Mark... You want to stick with the 50/50 formula. I have found that any variation from the manufacturers' recommended mix ends up funky. The epoxy-ing (is that a word?) of the wraps is probably the most labor intensive part of building a rod but taking your time to get a good mix is critical. Here's what Art Scheck, author of Fly Rod Building Made Easy (sic) has to say about mixing of two-part finishes:
"A number of anglers have told me about having horrible problems with two-part finishes that remained tacky for days or simply failed to cure. Most such tragedies are caused by improper mixing. You must combine exactly even amounts of both parts. Then you must mix the two parts very thoroughly in the right type of container and with the right implement. Most finishes can absorb contaminants from paper, plastic, and wood, and those contaminants can keep the stuff from curing properly. It's best... to use the graduated syringes made of measuring epoxies. Most supply houses sell U-40 or Flex Coat syringes, and both U-40 and Flex Coat make finishing kits that come with them. These tools take the guesswork out of mixing a finish. You draw exactly the same volume of each part into the syringes - resin in one and hardener in the other - and then squirt the goo into the mixing vessel...." The gist of Mr. Scheck's recommended approach is keep with equal amounts of resin and hardener and to use some sort of metal mixing vessel that won't interact with the goo. I use jar lids lined with heavy duty aluminum foil, shiny side up. As to the tip top hot glue question, I know alot of builders have no problem with the hot glue but I have so I use Devcon 5-Minute epoxy for securing the tip top to the rod tip. A couple of tips that I used hot glue on failed while none have that I used the 5-minute goo with. Anyway, hope this helps By the by... whatcha building? Steve Cole Totten Inlet ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Steudel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 4:54 PM Subject: Rod building: epoxy mixture > So I've always been told, make sure you get your mixtures exactly half and > half when you are making the epoxy coating for your rod. So I labor with > synringes and try and get them as equal as possible. Then it's off to bed > and hope that I got the mixtures right. SO my questions is, if I want to > make sure that the epoxy hardens correctly, could I add just a smidgen more > hardner? The downside that I see, is that I'd probably have to make more > batches of epoxy, as the mixture would harden faster due to the extra > hardner. Anything else that I'm not thinking of? > > Mark >
