I need to extend some blanks in the grip section. I have read and understand the article in RM about extending the grips.
The artcle suggests placing the "sleeve" or extension part OVER the exisiting butt part of the blank. It goes on to explain how to build up the blank to make a tight fit with the piece of extension.
OK, got that. But I am going to extend a blank that already has a butt grip on it. In otherwords I have to strip off the existing cork, which I did. That leaves quite a bit of dried epoxy on the blank grip part. Even if I carefully grind/sand down some of the big lumps of epoxy I am not going to get a smooth surface without taking off some of the original blank, which is something I don't want to do.

If I was to put the extension piece OVER this part of the blank, there would be no way to build up the blank so there is a TIGHT, CENTERED, fit with the extension piece. Because it can't be centered, not even close, when I go to glue/epoxy/clamp on the new cork rings to turn it down I am going to have a mess that will never come out straight with the part of the old grip that I left on.

Can I, without worring about the extension failing, put the extension piece in the INSIDE of the blank? Then using cork or foam arbors make a tight fit between the outside of the extension piece and inside of the blank? Let's say I am using aluminum tubing for the extension. Will this hold up on something the size of a musky rod?

Reel anglers don't feel sorry for live bait,
Thanks,


Buzz Butters

Without worrying about the extension failing? No, probably not. In many cases and on rods such as you mention, inserting an extension into the butt section will work fine, but it will never be as sound, structurally, as the oversleeve. How suspect it might be really depends on the blank you're extending, the piece you insert (the extension), the length of the extension, the forces expected and how well you perform the task. I'd say you have a good chance of pulling this off, but I also think you can clean up your blank better than you think - most epoxy can be popped off with a little effort.


........

Buzz,
I assume that you do not want to use an external piece because you do not want to remove the guides, reel seat, and fore cork.
There is no problem using an extension that goes in side the blank but I would not use an aluminum tube. I would try to get a piece of an old graphite blank to use. You want a piece that is at least as stiff as the butt section of the rod.

Tom,
You are a faster typist than I am.

Buzz,

I am by no means an experienced builder, but I have done several extensions on surf rod butts by using scrap sections of graphite rod inserted up into the rod butt to be extended. Did it this way for the same reasons you mention. I did so by making sure there would be a tight fit, several inches, say 4 to 6 inches for a surf rod, of overlap between the rod sections. I plugged the top (smaller) end of the scrap graphite rod to be used for the extension so the epoxy (I will mention in a minute) will stay put up in the rod. I then used enough 30 minute epoxy so that I could quickly pour it into the inside of existing rod butt, then insert the extension piece of scrap graphite rod (with the plug glued in the top already) tightly up into the exisiting rod butt. I immediately use making tape to secure the two together so that the extension cannot slide out. I then set the rod quickly in vertical position ( i leave it this way until the epoxy is cured) so that the epoxy can run down and completely fill all of the space up inside of and between the two overlapping rod sections. To determine how much epoxy to used, I just do a quick volume calculation to make sure I mix up a little more than enough epoxy so that the entire "interface" or overlapping plug section up inside of the rod will be completely "encased" in epoxy.

Once this is all cured, I build up the transition between the two rod sections using iterations of two part epoxy or fiberglass resin and sheet rock tape along with lots of sanding (making sure not to sand the actual rod blanks, but only the 'built up' areas.) When I am finished with this, I have just used cork tape like I would on other surf rods along with a butt cap. They have turned out great and I have casted heavy weights/bait and caught large fish (red drum and sharks) with these setups without any issues (so far!)

Hope this helps!

Scott Hunt

Buzz,
I've done a few extensions from the inside. Like tom said, it depends a lot on the type of rod. The closer the insert is in diamter to the actual main rod the better. However, it's not perfectly necessary. There are many ways and one is to make sure the insert goes in at least to the real seat. Build up the insert at two spots near the top of the insert so there is quite some space from teh butt of the main rod to the top of the insert when the insert is in place. Afer gluing the insert in at those two built up areas, mix up a lot of glue and pour it in to fill up the space. You can use microspheres to aid in this. In testing this method, I've found that not using microspheresmade for a better fix, but the results are so close it's debatable. In breaking tests done on some of the spare blanks I practiced this one, the connections never broke. One thing I will advise is to use nmasking tape to build up the insert at the top because in blanks where the insert was built up with harder materials, the blanks broke at the top of the insert simply because when the rod turned oval, the builkd up of the insert wouldn't conform and caused failure. Hope this helps.

Thanks everyone, that info was a big help.
Buzz

I've also extended several 40# class tuna rods by doing an inside insert, in my instances, I use a 6" piece of graphite golf shaft. I epoxied it into the blank first by creating a dam of sorts with a piece of cloth which i also epoxied in, then epoxied in the 6" piece, then epoxied over the 3" piece sticking out, the extension piece. I both instances, i used a piece of blank to extend the orig that was very close in diameter to the orig. Also need to mention that I had plugged both ends of the graphite plug to keep weight down.
Caught lots of tuna up to 64# with one of the rods last summer. I'm sure it'd work for musky rods but I've been away from Wisc for 40 yrs and can't remember how big they get!

Thanks Jim,
I have caught both and the musky isn't near the fighter a tuna is so I am sure your info will be a big help. If you ever get back here look me up and I will be happy to take you fishing for the "water wolfs"

Buzz

Boy, I am going to pay for that "isn't near the fighter" comment