I build rods inside the home, in the basement. It's a living space and keep very clean. I notice dust on the rod after the first coat of epoxy making me think some was there before the first coat also. How do I prepare the rod for epoxy to make sure I have not dust or anything that may show up in the finish?

Use a soft brush to knock any dust off. Do not wipe the rod with anything, particularly not a solvent of any kind.

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

Phil,
One thing that works very well is to install a filter near the area where you do your wrapping and finish work. Turn the filter on, a few days before you start your wrapping and finish work and keep it on, until you have the rods dry.

I think that you will find that your dust problem will be largely "filtered away".

A filter - for example:

[www.target.com]

I have a filter similar to the one in the link and I find that it works very very well to keep the airborne dust in the general area at a minimum.

If you live in a home that uses forced air heating, be sure to replace the filter frequently in the furnace. Also, if you are doing some rod work in the normal non heating season, turn the furnace on to fan only at a low speed to keep the air moving through the house and constantly being filtered.

Your problem is caused by dust in the air. Remove the dust in the air, and you will not have dust on your rods.

All of these things really help to minimize air borne dust particles in the general space of your rod building.

Be safe

Phil

I feel your pain. I've an April Air filter in the forced air system plus a humidifier and they help. Have closed the forced air vents near the work bench and that helps. Keep the floor in the work area clean (no cleaning within 24 hours of finishing) and that helps. And I do what Tom and Roger suggest above and that helps too. What helps as much as anything is immediately after applying finish i take a length of heavy aluminum foil a bit longer than the rod, fold it length wise, and place in over the rod sort of like a tent so that dust settles on the foil and not the rod. But the ugly truth is that unless you build a true clean room dedicated to finishing there will be dust in the air.

Phil

Three additional thoughts. Carefully inspect the wraps for dust before finishing. If you see or suepect dust, touch each wrap lightly with a length of blue painters tape. In your zeal to keep the work area clean, DO NOT use Pledge or similar product for dusting the work bench or furniture in the room. Pledge contains silicone and wax that is not compatible with epoxy, and one of the problems worse can dust is silicone contamination.

Also,
If you have a forced air furnace in your home or where you live, and if the ducts and furnace have not been cleaned recently, have them cleaned.

You have to be a bit careful to get a reputable cleaner, but a good cleaner can pull a huge amount of dust and dirt out of a furnace and home heating ducts, which will not then end up on a rod.

Also, if you happen to have an electric leaf blower and if you happen to have windows in the area where you do rod work, try using the blower to clean up the area.

Open the windows and move everything to the side that would be blown away by the leaf blower and start as far as possible away from the work area blowing dust and dirt ahead of you and blow it out of any windows that you can open.

It might sound like cleaning with a sledge hammer, but a leaf blower with a 120 mph wind really will get rid of a lot of dust that might be laying around the general area that can work onto the finish of a fishing rod being built.

Be safe

Donald La Mar Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Phil
>
> Three additional thoughts. Carefully inspect the
> wraps for dust before finishing. If you see or
> suepect dust, touch each wrap lightly with a
> length of blue painters tape. In your zeal to
> keep the work area clean, DO NOT use Pledge or
> similar product for dusting the work bench or
> furniture in the room. Pledge contains silicone
> and wax that is not compatible with epoxy, and one
> of the problems worse can dust is silicone
> contamination.

The above is spot on!

I have tried the brush as Tom suggested with mixed results. In Minnesota, in the winter, the dry air and static electricity causes all kinds of problems. The dust gets brushed, sticks to the brush, then ends up somewhere else.

Now, while the epoxy is in the mixer, I just take a short length of low-tack blue tape and touch each wrap, rotate 1/4 turn, touch again, rotate, touch, etc. Takes a minute to get any dust off all the wraps. My favorite tape is 3M 2080. I also use this tape on decal areas.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

_________________________________________
"Angling is extremely time consuming.
That's sort of the whole point." - Thomas McGuane



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/20/2016 10:54AM by Chuck Mills.

Or if you done have the resources to run a filter for a week or get the ducts cleaned etc, Take a spray bottle on fine mist and mist the air before working . Takes the dust down the floor and keeps it there. Cover the wrap with foil if not applying finish right away.

Freddwhy (Rapt-Ryte)

Also one idea that has not been mentioned is to build yourself a rod drying box. Having a smaller area makes it easier to control the environment inside the box.

We are excited to be offering a new CRB product shortly that will help stop this problem and others................stay tuned.

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Team Mud Hole Custom Tackle
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most of the big box stores have the filters you are looking fore, as well as Sam"s & Costco, most Costco has them in stock at the local shops .

William Sidney
AK

sorry don't need 2 the same,

William Sidney
AK



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/2016 07:46PM by Bill Sidney.

Make sure there not micro bubbles. When every I put to much epoxy on the first coat, it looks like dust. This is actually bubbles in the epoxy. Heat can take some of it away, but not all. I stopped looking for dust particles once I found this out. Now I just need the cats to stay away.

I have used tacky cloths available at hardware/paint stores and have never seen any problems caused by them.

CRB released their Drying Tent today! This should help rod builders to keep the dust, bugs, cat hairs and other foreign objects out of your rod when drying.

[www.mudhole.com]

Regards.
Team Mud Hole Custom Tackle
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Email: sales@mudhole.com
Toll Free Phone #: 1-866-790-RODS (7637)

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