Lots of ways to skin a fish and none of them are wrong if it works for you.

It is wrong to give advice that might fail a blank, purporting to have data to support it, then not providing data. I'll stick with St Croix's advice and be careful to not take a blank to temps in what they call the "danger zone." Of course one big problem is knowing what the temp of the blank is while one is using heat sources well above the "danger zone."

Manufacturers of adhesives, including epoxies "have" the data, not me. You do not have to trust data I cite or require me to produce more. That's what internet searches are for - so you can be a rod builder and "do it yourself".

I think the only time one runs into the danger zone is when the tip top is epoxied on and you try to remove it. It takes more time and heat to break the epoxy bond. This is one of the reasons I never epoxy a tip top in place. Never had a problem removing tip tops mounted with hot melt adhesive.

Michael Danek Wrote:
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> It is wrong to give advice that might fail a
> blank, purporting to have data to support it, then
> not providing data. I'll stick with St Croix's
> advice and be careful to not take a blank to temps
> in what they call the "danger zone." Of course
> one big problem is knowing what the temp of the
> blank is while one is using heat sources well
> above the "danger zone."

I'm thinking if I was unsure of my method, they make temp sticks that may or may not be of value to someone. My opinion is many overthink this and if you have never had a failure with your method, well just keep on doing it that way there is no right or wrong if it works for you and you're not messing up blanks.

Phil Ewanicki Wrote:
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> Manufacturers of adhesives, including epoxies
> "have" the data, not me. You do not have to trust
> data I cite or require me to produce more. That's
> what internet searches are for - so you can be a
> rod builder and "do it yourself".

It is not the adhesive "data" I am concerned about, it is the "data" that supports taking a blank up to about 500 degrees. You have presented no data to support that.

Norman Miller Wrote:
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> I think the only time one runs into the danger
> zone is when the tip top is epoxied on and you try
> to remove it. It takes more time and heat to break
> the epoxy bond. This is one of the reasons I never
> epoxy a tip top in place. Never had a problem
> removing tip tops mounted with hot melt adhesive.

Totally correct!