So...this just happened...

I was building a SK2 spinning seat using an up-locking HPS hood. The bottom winding check on the threaded barrel slipped back into tube. I picked the rod up off the bench and bumped the butt end with my palm so the winding check would slide back up the blank...the tip evidently vibrated and slapped the bench leg just right. Clean break about 1.5” from the tip...as my heart sank.

Maybe a rod building blunders thread would be a good read.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/2020 03:52PM by Mike Corn.

don,t you just love graphite rods..lol.

Mike,
You posted 1 1/2 feet from the tip - correct?

If so, this is an easy repair.

Others may do it differently, but this is what I would do.

Go up the rod about 6 inches away from the break and put on a piece of masking tape both on the butt section and the tip section.

Then, take the broken tip section and carefully match mark the break so that you can realign all of the fibers so that the tip section is aligned exactly as it was before the break. Then, make matching marks on the pieces of masking tape, so that when it comes time to reassemble the tip to the butt section, the pieces will fit perfectly. Do, not cut or trim any thing from either piece.

Then, find a 3 inch section of blank that will slip over the butt section as well as the tip section. Find another tip section of fiberglass blank material about 4 inches long that will let each half of the repair blank to fit inside each part of the broken blank - with a very nice tight fit.

--
Then, I will take the over sleeve piece of blank material and slip it over a drill bit or something similar that will fit into a drill tightly. Then, use a drill the spin the oversleeve while holding it against a spinning fine grit belt sander. Use the sander to remove any finish from the oversleeve as well as to thin and to round the ends of each end of the oversleeve repair section. Repeat for the inner sleeve - with just enough sanding to remove the gloss on the undersleeve section for better glue adhesion.

Remember, when the pieces fit into the tip section you are slipping it over and into a piece of reducing taper for the tip section and an increasing taper for the butt section. So, you have to tweak the repair sections to optimize the fit for the under sleeve and over sleever repair sections.

Then, mix up a batch of slow curing epoxy and start on one side or the other so that the inside of each part of the original blank has glue on the inside and the outside of the blank. Also, make sure that the inside of the outer sleeve has glue in it. Then, make sure that the outside of the under sleeve has epoxy applied. Finally, slip all of the pieces together, being sure that the top and bottom are perfectly aligned to the match marks that you made on the tape at the beginning of the repair section.

Once things are together, use denatured alcohol to quickly remove all exposed traces of epoxy glue before the glue begins to set up. If you use 15 minute epoxy, you will have about 7 minutes of working time to finish the repair and clean it up.

Once dry, go back to your rod building and finish the rod.

==============================
Note:
By the way, if this were the only actions that you performed on the blank - there is a reasonable chance that the blank had in internal bad spot from the factory or the blank itself was damaged somewhere between the time the blank was manufacutred and the time where you said that the incident occurred. You might just consider removing any thing that you already have on the blank and then with a new blank build the rod --- if you want the rod to look perfect with no signs of a repair job on the blank.

Be safe

I once snagged a turtle while fishing, and laid my rod on the ground while trying to unhook the poor creature. Once unhooked the turle turned around and bit though the tip section of my rod. I guess it was for revenge. I just laughed.
Norm

Roger...it was a typo. It was a tip break. About an inch and a half from tip top.

And many thanks for mid-rod repair instructions! I will certainly use this technique.

Norm...now that’s a good story. I have broken a few in canoe blunders...but I must say you may be the only person ever to have a turtle bite their rod in two. My grandfather would have cooked that turtle....I refused to eat them when I was a little guy. Haha

Norman Miller Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I once snagged a turtle while fishing, and laid my
> rod on the ground while trying to unhook the poor
> creature. Once unhooked the turle turned around
> and bit though the tip section of my rod. I guess
> it was for revenge. I just laughed.
> Norm

Mike,

That typo corrects a very important distinction.

Depending on the rod blank, this break could very well be the demise of this particular rod.

If, for example, you have a medium light blank with an extra fast tip, there is a huge amount of sensitivity in the upper most two inches of the rod blank.

If you loose or stiffen up those last two inches, you may have effectively ruined that blank for its intended purposes.

if, on the other hand, the break is 8 to 18 inches down from the tip, it makes sense to repair the blank.

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If I already had a grip and reel seat glued up on this blank and didn't want to waste the effort, I think that I would see if I could get a similar tip section to the blank that you have.

Then, cut enough off of the original blank so that you could just slip the new tip section over the butt section and glue it solid.

This would give you a bit longer rod, due to the non ferrule joint. But, you would still have the super sensitive rod that you wanted to build - if that was the type rod blank that you were building.


--------------------
To make the joint, just cut the butt section a foot or more longer that you figure will be your final joint and slip the tip section over the shortened butt section. Observe how much the tip section over laps the butt section. You want to continue cutting the butt section, a bit at a time until you get to the point that when you slip the tip section over the butt section you have about a tight two inch overlap. When you get to that point, scuff the tip end of the cut off butt section for better glue adhesion and use epoxy to glue the two sections together. If you wish, you could align the straightest axis of both sections so that the overall rod will be as straight as possible.

Summery -
When a break occurs quite close to the tip - the best repair is to get a new tip section and essentially recreate the rod so it will have the perfect tip section, albiet in a bit longer rod. Once you have the butt section trimmed the correct amount, it only takes a few minutes to glue the two sections together to give you a sound rod with equal or better sensitivity to what you started with.

Take care

p.s.

One thing that I do NOT do, is to trim a rod tip and hope that you will have the same rod action as before you started.
From time to time I will be looking at ads and see fishing rods that have been rebuilt. Then, when you look at the fine detail of the item being sold, you find that a rod tip was broken off, and to remanufacture the rod, all that they did was to chop the tip cleanly and glue on a new tip top. This ends up being a very sorry imitation of the original rod, if the original rod had a soft sensitive tip - that is now gone to be replaced by the rod blank further down the rod that is neither soft, nor sensitive.

put another tip-top(probably the same one) on and see how you like it..

I was refurbishing a rod for a friend who wanted a more modern guide train. After removing the old guides I was using a heat gun to soften the epoxy wrap finish so I could easily remove it. . When I was about a foot from the tip the use of the heat gun caused the tip section to fold over right before my eyes. I knew better so it was a dumb mistake on my part. I built my friend a high-end rod to replace the rod I destroyed. Not only was it dumb but also expensive. My friend had me build him several more rods, so things did work out.
Norm

Mike - there was no typo.
1.5" IS one and a half inches.
Herb

I guess I'm the only one here to have a blank broken in a bizzare or dumb way?
Norm

It was about 1974, I bought a Fenwick 140 ultralight. If I remember correctly and had a lifetime guarantee. Same night I went to my buddies house to show it to him. Held it by handle and about two guides down from the top, put a bend on it and snap it it right in half. Took it back to the sporting goods store in the next day, and told them a carp snapped in half not even 5 labs.

Roger...unfortunately it was a high end MLXF blank. Luckily...I was building it for myself so no one but me will suffer. It was a soft tip Ned rod. I so appreciate you detailed insight. I’m a fisherman who builds a few rods so I love receiving this type of information.

Ben...I will indeed try a new tip top. I cleaned up the break just a smidgen.

Norm...you are definitely winning so far. I have lost a few rods and broken a few in canoe debacles but the turtle story may be hard to beat.

Don...you are forgiven! This is just like confession, right?,

Hey guys,
Have broken only two myself. First was a light 6ft spin outfit that I had washed and leant against the fence to dry. Entre the son and a soccer ball. We start to have a kick and sure enough the rod and reel get hit. Broken rod and 1500 size shimano.
Second one was a 5ft 6 shimano backbone 15kg.We were sharking and had caught a 7ft shovel nose shark/Ray. Shorthanded on the boat so I had to get leader to the tip then reach out and grab the leader must have high sticked to much and boom. Never let go of the leader and managed to get the fish.

Repair in progress....unfortunately I would need to go from a 4.5 tube to a 5. Tip top to running guide would be 3 1/8. We’ll see. I have a nice broken Fenwick blank that I could do as Roger suggests.

NOBODY DID IT!
About 20 years ago my kids were helping get everything ready for a day of fishing on the boat. The two boys were goofing around in the front of the boat so I told them to 'cut it out' as I went back in the house to get some more things. I came back out and both boys were uncharacteristically quiet. Any parent knows that quiet kids are a danger sign, so I took a quick visual assessment of the area. Sure enough, there was one of my first builds, a two-piece Lamglass was now a three-piece. Wide eyed, I questioned them what happened. According to them, "Nobody did it." It seemed divine intervention transformed my favorite rod. After prolonged interrogation, they both confirmed that the culprit was Nobody. Man, if I ever find that Nobody person....well, you get the idea.

My dumbest ...... I was cleaning up the boat after a days fishing. I had stood a few of my rods up beside the boat to put them back in the rod locker. One of the rods had a crankbait tied to the line and I wanted to clip it off before putting that rod in the locker. My line snips were sitting in the bottom of the boat just out of reach so I kind of did a little jump to reach the clippers and one of the rods I had leaning on the boat was in front of me. When I made the little jump, my shoulder hit the one rod and it snapped (the butt was resting on the ground) at the point where it was resting against the rub rail.

Most bizarre ..... a story I have told on this site before. I was fishing docks at an area lake, for bass. I had just finished fishing one of the posts and was reeling the bait in extremely fast when a 40"+ muskie came rocketing out from under the dock and grabbed my bait just as I was about to lift it from the water. The fish didn't stop and went directly under my boat, slapping and pinning the rod against the rub rail and gunwale of the boat. Crack boom bang, fish gone, top half of my rod gone. I had about 5' of line from the tip of the rod to the fish. Whole ordeal took 2 - 3 seconds.

Not sure if this counts as "breaking" a rod but it certainly counts as "dumb"! I had to ship a new rod out and needed a shipping tube. The only tube I had was about a foot longer than needed. To save some shipping costs, I took my hacksaw and shortened the tube. Only problem was, I forgot that there was already another rod inside the tube. Yes, cut right through both sections nice and clean. Some bad words were said.........Lol

lol Brian .......... I don't mean to laugh, but I had to. lol As far as the "some bad words were said" goes. Oh I bet LOL