Wooden butts??

[84mick]

I got a 14ft fiberglass rod from a work mate and am in the process of changing the wooden butt because it is worn away and has large cracks through it. I decided to get the new butt made longer cause I cant seem to cast to well with the Alvey rods.

I'm just curious on what finish I should use?? I'm after a clear gloss but dont know what will and wont last in sand, salt water etc
Also I have some AV515 adhesive glue (highly water resistant D4 classification) at home, will this be suitable to glue the butt to the rod?

Tomorrow after work I will take a few more pics of the rod to ID it and hopefully get some kind of an idea for the price of new guides etc.

Cheers, Mick.

[oldboot]

Quite possibly the best choice would be marine epoxy such as west system or boat coat used a sealer with a marine varnish over to provide UV stability.

cheers

[84mick]

Thanks oldboot, I'll give it a try.

Cheers, Mick.

[dog tooth]

another option is to coat it in fiberglass resin, which is clear
or flow coat which can be coloured

this finish would be very durable

[oldboot]

polyester resin, that is the resin most commonly used with fibreglass and is in gelcoat and flowcoat.... does not bond and penetrate into timber very well at all.
in addition it is micro porous and the more you thin it in a vain attempt to make it penetrate the more porous it gets.

The modern marine epoxies on the other hand do penetrate very well and require no thinning, they are also completly impervious and inert once cured....they are also much harder than poly.

One of my paralell interests is woodwork and woodturning......some of the blokes are trying all sorts of things will all sorts of resins.... polyester is very good for casting and imbedding..... but even with fairly open structures you have to resort to vacume or preasure to get satisfactory impregnation.

If you are going to use epoxy you need to be prepared for a "significant process"

If I was doing a rod but...I would be turning it very close to finish... coating it with epoxy then re giving it a very fine finish cut with the appropriate tools.... then coating it again....and giving a very very fine cut...maybe a light scrape..... sand in the lathe then go some marine varnish over.....you could end up with a fabulous looking piece that was hard as nails......Oh don;t let the epoxy harden all the way off or you will have hard work finishing and plenty of tool sharpening.

Another alternative is "hard shelac"......you can get very good impregnation with thin hard shelac.....and it is far more durable than standard shelac.

If you want to be a bit lasy and more conventional... several coats of marine varnish comes up well.....run the first 2 coats realy thin.

cheers

[rockfisho]

go for some marine epoxy resin for timber as oldboot suggested. Afterall that stuff is specificially designed for harsh the salt and surf.

cheers

Owen

[Mark Fisher]

Try Tru Oil gun stock oil. I use about 10-12 coats, rubbing lightly in between with fine steel wool. The finish comes up just like epoxy but has a far better feel in the handle. If you damage it, just rub it back slightly and re-coat. Great finish for all rods with a wooden handle or cork.

Regards
Outback

[tunaticer]

As Mark Fisher said, Tru-Oil is a good product that would suit this project.

Another alternative is to oil the timber heavily to avoid moisture absorbtion in the future and swelling and splitting the rod. I have had 2 rods with timber sand spears swell and split the bottom of the blanks.

Jack.