Hello All,

Got a little bit of a strange one here.....I have a customer who is unable to take apart his two piece rod. It wouldn't be a big deal, but the rod is 13' long. I told him everything that I know.....pulling apart with the rod behind the legs, warm/hot water, low setting with hair dryer, etc. He has had the rod indoors for a week now and it still won't come apart. He is going to try "freezing" it by leaving it outside tonight. It's getting down to a toasty 10 degrees, so maybe that will work.

Are there any other ideas I can pass on to him? I know the customer well, so I can safely say nothing was done that should not have been done when the rod was initially assembled. My guess is dampness or condensation was on the rod when it was assembled and when the water dried, it seized up.

Thanks,

Phil Ptak

I think heating will only make it tighter. Colder is better. That contracts everything and has worked for me in the past.

I've held ice cubes around the stuck ferrule and the ferrule released.

Give it a try.

Jeff Shafer

Phil,

This method always works for me:

Place the rod behind your knees with the joint between them. One hand should be on each side of the joint, about 18" apart and on the outside of the knees. Allow the knees to touch your hands. Now, with your knees against your hands, spread your knees apart using the leverage of your leg muscles to pull the joint apart without bending the rod. Strength is greatly increased using your legs and there is much less chance of breaking the ferrule, since you are pulling in line. Hope this works for your friend. Rick L.

Philip,
I would try getting the whole rod fairly warm and keep it warm for at least an hour so as to insure that all parts have had time to warm and expand and then I would try to quickly drop the temperature of only the male portion of the ferrule so that it will quickly contract. I guess that using ice on the male end to drop the temperature as Jeff suggested is probably the safest way. But I think that I would keep a warm towel or rag around the female end and carefully open the valve of a propane or butane tank and let the propane or butane vapor hit the male end of the ferrule. This will very quickly frost up the male end and drop the temperature. Naturally you will want to do this outside with no source, spark or flame, around that might ignite the vapor. You will also want to be sure that you keep you hands out of the vapor unless you want a good case of frost bite.

Philip if it's seized by corrision go to Napa Auto Parts and get a can of PB Blast. It's the best anti-seize product I've seen. Works better that WD40 and other products. Spray onto the ferrules, let sit over night and you should have it. Hope this helps.

I guess I should have asked (or I assumed on my part) if it had metal ferrules.

Hank
On The Rocks Fishing
Wells, ME.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/2005 11:00PM by Milton (Hank) Aldridge.

Have someone hold one end of the rod. Place one of your hands on thier section of rod and one one yours. Have your partner do the same. Now all four of your hands are over laping. Now you should be able to pull it apart. Tried and true remedy from a very good custom rod builder.

I once had a the same kind of repair on a 13 ft. surf rod and tried most of the methods mentioned above. I finally removed the butt cap and used a piece of conduit that would fit the inside diameter of the rod and gently tapped on the conduit to drive the male section out. If the female ferrule of the rod is flared this will not work. Good luck........Ronnie

Part of the problem is that it is hard to get a good grip. Use a rubber pad - like those used to unscrew difficult jar lids. Once you have a better grip on the rod surface , a two or four handed grip should work.
Regards,
Kenneth Prager

I am just wondering, I have used the "placing the rod behind the knees method" when I had problems taking apart a rod with the metal ferrule and it worked because basically the walls of both halves was parallel. Now with the ferrules that are one with the blank itself and the directions from the manufacturer to put together 90 degrees out of alignment and then with an inward LIGHT force and twisting it the final 90 degrees to align and lock the sections together. So has your customer tried the reverse, "twisting with an outward force"?

Kerry