Heat Shrink Advice Needed

[Uncle Russ]

Gentlemen:

Having milked the cow dry on advice for using the rail, I am now ready to order some heat shrink for my Calstar 7465H rail rod, and could use some advice as to the material needed. After speaking with a sales rep at Heatshrink - Home I am tentatively considering the following: SCM 1.5 inch diameter (that will shrink down to .5 inch). This is a glue-based product that will provide water and abrasion resistance and some crush-resistance. It requires a heat source of 230 degrees Fahrenheit, which I can get from an industrial heat gun (what we used to call "Russian hair dryers". Linear shrinkage is less than 5 percent. The cost is $7.78 a foot with an 8 foot minimum order. It is alleged to be black and ugly as sin, but the better, even stronger, and prettier stuff goes for $25 bucks a foot with a 10 foot minimum. My questions are as follows:

1. Does anyone have any experience with this material?

2. Does anyone have a material that they prefer for this kind of application?

3. Any comments?

Thanks for any and all advice you may have.

Russ

[Sea Crappie]

Russ,

I looked into this once upon a time and found the following options:

1. 3M Coldshrink: Seems alot of the westcoast guys like this option, it's tough as nails and wears well.

2. Swifty Rod Armor (X grip): Not nearly as tough as the Coldshrink, but looks and feels much better and is easy to cut off and replace if it wears out.

I have a St. Croix 2M79XXXHF that I'm building right now for tuna jigging. I installed "rail rod grips" (a type of ultra tough cork composite) on it fore and aft. These are available from various sources (and obviously this doesn't help your current situation). I just used them because I thought the material looked good and if I did have to lay the rod on the rail it would protect the blank.

Anyway, if you decide rail rodding is for you, I'd look into these materials for a fore-grip. Plus you can cover them w/ Rod Armor or Coldshrink if you want extra protection.

All that said, I don't really use the rail, just some ideas for ya.

[Uncle Russ]

Thank, Crappie. A few months ago I bought a bunch of packs of stuff that looks like the old naughahyde we used on our car seats. It wraps around and makes the handle look like a tennis racket. I tried it last night for the first time and there is no freaking adhesive. Maybe I waited too long.

Anyway, the 3M sounds like a good option. I will research it and where I can find the stuff.

Russ

[Deep_Sea_Gull]

Heat Shrink

I have seen tennis wrap used also...

They are your rods. Customize them as you desire. I have considered cutting the fore grips off some of my rods and replacing them with a triangular cross sectioned grip. I am considering slitting the grip so that I can replace the old without removing the guides and then use a wrap/shrink tube to cover my mods.

I have used the new skin on a surf rod as my bottom grip. I put it on the bare blank.

[peterk814]

id go with the 3m cold shrink wrap

[bunile]

Cold shrink, where can you buy this stuff? I've seen it applied, 1-1/2 minutes and that's preety quick and simple, it un-wraps from the inside and shrinks closed on the rod as the coil inside that is stretching the matl. open is unwound. I don't know how long it will last but maybe 3 years or so, if used on the rail catching heavy fish. !!!This will make the rod fatter for sure !!!, not the cheapest nor the most durable I'd say. But I don't know where to get this stuff, Anyone got some and from where please tell . Thanks!

[gmack]

Here you go. PartsExpress is a very good company to order things from.

Search Results Page

[d-a]

Uncle Russ

here is some

Quick Grip

Flocked Rubber Shrink Tube

d-a

[GanderVA]

Uncle Russ-- Good thread. I have some old rods that I want to spruce up. For a source of shrink tube I am looking at www. mudhole.com. Found some good threads on the west coast forums on how to do it. You can get a heat gun from Harbor Freight for about $10.00. Also, when plannlng how long the shrink tube should be remember it will also shrink along the axis of the rod. There are alot or ways to contour the grip under the wrap. I really like the foregrips on the OTI rods and think I can form the grip with weather stripping under the wrap.

[Uncle Russ]

Thanks, everybody. That is great info and this weekend I will have time to sort through and get something going. In the meantime (hijacking my own thread again but what's new?) I had a real disappointment tonight--the kind of thing that really hurts your confidence. I have three reels spooled up with JB hollow. I have 130 on the 50W, 100 on the ATD12, and 80 on the 665W. I took the reels out in the garage specifically to test the 7-turn surgeons loops that JB recommends for lazy folks like me who don't want to mess with braided loops. I figured if I could get 80 percent out of them, pulling straight off the reel, that would be fine.

On the 130, I got to 65 (50 percent) and quit, just because I didn't want to fall back on my ass and ruin my steel garage shelving with my head. On the 80 pound, I didn't want to pull it off the (to me) delicate 665, so i wound it around the handle of a claw hammer and pulled 60 with that--no problem.

But then... when I began pulling the 100 pound line, disaster struck. The surgeon's loop was fine--every time. But the line itself kept breaking--well below nominal strength. Once it broke at around 50, between the reel and the knot--well before the knot. I stripped off about 15 feet of line, re-tied the loop...and it broke at 35. I examined the reel for any burrs or irregularities. Nothing. Twice more, and each time it broke between 35 and 50. So all confidence is lost in that batch of line. I will call Chark tomorrow and see what they will do--I'm sure it will be fine. But I am either going to have to spool it with 130 (maybe 400 yards?) or 105 YKG Ultra Jigman that I currently have on the SR30. I can't fish with line that repeatedly fails.

The only other time I had problems like this was with a spool full of 65 pound Power Pro. That's when I went to JB.

What's a Mother to do?????

Russ