I have repaired several rods in various locations with the inner ferrel, outer sleeve method and have had no failures. I am wondering if there is an alternative to the big, ugly outer sleeve? I have tried to thin the sleeve down as much as possible but you really can't remove too much material without loosing the strength.

How about using carbon fiber material and wrap it around the repair area? Add a couple coats of epoxy, do you think this method would be strong enough?

Thanks,
Steve

I think if you read the article here about repairs, the big thing is the material used for the repair can not be as stiff as the blank itself, that's why they say use fiberglass blank for the repair. If it is the same stiffness the blank will end up breaking again. I have seen a demo on one guys repairs, he uses thin carbon fiber strips I think he makes from a sheet of carbon fiber. He said he has not had any problems with any of his repairs.

Strength is not the whole issue. In fact if you make the repair area too strong/stiff, you risk another failure at the edge/s of the repair.

What you want is a continuation of the rod's original properties across the repaired area. This is why fiberglass is recommended for outer sleeves. The larger diameter is stiffer, but the material is less stiff, so on a graphite rod you end up with something that is at least closer to the characteristics of the original rod.

............

I have heard someone using fiberglass on the inner sleeve and a very thin graphite on the outer sleeve. I have not seen this personally though and do not know how much thinner the repair would look. He has not had any failures though. If I get a chance I will ask him more questions.

David Dosser
Coshocton, OH

Steve,
The key on rod repair is "hoop strength" . So the use of an outer sleeve, even if it is veyr thin does add a great deal of strength to the repair. I always use the inner, and outer sleeve method to repair rods.
But, I take a drill chuck the outer sleeve in the drill and use a belt sander to thin the section to about .020 inch. Then, I go ahead and use 5 minute epoxy to glue up the inner sleeve, the main blank and the outer sleeve in one glue up.
If you use a fiberglass inner sleeve and a thin glass or graphite outersleeve, you will lose little in the way of original rod bending properties.

If it works out, I like to have the repair section in such an area, that I can put a guide at the bottom of the splice. This way, the guide itself tends to hide the slight bulge of the oversleeve.

Certainly no need to have a very heavy outer sleeve for most tip sections.

On the other hand, if you are extending a butt section, then it is likely a good idea to have some beef or unmodified blank area in this section. You can use an inner sleeve to extend a butt, but again, due to the inherent hoop stength of a larger diamter circle, the use of the outer sleever makes for a much stronger butt extension. Therefore, when extending butt sections of rods - on a new build, I just find a blank section that will give me a nice firm fit on the butt 4 inche of the blank. I glue it up, put on the handle and call it good. Simple and quick.

Roger

Thanks for all the input, that's some good stuff.

Steve