What is the best way to remove epoxy without damaging the paint underneath? I need to relocate some guides and they are not going back on the same place they were on. I would rather not have to repaint the rod.
Forum: rodboard

Customer wants new decal in place of old decal. decal is between rear grip and butt grip. Just wondering what the drawbacks would be to just wrap D thread over old decal, epoxy, and put new decal on top. then epoxy it over. Any help would be appreciated thanks Don.
Forum: rodboard

After almost two years from the time I purchased the components to last night when I thought that I had finally completed the rod, I enthusiastically gave it a good look over this morning only to find that I have a couple of spots adjacent to the guide feet on the first two reduction guides where the epoxy is a little thin. The thread in those spots obviously absorbed the epoxy, but the thread i
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When I was into bike building and metal fabrication I spent so much time cruising forums and blogs of various builders and fabricators and I always fell hardest down the rabbit hole for chronicles of builds. To watch the build progress and read the conversations that happened along the way was amazing. To watch someone's vision unfold over time was a great experience and basically represented fue
Forum: rodboard

I just wrapped a rod yesterday with a Fuji reduction train and a combination of KB and KT running guides. As per the recommendations of many, if not most contributors on this site, I decided to try using locking wraps on the runners. I do not know if I am doing anything wrong or missing something in my application of the wraps, but once completed do not look nearly as tight, neat and almost und
Forum: rodboard

What’s your technique? I’m currently slicing tape about a 1/4 wide and fiddling around trying to get these #5s on.
Forum: rodboard

What is the feeling about using color preserver on wraps? I had heard it weakened them and would not let the epoxy penetrate.
Forum: rodboard

Topic One: Sweeping Guide Feet. * When do you do it, if at all? * What is your technique? Topic Two: Rod Builders Hand Care. * How do you take care of your hands? * Any specific products or procedures you use?
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Whats the best way to remove those annoying thread burrs that occasionally rise up after the first epoxy application? I do my best to trim the thread and most of the time I can get tthe cut to disappear under the wrap, but sometimes my razor cut just doesn't cut the mustard. I've tried to sand them with an emory and slice them off with a razor.
Forum: rodboard

I saw a video of a guy - tournament long distance caster - who wanted to keep his rod as light as possible (to minimize altering the blank's action) and make his guides easy to replace (he breaks quite a few). He used thread color preserver on his thread wraps. That was it. No epoxy. A rod building industry expert in the video endorsed the practice, stating that using color preserver alone was to
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I’m rewrapping an old surf rod for which I had coated the wraps with Clemens Crystal Coat, aka HobbyPoxy. I slogged through removing the guide wraps, but the diamond wrap has been particularly annoying. Any ideas about dissolving the epoxy to make my life easier?
Forum: rodboard

On my last couple of builds there appear to be small pin pricks along the length of the epoxy. Granted my epoxy is a little old at this point but I have never seen this before. They are very tiny but evident when the rod turns under the light. They lessen with each coat. I'm using Flex Coat High Build in my garage in Florida. :-) Any ideas what might be causing this? Thank you.
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I am surprised I never figured this out myself, but a fly rod guru has this tip on his site. If you like to use the nail knot, but have trouble keeping it from unraveling, especially with just two threads, try this. Tighten the knot as much as possible, arrange the threads in good alignment, pull tight again, then DON'T try to cut off the excess thread. Instead, put a very small drop of CP rig
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Before I explain the details of the situation, I’ll say I have done a little research and it seems the main answer is to pull everything off…the epoxy and thread. I’m looking for any possible options to try first before doing that. I put on a first coat of epoxy last night using ProKote original. Mixed well, a few bubbles but no big deal. I applied epoxy to all guides, then onto an inscription
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What type of thread is color preserver required on, and what type Is it not required on? Is it a bad idea to use color preserver on guide wraps, because the epoxy will not penetrate the thread and it is not as strong? Thanks
Forum: rodboard

I just replaced a couple of stripping guides on a fly rod, and they'll work just fine. Building a few rods and following this board, however, has uncovered a little perfectionist streak in me, and I'm not completely happy with the way the they look. So... Removing the old epoxy over the old thread is no problem, but I am having trouble removing and/or smoothing the old epoxy "ramp&
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Sorry if this sounds like a trivial question, but I always find contouring the guide feet in general to be a pain in the neck. On most small guides, I have always used sand paper for the most part...sand paper in one hand and guide in the other. This was usually for fly rod guides. It was still a pain in the neck, but at least the guides had some length to them so you could have some meat to h
Forum: rodboard

Hello fellow rod builders, A customer has given me a shimano slx that needs a new guide on it and I've been having some difficulty trying to match the thread color. I tried a few of the blue fuji threads (I bought NOCP so that could have been my mistake there) and they're not quite as dark as the thread wraps on the rod are. The top thread in the picture is #008 Dark blue and the bottom is #00
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Time to lighten things up during these times. We have all had a major blunder while learning our craft. While in the moment i'm sure we all wanted to break the blank over our knee or send the spool of thread across the room like a 90mph fast ball, but looking back I'm sure we all laughed it off once things got back to going smoothly . I'll start it off. Many moons ago when I started building rod
Forum: rodboard

I have one small spot on a Decal that has repelled epoxy. After searching the forum archives I see many solutions and probable causes. Through knowledge learned here and repetition I have become fairly proficient at finishing, however I still ended up with a small spot. I Think this spot was caused by my warming the area with my Bubble Buster Torch. Everything was great until I used the torch as
Forum: rodboard

Hello, I am stripping an old graphite build and putting on new guides. I'm using single foots so I need to get rid of the finish at least around the guides and I think it would be best to replace it altogether. I see conflicting advice and a video that looks like a very bad idea (essentially scraping it off on a fast turning lathe). From what I can find sanding even a little bit of the graphite o
Forum: rodboard

I found two rods that I had left by a buddy’s house almost 2 years ago when I stopped by to see him today. Both were lower end inexpensive rods that I had bought when I first got into bass fishing. I actually really like the blanks... plus they’d be great as spares, but I figured I’d go ahead and upgrade the components and put my own personal touch on them. One is a 7’ medium/fast Halo StarLite a
Forum: rodboard

My grandson found a custom rod washed up on the Lake Michigan beach earlier this spring. I know the guy who built the rod, but he's no longer in the area. The reel, guide wraps, and EVA grips were trashed, but the guides, reel seat, and blank are in good shape. The blank is a Forecast fly blank that has been made into an ultralight spinning rod. The blank was a dark blue, but the builder had remo
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I'm repairing an old graphite 9' 9wt. two piece fly rod for a friend. He has used the rod surf fishing for many, many years. The salt finally damaged the second stripping guide so much---about a size 16 I think--it simply fell apart. But in removing existing epoxy, thread and guide feet, I had to use quite a bit of heat. So I'm concerned about having weakened the rod, although it appears
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I am replacing guides on a heavy duty saltwater rod and the epoxy is thick, is there a easier way to break it down, Or am I I just stuck cutting with a razor blade?
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Good Morning Guys and Girls! I guess I'm going to start a food fight. Once again I've been struggling with my finishes. I was just so frustrated and just genuinely puzzled. Either my skills have diminished over the decades, which I'm sure they have, or things have really changed. Let me start by detailing how I performed my finishing routine for the first 3 decades I built custom rods. Up unti
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Simple question. Does anyone make a decent metallic thread, strength wise. I used to use metallic thread in the past for nearly all my guide wraps. I took a break from building right about the time Gudebrod went out of the rod thread business. Been back in the game for about two years. I have used some of the current metallic offerings for trim wraps. It is acceptable for that. But I would not ev
Forum: rodboard

Who makes the best Color Preserver as the best color that I can get.
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Tom Harder’s recent topic,”U-40 Dura Gloss Supreme” described the unfortunate evils of contamination while building a rod and the resultant nightmare. After some pondering, his ordeal has prompted me to offer all of you some lessons-learned through my observations and experience in the composite and auto body industries in hopes of minimizing, hopefully eliminating the possibility of such occurri
Forum: rodboard

Those of you with experience with U-40 Dura Gloss LS Supreme (not high build), have any of you had problems with it leveling? I'm having considerable problems with it and I find it very strange. I just switched over from RodDancer ThreadMaster and, of course, I used FlexCoat for the prior 25 years. I bought this Dura Gloss LS Supreme last Fall. Maybe it's this given 8 ounce package I bought, b
Forum: rodboard