This past Sunday, while landing a fish, I mistakenly forgot to let a little tension out on the line and flex the tip of my coveted 3PC 13'6" Raven Float Rod (sniffle, sniffle) enough that the top piece broke in half. Here is what I did to "fix" the problem. My hopes are that you guys won't dog on me about how it'll never hold up. (fingers crossed)

I cut the broken ends down with a sharp cut off disc on the dremel and found a spare piece of graphite blank that would fit snuggley inside the broken pieces. I sanded the blank insert and used it to "shovel" in as much 5 minute epoxy as I felt would be necessart fill and hold it inside securely.

I put it in to just below snug on both broken pieces and then got the broken pieces (after cutting them well) to fit one over the other. All three pieces dried and were solid. I wrapped over the ends about 4 inches total (2" on both sides)of the brake and then saturated the wrap with flexcoat lite, but only enough to wet the wrap on the first round. I then rewraped overtop of that an additional wrap of thread and recoated. I have one more coat to apply to "finish" the repair. I should note that the ends of the graphite insert both fall under a wrap on a guide. So the pressure created should be stabilized by having a wrap on both ends where the torque is bending the rod inside.

Ok feel free to blast my repair.

Domenic

Rod bond???

According to the repair article (in library at the top) by Ralph O'Quinn, it states to use a lower modulus inner sleeve. Lets hope your repair doesn't fail. Good Luck!!

Bill in WV

I'm not familiar with your particular rod, but it sounds like you made a very strong repair. Perhaps too strong though. How much flex does the rod normally have in that area and how long was your insert? If you haven't put the guide on yet, you'll be stiffening it up even more after all the thread.

Give it a really good static test before you go fishing and see what you think. Better to have it fail in the yard than on the water.

Domenic. Not a bad repair because the only bad repair is no repair. I would have used a fiberglass sleeve to go inside of the two pieces instead of graphite. The reason is that the graphite sleeve may be less flexible than the original graphite. Mick stated that you should static test the rod and that is because you will see if the rod gets a flat spot on the repair. The other is that I don't know if I would have wrapped over the break twice. You may experience a different feel with that much build up at the tip of your rod. Just my .02 worth. Give it a try and have fun. Try building another rod and use the old one for a spare!

Randy

Domenic,

Like they all said above, you should have used a fiberglass oversleeve here, but it doesn't matter for that rod. There is very little power in the upper half of that rod such that you won't be able to put enough pressure on the tip (without high sticking it again). When you start putting anything on it, the rod will bend lower and the tip will straighten. You could have gone lighter with one coat of thread and finish, not nearly as much epoxy (no need to goop it all in), and been lighter in the end. Not bad though. Should fish well.

Thanks,
Rick

Thanks for your responses guys. Once again, I am amazed at how much wisdom is dished out without reserve on this site. And, in that, without ego or attitude..... You all are great!

D