Aftcote, Rod Wrapping Finish Options

[Jumpus GooDarus]

Well peeps a few have asked me what I'm using in the way of resin & I thought I'd wait for a while B4 giving it the thumbs up or down.

Six months down the track after using it it's a definate up

Whoops wrong smiley that's better

Now for many years like most I was using the Erskin 2 pac but with that stuff what I noticed was that it yellowed pretty quickly & made rods look pretty shabby, alot of the factory made rods on the market esp the cheaper ones use a resin with no elasticity @ all & you've probally heard me comment on that crap stuff as well in some of the rods up in the auction forum.

Came across this AFTCOTE stuff by accident some 6 months back & I've built quite a few rods in that time & so far I really like using it
Super Clear looking @ it from what I've been told some of the commercial rod builders have had a whine about it complaining it very slow curing compared to the Erskin stuff.

For the amatuer rod builder this is ideal as it allows you the chance to take your time & get a very nice finish nothing worse than stuffing up a rod due to a bad resin job.

And as far as those who dont like the longer curing time ??

Well there's a easy way around that as well so it beats me why these pro's are complaing here's a pic of the product & these are old empty bottles I store my sirenges in.



With any 2 part product measuring quantity is very important Dr Jumpus has found the best way to do so is with sirenges you cant go wrong unless of course you get muddled up with bottles.

To eliminate this prob mark one sirenge & one of the bottles in a way you cant go wrong I do this with a piece of masking tape on each the sirenge & bottle after which I get a marking pen & colour both the same colour.

Now once measured & any air bubbles are out of the sirenges inject both parts into your mixing container you can these & sirenges from any fibreglassing store like FGI etc they are very cheap & well worth the effort to obtain them.

Earlier I mentioned that you can speed up the curing proccess !

I do this by putting about 1 inch of boiling water into a container then place my mixing cup into the hot water & that's when I start stiring the 2 parts together & not B4 hand.

Advantages & Logic of doing this is very simple using something flat like a paddle pop stick [which I buy in packs of 50 or so for only around $2 a pack] is I'm not generating any AIR BUBBLES using a brush will generate AIR BUBBLES.

The heat transfer from the hot water will also make the resin very runny as it breaks up it's viscosity which also makes it so much easier to apply rather than having the resin thick & gunky.

Depending on how long you leave the resin it the hot water will determine how quick it will start to tack off & if you're a bit on the slow side when applying the resin ???

Well put it back in hot water again & give it a stir.

Anyways peeps this product is well worth giving a try for those interested in building or repairing their own rods.