Hello, I had repaired a rod for a friend of mine, it was broke in half at like where the handle was, so we put a piece of another rod in the broken rod, and and used that 5 minute epoxy it seemed to work really good, it held strong, so I rebuilt his rod, it felt pretty sturdy, we took it out and he caught several bass on it including one over 5lbs,then on the 2nd trip the part that we repaired broke loose, we can;t figure it out, maybe it was the 5min. epoxy, the part we put in the rod to hold it together, was snug at the part towards the top, but the part going towards the butt, was a bit smaller in diameter, so we filled it with epoxy the best we could I guess it wasn't good enough, kind of embarressing too get told that my fix failed, lol! I was glad that we both laughed about it, but still i want to get a better fix for him, it was one of his best rods, any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

use regular epoxy Rod Bond The 5 min drys fast but for that repair it is not good IMHO
Read the article on repairs on the library page
[www.rodbuilding.org]

I also clean well the - inside of the blanks - so there is a good bond

Also do a search here on rod repair Several ways to repair this type of break

Bill - willierods.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/2011 08:41AM by bill boettcher.

Thanks Bill, will read that article. I just got another supply of rod bond. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Most repairs in the section use an inside and Over Sleeve for a stronger repair

Bill - willierods.com

Thats what we put in teh rod an inner sleeve, I think it was the 5min epoxy, have to try again.

The strongest bond is the thinnest layer of epoxy. Most epoxy's were not designed to be used as a "filler"

Ron Weber

Plus there is a I guess it's a release agent so the blank comes off the mandrill on the inside of them.
I get scrap blanks and split them about an inch, slid a piece of sandpaper in it roll it and sand the inside for better bond and slower drying epoxy

Bill - willierods.com

As Bill said I don't use 5 min. epoxy where I need a good strong bond.
Clean, rough up and reglue inner sleeve. At a minmum you need to wrap
over the repair with thread also.

The repair never needs to be any stronger/stiffer than the area that is being repaired. Too much strength/stiffness can easily result in a new break at one end of the repaired area.

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

Most important thing is , in my opinion, find a piece of blank with the same degree of taper as the broken blank. You don't want any wobble in the inner sleeve, nor the outer sleeve. You want a snug fit on each end of the splice. As Ron Weber says, epoxy is not designed to use as a filler. This takes a lot of hunting and measuring pieces of blanks but I can usually find a piece that fits good. One needs to have a good supply of junk blanks on hand.

J.B.Hunt
Bowling Green, KY

That's a good point.

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

Lorenzo,
Whenever I repair a rod, I use on outer piece of blank on the outside of the break, and another inner blank that I use on the inside of the rod.
I generally use an electric drill and a sanding belt to thin out the blank pieces and to also change the taper if needed to get the repair pieces to all fit.

This is true, both for the inner blank repair piece as well as the outer repair piece.
Since there is a repair piece on both the inside as well as the outside of the blank, there generally doesn't have to be a lot of wall thickness on the pieces for adequate strength.


I always use 5 minute epoxy for this repair work.
I always pre fit all of the pieces. i.e the inner repair, the blank and the outer repair piece. I mix up a single batch of 5 minute epoxy, coat all of the pieces, slid everything together, double check the guide alignment of the repaired piece with respect to the rest of the rod, and clean up any excess epoxy that might have gotten on the blank. By the way, when repairing rods, I make a point of trying not to ever trim up the places where the break occurred. Rather, I use the break to act as an alignment key to insure that the rod blank has been put back together correctly. Also, if there are jagged ends on both sides of the blank, there is much more gluing area for the glue - than if there is a simple straight surgical cut on both ends of the repair.
If the ends are shattered, and or pieces that have are standing up, I will trim off the protruding or inset pieces of blank. Other than that, I try to leave the blank broken ends, as they occurred after the break.

Depending on the blank, and or location, I will try to use fiberglass repair pieces because of its typically softer action, which tends to blend better with many repairs. Also, if I happen to be repairing a light action rod near the tip, I will frequently use appropriately sized pieces of piano wire as the inner piece on the bond. The appropriate sized piece of piano wire generally has the right rate of bend, as well as size to nicely fit into the fine tips of some of these lighter action rods. Then, a thinned out piece of fiberglass blank for the outside of the repair, and there is very little added stiffening from the repair of the light tip.



After repairing the rod, I awlays do an over wrap for at least 1/4 and possibly 3/8th inch on each end of the outer repair blank to insure that the blank and the repair does not split out at this point.

Then, I do a guide finish on the thread wraps at the end of the outer repair blanks.

I have to admit that I have repaired many many rods using this method and have never had a blank break again anywhere near the repair.
I have had a couple instances where the rod was broken again due to operator error, but it never broke near the original break or at the repair itself.

Good wraps.
Roger

Jay,
That is fine and in theory is the perfect thing to do.
But to fit such a nice inner repair piece means that you generally have to remove the butt cap of the rod, so that you can stuff the repaired section up the rod blank from the butt - if you have a perfect fitting inner repair pieces.

If the break is 6 feet up the blank, it is possible, but generally takes a significant more amount of work. You have to remove the butt cap, and then normally due to butt cap damage, normally have to install a butt cap after the repair.

But, you are 100% correct. This fine fit will give you the ultimate best repair.

If I happened to be working with a fairly thick walled blank, I will sometimes use a dremel to route out the inside of the butt section of the broken rod to make a non tapered inner hole. Then, I will use a drill and belt sander to make the matching inner repair piece, non tapered with a perfect fit. The added beef of the repair piece makes up for the slight loss of wall thickness for the repair. It still give you a 0 slop repair, with non removal of the butt cap required.

Take care
Roger

I just repaired a 6'5" and a 7 ft ,both casting rods, both broken about 14 inches from the tip. One broken by a car door ,the other a tree limb. In both repairs I removed the butt cap and went in from the butt with my inner splice. I use a long piece of #15 Spinner Bait wire with the wire through the splice and a couple wraps of 1/4 " masking tape around the wire at the bottom to hold the splice until it comes through the tip end , at the break. Make a couple dry runs and glue her up.
One rod , I replaced the butt cap (A St Croix). The other was a Lew's Speed Stick that had a little plastic , stick on, Lew's decal in the center of the plastic butt cap. I removed the clear plastic decal and drilled a 5/16 hole through the cap to the inside of the blank. When the repair was finished on the inside I repaired the hole with Rod Bond and put the decal back on it , good as new.

I have never make a repair to a broken rod without going in from the butt. And I never will. I will never remove any of the original material from the blank wall. In my opinion you are degrading the integrity of the rest of the blank when you start removing wall thickness no matter how much glue you use to put it back. It is not at all necessary to be grinding the wall thickness away when you have a box full of pieces that will fit like a glove if you will take the time to find one. There won't be any slop and gom go out of my shop.

J.B.Hunt
Bowling Green, KY

Jay,
Well written and your method is absolutely the preferred way to do it.

Take care
Roger