I have always wondered how much weight thread and epoxy add to a rod. Today while I was cleaning my hobby room I found I found a piece of thread with epoxy, which came from I fly rod have stripped down. The thread is A size and the diameter of the "cylinder" is 7,5mm and the length 4,3 mm. Thickness of the epoxy is fairly normal for a fly rod by my standard, covering the threads and level. The weight is 0.04 gram. For comparison a thin wire chrome Pacific Bay light wire snake guide size 1 is 0,06 gram.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/2017 03:58PM by Terje Bendiksby.

Is that .04 grams per wrap or a total .04 grams for both feet?

Only one feet so if you wrap snake guide where the blank has diameter of 7,5mm or 0.295 of inch the thread will weight will be a total of 0,08 gram or 1,25 grain for a snake guide an half the weight for a single leg. There are many variables how thick you make the epoxy coating or if you like longer wraps, but for my style , where I like to make the wraps as small and light as possible the weight is correct.
Of course towards to the tip the weight of epoxy and thread will be lighter. The epoxy I used was flex coat.

Only one feet so if you wrap snake guide where the blank has diameter of 7,5mm or 0.295 of inch the thread will weight will be a total of 0,08 gram or 1,25 grain for a snake guide an half the weight for a single leg. There are many variables how thick you make the epoxy coating or if you like longer wraps, but for my style , where I like to make the wraps as small and light as possible the weight is correct.
Of course towards to the tip the weight of epoxy and thread will be lighter. The epoxy I used was flex coat.

Terje,
Great reasearch.
But, I always figure that the thread and epoxy weighs just enough to be the perfect weight to hold the guides securely in place.

Good luck

Terje,
Finish weight is a function of blank diameter. Wraps on the tip will be lighter then in the butt.
The finish weight for a double foot guide at the tip will normally be heavier then the weight of the guide.
The next step would be to utilize light wire titanium guides. This will reduce guide weight to .03.
Going to light wire titanium single foot guides will cut finish weight in half.
Concentrate the weight reduction in the tip 30% of the blank length for the greatest gains for the price difference in the guides.
Try it and feel the difference in blank response and sensitivity.

Gene

back many years ago spar varnish was used to seal the wraps on most rods but more so on fly rods as it went on thin and wasn't a heavy coating.
Moving to the present day coatings if it were me doing a build/re build I would use 00 thread and finish with[chemical based ] perma gloss,luma seal or[ water based] rod dancer thread master one ,they work like the old spar varnish but ten times better going on thin they are all easy use and seal the wraps well provide a clear high gloss durable finish with the minimum amount of product and minimum of finish weight when applying it rod turning the same as epoxy you will need at least 2-3 thin coats to achieve a deep looking finished look but that is just my experience with those products

The best day to be alive is always tomorrow !!
Think out side the box when all else fails !!!
Wi.

Hear! Hear!

Speaking of thread and epoxy weight, I have wondered about micro guides vs conventional guides, but have never taken time to weigh things out. The question in my head has always been: Since more micro guides are required for a blank vs conventional guides for the same blank, that means there is more thread and epoxy on the rod if using micro guides, hence, additional weight. So, after all is said and done, how much weight is really saved on a blank by using micro versus conventional guides? Would it be noticeable to the end user? Would it make enough difference in sensitivity that most anglers would ever notice? I realize there are variables as far as what type of guide frame and ring material being used, but comparing apples to apples as much as possible...

Chris - A size 6 KLT guide weighs about the same as 4 size 4.5 KLT guides. Micros builds are definely lighter, and you are not using that many more guides for a KR casting rod micro build vs a NGC casting rod build. For example, 9 to 10 guides total for a 7’ KR cast rod vs 7-8 guides for a NGC rod. Weight savings for a KR micro Spinning rod is even greater when compared to a NGC Spinning rod. The use of PacBay Minima guides as replacements for equivalent KR micro guides yields even greater weight savings. So the use of micro guide yields a noticeably lightener rod than do conventional guides.
Norm

Thanks, Norman. I know it's not much, but I'm still curious how much difference the extra thread and epoxy finish add with the micros. Guess I'll eventually have to do an experiment.