Great rod finish explained
"The most beautiful wrap job in the world will look like 3day old dogshit if it's under an ugly coat of finish". -My rod building mentor
I heard my mentor say that about 10 years ago and it really stuck with me. Although I heard the words, I still had MANY issues with my finish that I could not get ironed out. I was at a point where my finish jobs were on par with factory rods and I was content with that. Then the shit hit the fan when I started to read forums that some of the elite rod builders frequent and what I saw blew me away. Builders were churning out rods with finishes that looked like they were encased inside of crystal. I was floored.
This lead me to the pursuit of glass-like finishes. The builders on this site that had me going "WHAT ARE THEY DOING THAT I'M NOOOOT!?" (said in brad pitts voice from the movie Seven when he's screaming "whats in the boooox!?").
Below I will outline what I do to get a relatively flat, clean finish. Let me preface this withthe statement that there are a million ways to skin a cat and what you do may be different and you may have a much better finish than I do, but I hope that this can help some of the beginners.
Things you will need:
Rod Finish - I like Bullards DII Diamond. It is The best and most user friendly finish I have ever used. That's my experience with it and if you have a particular finish that you like, stick with it.
Color Preserver - I use and like good ol' FlexCoat. It looks like elmers glue and smells weird but it works great.
Brushes - I like the FlexCoat disposible brushes. I'm not going to clean a brush multiple times a day when working on rods. Use em and toss em. Also, this plays into the cross-contamination issue where something may get on a brush and affect your finish.
Rod dreyers - anything will work. I have a couple but I would throw the cutest kitten in the world off of a cliff for a 4 or 6 bay rod dryer. The more dryers you have, the better. (being broke sucks)
Rod building mixing cups - yes it helps to use rod building cups. Most plastic pieces are molded with silicone as the release agent. Rod building cups are made without silicone. As most of you know, silicone is the devil in terms of rod finish.
The most valuable piece of rod bulding equipment I own is not my renzetti rod lathe, it's my PacBay epoxy mixer. I love this little bugger because it introduces no bubbles into your finish. Also, I measure my finish, put it in the 2oz cup and then put it in the mixer. While it's mixing I do a once-over on the rod to make sure i dont have any dust bunnies on there and I set up my brushes and paper towels. It's a time saver.
An alcohol lamp
Epoxy syringes
A CLEAN working area to apply finish. It doesnt matter if your finish goes on beautifully if the surface of it looks like the top of your television set (not a single human has a dust-free television set).
The How-To
A good rod finish starts at how things hare handled from the get go. After your grips are on make sure the blank is clean. Use denatured alcohol as some rod blanks cannot withstand acetone (super seekers are one of them, ask me how I know
).
When wrapping the rod, handle the thread as little as possible.
Wash your hands every 30-45mins. Hand oils can and will cause fish-eyes.
Don't show the rod off to your buddies before it's done. Invariably they will have just eaten fried chicken and will finger fuck your guide wraps (again, ask me how i know)
Clean your thread tools. This means your thread clippers, razor blades and burnishing tool.
When measuring your epoxy, BE EXACT! I don't just go to the same mark on each syringe, I go to the same spot on the mark (ie: the top of the 3cc line). If you have a bubble in your syringe, that is empty space so it won't be equal to the other syringe if that one has no bubbles.
Don't be cheap with your rod finish, mix more than you think you need. Lets say for example you are off by just a little bit. You filled to the top of the 1cc line on your resin, and the bottom of the 1cc line on your hardener. Your finish may come out fine but i dont want to risk hours of work on a small, avoidable mistake. To combat this, mix a larger batch of epoxy. If you went to the top of the 3cc line with the resin and to the bottom of the 3cc line with the hardener, it won't affect anything because it is such a smallpercentage of the overall mixture (if mixing two 5gallon buckets of liquid together and being off by one gallon it would be a big deal whereas if you were mixing two olympic sized swimming pools together, 1gallon is negligible).
Set your rod up in your rod turning lathe. Some people use their dryer with a slip-clutch to turn the rod, but ive found that i can get smoother edges with the rod turning at a faster speed. Also, the way I apply finish, as you'll see, the rod isnt turning under power a whole lot.
Your first coat of epoxy should be nothing more than a thread sealer. I put this coat on very thin so that all I am doing is bonding everything in place.
Under power come to the edge of the wrap with your brush and start your lathe spinning. It is important that your rod is centered because if it is not your edge wont be straight.
Once you have the edge done, use HORIZONTAL brush strokes to apply finish the rest of the way. Once you have gotten to the other edge, spin the lathe under power again to get a nice clean edge.
Around the guide feet you'll notice that the epoxy will soak in to the threads and you'll see the threads continuing to show through the finish. Keep applying finish until this stops. You want the channel between the guide foot and the threads to be a solid block of epoxy.
After you have your finish applied, what i like to do is to go back to the first wrap I applied finish to and get the rod spinning under power. While it's spinning, take your alcohol lamp and heat up the epoxy. Don't over heat it. Having the rod spinning will help to prevent this and the spinning will assist in leveling the epoxy. Additionally, the heat will thin the epoxy allowing the small bubbles to escape leaving you with a clear finish.
Transfer the rod to your dryer.
I like to apply my subsequent coats within 48hrs of the previous coat. I feel that the finish layers will bond together rather than on top of each other if done this way.
The 2nd, 3rd and even 4th coat will go on the same way as your first. The only difference is that you should apply the finish more liberally. Make sure the edges of the guide feet are completely encased in finish. No air gaps = no water intrusion.
Again.... HORIZONTAL BRUSH STROKES
Trouble Shooting
My finish is still soft/tacky after 24+ hours, what do I do? I would suggest cutting it off and redoing the rod. It sucks but here is why i recommend it: epoxy is only as strong as what you bond it to. If you put the worlds strongest, eleventy-ton epoxy only on your masking tape bushings under the reel seat, the bond between your reel seat and the blank is only as strong as the masking tape. The same thing applies to rod finish.
I put the finish on, went inside and made a sammich, pooped, read the front page of the newspaper, and when I went back to check on the rod, I had a huge fisheye on my crosswrap! What do I do?. If you plan on putting additional finish coats on, dont worry about it. Just make sure to keep an eye on that area when you do apply your next coat. If it's your final coat, what works for me to get rid of them is this: take your alcohol lamp and warm the epoxy in your cup (without melting the cup), apply a drop of the thinned finish to the fish eye and then heat up the area around where you put the drop. This will thin the finish a bit so that the drop and the epoxy already on the wrap blend together. Also since the epoxy is already getting gummy, it will revert from this thinned state back to being thick before the contaminate can cause a fisheye.
After the finish has fully cured, i have a large, cured bubble that is protruding out from under one of the guide feet, what do I do? Take the tip of your razor blade/exacto knife and cut the top of the bubble off. The next coat of finish will flow inside this void and will be unnoticeable.
The finish over my crosswrap/tigerwrap/scales/etc is lumpy and uneven, what do I do? Get some fine-grit sandpaper and affix it to a sanding block. With the rod spinning in your rod lathe, sand down the high spots while making sure you don't sand down to the threads. Clean the area with acetone on a lint free, clean rag.
I hope this has helped at least one person (lol) and if you guys have any questions or would like to add something, feel free!!
I heard my mentor say that about 10 years ago and it really stuck with me. Although I heard the words, I still had MANY issues with my finish that I could not get ironed out. I was at a point where my finish jobs were on par with factory rods and I was content with that. Then the shit hit the fan when I started to read forums that some of the elite rod builders frequent and what I saw blew me away. Builders were churning out rods with finishes that looked like they were encased inside of crystal. I was floored.
This lead me to the pursuit of glass-like finishes. The builders on this site that had me going "WHAT ARE THEY DOING THAT I'M NOOOOT!?" (said in brad pitts voice from the movie Seven when he's screaming "whats in the boooox!?").
Below I will outline what I do to get a relatively flat, clean finish. Let me preface this withthe statement that there are a million ways to skin a cat and what you do may be different and you may have a much better finish than I do, but I hope that this can help some of the beginners.
Things you will need:
Rod Finish - I like Bullards DII Diamond. It is The best and most user friendly finish I have ever used. That's my experience with it and if you have a particular finish that you like, stick with it.
Color Preserver - I use and like good ol' FlexCoat. It looks like elmers glue and smells weird but it works great.
Brushes - I like the FlexCoat disposible brushes. I'm not going to clean a brush multiple times a day when working on rods. Use em and toss em. Also, this plays into the cross-contamination issue where something may get on a brush and affect your finish.
Rod dreyers - anything will work. I have a couple but I would throw the cutest kitten in the world off of a cliff for a 4 or 6 bay rod dryer. The more dryers you have, the better. (being broke sucks)
Rod building mixing cups - yes it helps to use rod building cups. Most plastic pieces are molded with silicone as the release agent. Rod building cups are made without silicone. As most of you know, silicone is the devil in terms of rod finish.
The most valuable piece of rod bulding equipment I own is not my renzetti rod lathe, it's my PacBay epoxy mixer. I love this little bugger because it introduces no bubbles into your finish. Also, I measure my finish, put it in the 2oz cup and then put it in the mixer. While it's mixing I do a once-over on the rod to make sure i dont have any dust bunnies on there and I set up my brushes and paper towels. It's a time saver.
An alcohol lamp
Epoxy syringes
A CLEAN working area to apply finish. It doesnt matter if your finish goes on beautifully if the surface of it looks like the top of your television set (not a single human has a dust-free television set).
The How-To
A good rod finish starts at how things hare handled from the get go. After your grips are on make sure the blank is clean. Use denatured alcohol as some rod blanks cannot withstand acetone (super seekers are one of them, ask me how I know
).When wrapping the rod, handle the thread as little as possible.
Wash your hands every 30-45mins. Hand oils can and will cause fish-eyes.
Don't show the rod off to your buddies before it's done. Invariably they will have just eaten fried chicken and will finger fuck your guide wraps (again, ask me how i know)
Clean your thread tools. This means your thread clippers, razor blades and burnishing tool.
When measuring your epoxy, BE EXACT! I don't just go to the same mark on each syringe, I go to the same spot on the mark (ie: the top of the 3cc line). If you have a bubble in your syringe, that is empty space so it won't be equal to the other syringe if that one has no bubbles.
Don't be cheap with your rod finish, mix more than you think you need. Lets say for example you are off by just a little bit. You filled to the top of the 1cc line on your resin, and the bottom of the 1cc line on your hardener. Your finish may come out fine but i dont want to risk hours of work on a small, avoidable mistake. To combat this, mix a larger batch of epoxy. If you went to the top of the 3cc line with the resin and to the bottom of the 3cc line with the hardener, it won't affect anything because it is such a smallpercentage of the overall mixture (if mixing two 5gallon buckets of liquid together and being off by one gallon it would be a big deal whereas if you were mixing two olympic sized swimming pools together, 1gallon is negligible).
Set your rod up in your rod turning lathe. Some people use their dryer with a slip-clutch to turn the rod, but ive found that i can get smoother edges with the rod turning at a faster speed. Also, the way I apply finish, as you'll see, the rod isnt turning under power a whole lot.
Your first coat of epoxy should be nothing more than a thread sealer. I put this coat on very thin so that all I am doing is bonding everything in place.
Under power come to the edge of the wrap with your brush and start your lathe spinning. It is important that your rod is centered because if it is not your edge wont be straight.
Once you have the edge done, use HORIZONTAL brush strokes to apply finish the rest of the way. Once you have gotten to the other edge, spin the lathe under power again to get a nice clean edge.
Around the guide feet you'll notice that the epoxy will soak in to the threads and you'll see the threads continuing to show through the finish. Keep applying finish until this stops. You want the channel between the guide foot and the threads to be a solid block of epoxy.
After you have your finish applied, what i like to do is to go back to the first wrap I applied finish to and get the rod spinning under power. While it's spinning, take your alcohol lamp and heat up the epoxy. Don't over heat it. Having the rod spinning will help to prevent this and the spinning will assist in leveling the epoxy. Additionally, the heat will thin the epoxy allowing the small bubbles to escape leaving you with a clear finish.
Transfer the rod to your dryer.
I like to apply my subsequent coats within 48hrs of the previous coat. I feel that the finish layers will bond together rather than on top of each other if done this way.
The 2nd, 3rd and even 4th coat will go on the same way as your first. The only difference is that you should apply the finish more liberally. Make sure the edges of the guide feet are completely encased in finish. No air gaps = no water intrusion.
Again.... HORIZONTAL BRUSH STROKES
Trouble Shooting
My finish is still soft/tacky after 24+ hours, what do I do? I would suggest cutting it off and redoing the rod. It sucks but here is why i recommend it: epoxy is only as strong as what you bond it to. If you put the worlds strongest, eleventy-ton epoxy only on your masking tape bushings under the reel seat, the bond between your reel seat and the blank is only as strong as the masking tape. The same thing applies to rod finish.
I put the finish on, went inside and made a sammich, pooped, read the front page of the newspaper, and when I went back to check on the rod, I had a huge fisheye on my crosswrap! What do I do?. If you plan on putting additional finish coats on, dont worry about it. Just make sure to keep an eye on that area when you do apply your next coat. If it's your final coat, what works for me to get rid of them is this: take your alcohol lamp and warm the epoxy in your cup (without melting the cup), apply a drop of the thinned finish to the fish eye and then heat up the area around where you put the drop. This will thin the finish a bit so that the drop and the epoxy already on the wrap blend together. Also since the epoxy is already getting gummy, it will revert from this thinned state back to being thick before the contaminate can cause a fisheye.
After the finish has fully cured, i have a large, cured bubble that is protruding out from under one of the guide feet, what do I do? Take the tip of your razor blade/exacto knife and cut the top of the bubble off. The next coat of finish will flow inside this void and will be unnoticeable.
The finish over my crosswrap/tigerwrap/scales/etc is lumpy and uneven, what do I do? Get some fine-grit sandpaper and affix it to a sanding block. With the rod spinning in your rod lathe, sand down the high spots while making sure you don't sand down to the threads. Clean the area with acetone on a lint free, clean rag.
I hope this has helped at least one person (lol) and if you guys have any questions or would like to add something, feel free!!
