Help, I've just applied the rod finish to the whippings, half way through it started to go off resulting in the top half of the rod having a thicker first layer than the bottom.
Any tips on stopping it going off so quick? At a rough guess I'd say it started to go in about 15 minutes.

I mixed it in a food grade plastic tub with a pastic stirrer and both were clean. The epoxy was well mixed with few bubbles and completely clear. I held the tub at an angle so the mix was deep, could this have been a mistake?

First of all if you pour the mix on to a sheet of baking foil this will tend to take the heat out of the mix increasing working time. Secondly apply it a lot faster, you should be able to get a coat on all the whippings in far less than 15 mins which is about the limit of the working time anyway. Slap it on and worry about bubbles and other messy bits afterwards.

Alan

Cheers
Ditch the Da Vinci hat and whack it on. I was taking ages over each whipping trying to get it ultra neat.

One other thing you can do is wrap masking tape around the blank equidistant from each whipping, leaving the required gap to the whipping. Take this off straight after you have epoxied the whippings and you will have a nice neat edge which will flow and even out even more. Of course you can't do this with the inside edge of double legged rings

Alan

I also found two other things NOT to do with epoxy.

1). Do not touch it to see if it's dry.

2). Do not rest the blank on newspaper when you know it's very tacky (see 1).

Zooropa, decided to take them off and redo them as you suggested as I've got some big lumps in the top 3 whippings (it was like icing a cake by this time).

Thanks for the tips fellas, now where's that razor blade.

....that my birthday is only a rod build away, hehehehehe

I have similar problems sticking everything to everything just varnishing buzzers at the moment

one thing that i find helps is to slap a rough layer on, then just lightly heat it with a lighter whilst the rod is turning in the dryer - the epoxy thins and flows better and self levels- not too much heat or it burns!!

It is almost impossible not to touch epoxy when you 'know' that it is still tacky. I try to avoid the temptation by putting a spot of mix on an old tile. When that is dry I am allowed to touch the rod!

I could always leave the fingerprint in there and call it biometric security.

Top 3 sections stripped and re whipped and a quick trip to Chester for more epoxy. Heated it with a hair dryer in the tubes, mixed it well and slapped it on. Much better , thanks for all the tips they worked a treat. Just the second coat to do tomorrow and the stealth fighter is finished and ready to play on the Dee tribs.

It's a Hook and Hackle Tradition complete kit including a tapered reamer for the cork. Eye feet were ready ground making it a simple job of putting it together. Based on a Pacific Bay Tradition 2 blank 7'9" 4 section #3. Best thing was the price............$65

http://www.mailordercentral.com/hook...cts.asp?dept=8

For a first rod build I found it excellent...............right what's next?