I had a customer break a rod, the company suggested I boil the handle components off, has anyone done this? Any suggestions for this process?

Put the rod butt in a plastic bag and submerge into boiling water. You might be successful. Maybe.

The idea is that the boiling water is hot enough to break the component epoxy bond but not so much to destroy the resin in the blank, although if the rod is broken that would seem to make little difference.

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

While your waiting for the water to come to a boil, get your heat gun out and use that to sweat the handle apart. When the water starts to boil, put in a chicken and sme soup greens. Don't waste all that hot water.With the heat gun you can control the amount of heat and where you want it. You can take it apart in sections piece by piece.

Dennis J. Danku
(Sayreville,NJ)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/02/2013 08:41PM by Dennis Danku.

If you go beyond about 225F, you risk damage to the blank (although that doesn't seem important).

The thing is, you can't really control heat with a heat gun. It's a guessing game. Your boiling water isn't going to move much beyond 212F.

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

I melted a blank using a heat gun to get the reelseat off. Boiling water, or a dremel tool, has worked better for me since then.

Greg
Aptos, CA

I pull reel seats from rods every day. As I have a rod and reel repair shop. Yes sometimes the seat will come lose in the boiling water and yes sometimes the seat will left lose with a heat gun. I use a torch on low heat and keep the blue flame back. But that is only one metal seats. Your best bet is to plan to buy a new seat for the project. As this removal thing only works 50% of the time. And again I do at least one a day. Today I did two and they both came off

Zachary,
Rather than remove components, I typically suggest to the customer that I will repair the rod for him.

Then, I will give him a discount on a future rod build if he wishes. Normally, I can repair a rod in 15 to 20 minutes at essentially 0 cost in materials.

Be safe

So Zak just how would you fix a broken rod blank and do so in 15-20 minutes. I have got to know that secret as I could get rich.

Robert,
Prefit the two broken pieces so that you are sure that the ragged edges of the break will line up.
Then, go into your box of scrap rod blanks and select a piece of blank that will fit into the broken pieces.
Then, select another piece of scrap that will fit over the two broken pieces of blank.

Use your abrasive chop saw to chop the pieces of blank to a length of about 3 -4 inches to extend a few inches past the break on each side.

Once you have determined that the fits are all right, Slip the over blank on the blank, so that when complete, can be slid down the blank for effect the repair.

Then mix up a batch of 5 minute epoxy, coat the inner blank and insure that the inside of each 1/2 of the break is well coated with glue. Then, slip the inner blank into both sides of the break - insuring that the ragged edges are in alignment and that the guides are lined up.
Then, coat the blank on each side of the break and slide the outer blank down the blank and back up a couple of times to be sure that the inside of the outer blank as been coated with glue as well as the outside of the broken blank.
When, the outer blank is in place, use DNA to clean up the excess.

An hour later, after the glue has cured, take a couple of minutes to put a 1/4 inch thread wrap on each end of the outer blank repair. Coat the thread wrap and put on the dryer.

Total time - excluding drying time is about 30 minutes.

P.s.
The use of the small 3 inch abrasive chop saw works very quickly to cut and trim the repair pieces.
The use of a 1/30 inch belt sander and the use of a variable speed drill to allow you to size and taper the repair pieces also work to expedite the repair.
Finally, a generous supply of repair pieces is very helpful. Any time that I come across a chance for scrap blanks I pick it up and strip off any components and trim off broken ends, so I will have good donation stock on hand for the repairs.

Also, if i have to repair a tip area with a very small internal diameter, I use the appropriate size piano wire on the inside of the blank to insure that the tip repair will be solid. The nice thing about piano wire is that it is spring steel and gives a nice - original like action to the tip - even with the repair in place.

Be safe

Have fun with that my friend. Sounds fun :-)

Couldn't dissagree more. If this was 1975 maybe. Since 1980 you were able to buy a unit with a high and low range Now you can get em with a fully adjustable heat range from 90 to 1000 degrees with a variable speed fan.

Dennis J. Danku
(Sayreville,NJ)