I just had a new rod shipped to me and there is a little bit of epoxy inside one of the guides. Is this something that I need to worry about? They are micro guides so I am uneasy about putting a flame so close to the blank.

Also the tip is slightly misaligned. Can I just heat up the tip and realign it?

Epoxy in the guide ring can be removed with an exacto knife or small drill bit twisted by hand.  Realignment of the tip, unless it's terrible, it won't affect anything.  There's a good chance it's epoxied on instead of hot melt, so it won't move.  If it is on with hot melt,  there's a good chance you'll booger up the decorative wrap behind the tip by heating it up.  I hope you could follow that, I'm not good at explaining stuff sometimes. 

Ok thank you for the info. I'll leave the tip as is. I'll try and take off the extra epoxy as you suggested.

48 minutes ago, georgeyew said:

Ok thank you for the info. I'll leave the tip as is. I'll try and take off the extra epoxy as you suggested.

A little gentle heat from a hair dryer may help soften the finish in the guide and make removal easier too.

All done. I just took a little razor blade and scraped lightly under the epoxy to get it off. I ran a q-tip through the guide afterward to make sure I didn't nick it accidentally. It looks clean and smooth now. Thanks!!