Rod Building Epoxy Test

I have taken a long hiatus on assembling (building) rods for a couple of reasons, but a major reason was the last rods did NOT go together well. In summary, the epoxy work was dirty and the rods were not up to my standard. So I decided to take a step back, debug my problems and up my game.

• Step One: I have built a couple of warm boxes to maintain warm temperatures and seal out most air and dust. More about this later.
• Step Two: With the above warm box, where I can achieve a repeatable and controlled environment, I set out to test different colour preservatives and aged epoxies on my traditional thread. I am using aged epoxies to measure the effect of aging – yellowing. Pictures below.
• Step Three: Nylon Thread versus Silk Thread. Study has yet begun.
• Step Four: Experiment with writing inks and epoxy, and this study has started.  (I wish to focus on neat freehand notes and forgo decals).
• Step Five: Practice thread wrapping and “painting on epoxy”.

I am nearly completed with Step 2 and the results follow. Below, you will see what works for me and what did NOT. I do note this may be specific to my environment and technique, and your results may vary. My conclusions on what did not work, does not imply it is a bad product, it is just that it did not work for me.

The Matrix

• 1 – Epoxy: Flexcoat Lite
• 2 – Epoxy: ThreadMaster Lite Build
• 3 – Epoxy: U-40 Dura Gloss LS Supreme
• 4 – Urethane Varnish: U-40 Perma Gloss
• 5 – Epoxy: Mudhole ProKote
• A – Colour Lock: Al’s Color Rite
• B – Colour Lock: U-40 Color Lock
• C – Colour Lock: Flexcoat Color Preserver
• D – Colour Lock: None.

Please note for the test cases below, the application was done with the same batch at the same time. In other words, I applied each colour lock to all test samples at the same time, ditto for the epoxy.

Outstanding: ProKote Epoxy.

The Results, using Silk Thread.

1. Flexcoat Lite: Even and consistent results with the following Color Lock (from left to right)

• Al’s: Applies very well and provides a nice consistent opaque finish. Best results of the lot for a modern finish.
• U-40: Not as consistent, but good still.
• Flex-Coat: Not as opaque as Al’s, but very good.
• None: Nice.

2. ThreadMaster Lite: Application was thinner than Flexcoat, but found it did not always interact well with the colour lock thread, providing some inconsistency of look.

3. U-40 Dura Gloss LS: With my aging, this was by far the darkest epoxy and had the greatest issue with interacting with color locks. Its interaction with color locks may change with the thread (how the thread absords the colour lock), but given its dark colouration (though barely visible if applied thin) and colour lock issues, I will avoid this epoxy for rod building in the future.

4. U-40 Urethane Varnish: This is new to me and a finish I have been considering for traditional look rods, such as bamboo or fiberglass. It applies very well and thin (thus requires the best wraps). But it reacted very badly with the U-40 Color Lock (not so with the others).

Urethane Varnish have limited self-life and should be kept dark, but once harden is durable and does not yellow.

Please note the finish on the no colour lock test case is fine, and I will attribute the poor image as a function of the image processing to move it into a 700 wide pixel JPG image.

5. Mudhole ProKote: A fine finish that takes a little longer than the others to set, but also recommended.

Note this test was performed and documented at a later date from the previous four, so there will be some differences in application technqiue and photographs.

Though, I applied the colour-lock 4 times, I am seeing bleed-through. And though, it is more often seen with U-40, there is evidence above with Flexcoat.  So now I am left to postulate the issues are in application method (brush, number of times) or other unknown variable.

Test Round 1 Conclusions:

For a Modern Finish > FlexCoat Lite with either Flexcoat Color Preserver or Al’s Color Rite. Of the two colour locks, I preferred applying Al’s for ease of application and greater opaqucity.

Mudhole ProKote is a fine alternative to Flexcoat Lite.

For a classic finish: U-40 Urethane Finish is very thin (requires your best wraps), applies well and finishes nicely. Use with no colour lock or Al’s Color Rite.

I will no longer use the U-40 Dura-Gloss for rob-building finishes given it is the darkest epoxy that I had after aging, and though the results with ThreadMaster are fine, I will prefer the handling of ProKote. (I may continue to experiment with ThreadMaster.) (There are many people who have good results with all of the materials I have tested with, so this is not discrediting any product, but just reflects my results with my techniques with my environment).

Next Steps:

Limit my testing to the following materials.

• Modern Finish Epoxy: Flexcoat Lite and Mudhole ProKote
  • Investigate issues with Flexcoat’s Colour Lock, but Al’s is the standard.
• Traditional Finish:  U-40 Urethane Varnish
  • Test on a white blank.

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