i just finished my first butt wrap and its crater city.. from what i have read, the wrap is contaminated.
two possibilities: 1) used office depot masking tape to remove lint and fuzz 2) sweat- cratering is worst on hold down wraps and i did them when it was really hot- probably sweated on it (is that a sure bet?)
i am trying to avoid a repeat... any advice is appreciated.
thanks for your patience.
also- is there fix besides taking it back down to the blank?

I doubt the masking tape had much to do with it. Heavy human sweat or hand oils, on the other hand, is always likely to cause problems. Another culprit is silicone. Silicone can travel some distance in the air. If your neighbor "armor alled" his car tires outside your open window that could be a problem. I have also had "fish eyes" created by perfume and colognes worn by persons who stood close to a rod being finished. Whose knows what was in them, but it ruined a nice finish.

You can attempt to clean the finished wrap with alcohol and try a re-coat. I would do that before taking everything down. It is works, great. If not, oh well.

Do a search on this board under "finishing" or "finishes" for a myraid of things that can go wrong and how to prevent most of them.

At least you didn't blame the finish, which is nearly always innocent.

.................

thanks tom

Clay,
Tom's words are 100% correct! It is always a human related variable and not the epoxy itself. I know from my own "experiences". I have found that the cleaner the finishing area is the better. I also wash my hands alot while working on rods. If I take a break or do something else, I always wash up and rinse my hands real well before going back to work. Finishing epoxy will always be a love/hate relationship. Love the way it looks when done right, hate it when there are problems.

good luck.

Tom brought out an interesting point and maybe he or Ralph could answer,just how long will a silcone spray last and contaminate.Many builders are restricted to working in a small confined area,and as is the case will often use this area for other task such as cleaning reels,some use various sprays in the cleaning of the reels is there a safe time to allow for the spray to disapear from the air,and I assume it will last indefinitley on anything that it lands on is this correct, might end a few witch hunts.

Keep your thread in boxes in a drawer. Will keep contaminate off of it and keep the UV away also.

Wipe all of your stuff down with denatured alcohol before using it.

Don't use soap with oils or lanoline to wash your hands. As a safety measure, after you wash your hands, wipe your fingers down with denatured alcohol also. Do this periodically during the wrapping proces.

Wipe your mixing cups, etc. with alcohol before mixing.

Don't spray air freshioners in the house while you are wrapping and finishing.

Don't strip your wrap off yet. Let it cure a couple of days. LIGHTLY scuff it with a CLEAN scuff pad. LIGHTLY, wipe, don't scrub the finish with alcohol, then re-epoxy. I have done it several times and you will be suprised what you can salvage.

Thanks for the help. I definitely have a problem- tried to finish another wrap with same results although to a lesser degree...so I will have to find the culprit.
The first one is so bad that it is hard to believe that anything airborne, short of a direct hit with a spray can, could cause it.
Being new at this, and it being hot weather, I am slow and have handled everything a lot- I am probably the culprit. Just have to start over and be more careful.

Silicone is probably the culprit. Be aware that medical syringes have silicone in them. They cannot be used to measure epoxy. Some brands of epoxy are more forgiving when it comes to contamination. Read the label. Make sure that if you use syringes to measure they were made specifically for that purpose. Those kind of syringes are made without silicone.