Hi
New guy question. Is it possible to lengthen a blank buy adding a peice of blank to the but? If that makes any sense.

Tom,
Yes it does make sense. It is done very often even by some of the big rod manufacturers. You can accomplish this with either a piece that goes over or inside of the blank. You will want the piece that you add to be at least as stiff as the butt of the rod. The longer that you extend the blank the faster action of the finished rod will tend to be.

Tom, I once added a few inches to the length of a blank at the butt section. I simply hunted thru odd broken and discarded rods until I found a section that fit the butt end the same way a ferrule fits.
I epoxied the extra section in place and proceeded to build my handle over top of the whole affair.
That rod has been one of my constant favourites and is now well over 15 years old. No surprises or breakdowns of any kind in that time. I think the key is to be very meticulous in finding an insert section that fits well. Once you have a solid handle and reel seat over top it ought to be much stronger than any other portion of the rod so failure would be very unlikely. However, I should point out that the amount added was less than half the overall length of the handle. If you are looking to add an amount that is close to the overall length of your handle you will want to be very certain that fit and material compatibilty are exact. If your joint is going to end up in front of the normal grip position the forces exerted will be a lot higher than if the joint is behind the natural grip position.

I was thinking of a piece inside. Will this weeken the blank where the extention ends, do you think? Or make a stress point, If you know what I mean?

That's what I was thinking about the length of the exteition ending under the handle. If it's out too far that would weeken the rod,I would think.

This has been dicussed before but make sure that if you are adding a piece of blank to the inside of your main blank that you clean up the inside real good before you apply the epoxy. I did not do a good enough job and it came apart . It was a cork handle and the cork did not hold it together for long.

Depends on how heavy the rod is and how long of an extention you want to make.
The best way is an oversleve. There is an artical in Tom's mag.
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Hi my name is Dan and I would like to ask is it possible to extend the blank of a SURF SPINNING ROD. If Yes how long can it be extended. THANX

I extended the butt of a Sealine X rod by 9 inches to increase the distance to the reel seat. I used the blank oversleeve method with plenty of epoxy and it has served me for about 8 years now with no problems. C2

It can also be done using an aluminum sleeve. I am presently learning from a local rod builder how to do this on a couple of my rebuild projects. A Horrocks&Ibottsen Spinning rod I am extending by 8" and a boat rod I am extending by 24" using a tapered wooden plug in the blank in conjunction with an aluminum oversleeve.

Derek

Tom go to search and type in Ralp Oquinn and make sure you mark author.and geet Ralph's email address. Ralph is the beast man on the West coast that I know to correctly answer your question.
Good Wraps Bob

Tom,
An extension will not weaken the blank. But if the rod bends all of the way down to the point where the rod gets stiffer due to the extension and blank overlap then stress will be concentrated at that point. If the rod does not bend all of the way down to the end of the extension there is absolutely nothing to worry about. The highest stress on a rod will be where the most strain is and strain is the amount of deflection or bend divided by square inches. If the blank that you are extending has a slow action so that it does bend down into the butt section I would try to find an extension that bent about the same amount as the butt of the rod and I would keep the overlap small to minimize any potential problems. Having said that I do not think that I have ever seen a rod break at the point where the extension ends. Rods usually break higher up on the rod where there is more strain.