A friend gave me a 6-1/2 ft. hollow fiberglass spinning rod to repair. Six inches of the tip broke off at the first guide.. a nice clean break. The ID of the rod at the break is about 1/16." Should I splice the break with a rigid insert, some kind of sleeve, or put on a new tip-top at the break and end up with a 6' rod with altered action.

SInce the break is at the first guide, I'm thinking that a rigid insert or sleeve may not alter the action all that much.

If an insert or sleeve .. what material?

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Bill - willierods.com

In his article, Ralph repairs a graphite rod using a fiberglass sleeve, the idea being that the sleeve must be lower modulus than the rod material. To repair a fiberglass rod, would I need a lower modulus sleeve material than the fiberglass rod? What could that be?

Correct me if I am wrong but I would think a soft and more flexible piece of glass would work
Graphite would be too stiff.

glass rods are cheap. maybe build him another rod ??
but find out how it broke and why ??

Bill - willierods.com

Wayne,
If the handle or guides are special, I might consider cutting the rod at the first guide.
Then, obtain another glass blank, and trim it to the length so that the cut section of the handle end of the existing rod matches the new blank.
Or you could even let the new blank be slightly larger so that the new blank simply slips over the existing rod by about 3 inches. Then, simply glue the two sections together, and tie guides back on the new blank.

By making the splice at the first guide, it would essentially be invisible and by using a blank with a tip action that you like you would likely end up with a longer rod, simply due to the overalp and match, but you would have a perfect rod, wtih out the work of gluing up a handle.

Roger

Also, by making the splice at the first guide, you will have virtually no effect on the overall action of the rod, due to the typical stiff section of the butt and first guide section of most blanks.