Tuna Fishing Rod Blank Preparation for Building

Tuna Fishing Rod Blank Preparation for Building

When building a tuna or shark fishing rod or any rod, components must be glued or epoxied to the blank. I have read many threads on forums about how people do this and I'd like to document how I do and why.

A surface must be prep'd before applying a glue or adhesive in order to provide the best bond between the 2 surfaces. There are 2 requirements that I feel are most important. They are a clean surface and a roughened texture. Let's talk about these 2.

Clean Surface

To provide the best adhesion between 2 surfaces, there must not be any contaminants or foreign materials like oils, dust, dirt, water, soap, or other chemicals on the rod blank or component. Ideally you only want the rod blank material, the rod component and epoxy and no other materials or chemicals in between.

Handling the rod blank with your hands will leave oil, moisture, salt, etc. on the rod blank surface. This will effect the epoxy bond. So the ideal cleaner would be a liquid that will remove all contaminants and then evaporate and leave zero residue. Is there such a cleaner? Not perfect but the best you can find is Isopropyl Alcohol. It does evaporate very well and leaves nothing behind that will effect the epoxy bond.

My recommendation and this is what I practice when building tuna and shark fishing rods is to use Isopropyl Alcohol to clean the rod areas and the component that will be bonded with epoxy right before applying the epoxy. If you wait several hours, dust will settle from the air and cover the rod blank surface. I clean, wait 5 minutes or so then mix the epoxy and apply. I know of no better process or cleaners for rod building. Although 150 proof Vodka may work too.

Preparing the Rod Blank Surface.

Preparing any surface for adhesive is very important. You want the surfaces to have a rough texture in order to give the epoxy something to grip or flow into. A roughened surface provides many scratches or tiny groves for the epoxy to flow into and adhere to.

Don't use sandpaper...it's too coarse. I recommend and use medium or light Scotchbrite. It's abrasive but more gentle than sandpaper. It will no gouge the rod blank surface and go too deep. Scotchbrite is awesome.

I mark the area where I'm going to epoxy a component on and then use the Scotchbrite pad on that area and give it a good sanding. You can see when you have prepared it enough because it will now have a dull appearance instead of a shiny rod blank. It will not feel smooth any more. This will provide the perfect surface for adhesive.

Scotchbrite it first and the clean with Isopropyl Alcohol. Now you're ready for epoxy.