration was much more even as was the resulting color.

One adverse thing I am noticing is that the wrap has a bit of an oily feel to it after curing. Brian said to let it set for 2 or 3 hours and that would go away, but that isn’t happening for me. The Hydro is supposed to be a tack free product according to the CCG website. On other product that is not tack free, it is suggested to either wipe the stuff down with a bit of alcohol or top coat with Sally Hanson’s Hard As Nails. I wiped the wraps above with alcohol between coats and it seemed to take almost all of the oily feel away. As you can see, I had a bit of a lint problem but that can easily be worked out and prevented. I have yet to see what a day in the sun will do for curing, too.

I have done the one section on this rod so far. As I said, there is technique to be worked out but I see promise to this.

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It will be interesting to read more feed back from others about UV activated glue being used for rod building. Some questions I would have are: how long has the product been used for this application? Does the product have a durability record on fly rods? Can it handle the the demands put on rod flex and the elements? Is the glue too hard for are application? What is the tensile strength? what is the level of water absorbtion? How well will it hold up to lotions and suntan lotion?
Kevin thank you for sharing this with us and please keep us informed

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This particular product was developed or was being developed for this purpose. Not being a rod builder, Brian halted development for a while. This may not be the last formulation of the product. So, as far as I am aware, this rod I am doing now is the first to be done with it.

Those of us that have removed a wrap know that most epoxy will remove pretty cleanly from the blank with not much effort. If anything, this is easier. It came off cleanly for me slightly easier than cured epoxy would. The rod will be fished to see if this stuff can handle the flex. That was supposed to be built into it at this point. There is a lot of testing to be done yet. Technique for application needs to be worked on as well and the formulation may need to be tweaked.

There are things I don’t like but are they things that can be overcome with technique rather than reformulating? We’ll see.

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It should be noted that there are two types of Clear Cure Goo in different thicknesses.

The regular Clear Cure Goo cures with a slightly tacky surface. Then there are the no tack formulations of which the Hydo is the thinnest and closest to water in consistency.

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I found a way around the oily feel. Once things are cured and have set for a couple of hours, I wipe the wraps down with rubbing alcohol. That takes the oily feel away.

I have the rod wrapped but have a few little details to attend to before taking it out and fishing it to see how things hold up. Everything looks good so far, though.

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Just curious if you have any further thoughts on using this product for the wraps. Any findings from your field testing?

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I finished out the rod and actually sold it. I think this is fine for quick repairs but it is way too expensive for regular building purposes.