Hi, about to embark on an offshore rod building journey. I am doing a rod rated for up to 60 lb line. So I may be using up to 20 lbs drag. Will be using 40-50 lb mostly so 13-17 lbs more likely. In any case, from my reading, you want to load from the tip top only and have a trivial weight attached to the line running through the guides.

So how strong is tip top adhesive? If I suspend a 20 lbs weight from only the tip top, will it possibly release and cause a safety concern or break the blank? How do y'all more experienced folks static test a heavy rod meant for jacks and smaller tuna?

If you can't get someone to hold the tip down you could bind the tip to get additional holding capacity.
Also you may find that at a decent bend on lighter weights you can still get good guide positioning. I doubt on most blanks you would need to weigh down 17lbs to confirm guide positioning.

If it's installed correctly, hot melt adhesive will easily hold a tiptop on under a mere 20 pounds of load. However, if you don't get the adhesive between the tube and blank, it won't hold much at all.

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I tie of to the tip and apply the pressure to set the bend there, line from the reel has only a Minor weight on them 4 OZ

Do y'all's scuff the blank at the tip before installation?

I watched the Flex Coat video about using a glue gun to make small rods out of the adhesive that you can just snip a bit off to drop in. Im thinking about trying that method if I have a glue gun.

Tom can you elaborate about getting it between the tube and blank? I usually shave off bits of adhesive and stuff them into the tube. Then I melt it with a flame and slip it on. So it seems like I'm achieving that goal.

Sounds like you are. The general mistake many make is to just smear the glue on the blank tip and then push the tiptop down onto that. Most of the adhesive is then simply pushed down the rod blank.

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Hello,

Make sure that whatever you use to hold the blank, as well as tie-off the line, is capable of handling the pressure.

I once cracked the upper half of a heavy surf blank when my tie-off let go--expensive lesson learned.

-chad

I was planning to use a human as my blank holding device ha ha ha! So that should be sufficient! As far as tie off line, I was planning to use 40 lb line, but I could get something stronger, just in case.

Thanks for the advice! Always better to learn from someone else's mishaps when able.

The little glue gun strips offered by Flex Coat are fantastic.