I have a graphite spinning rod which broke 6” above the handle, can it be repaired? It is a medium light fast action scII graphite, he rod is not in production anymore. If their is a way to repair it which is the best.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

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That's a relatively easy repair, only if you have access to a lot broken rods. Basically, an internal plug will work nicely. First tape or wrap the broken ends of the rod to prevent any additional damage around the break site. Now find a piece of blank which will slip snuggly into the tip section of your broken rod without any wobble, with a few inches of over lap. Remove the butt cap from your broken rod and insert that piece of rod blank into the butt until it protrudes out the end of the break. If the tip section of your broken rod fits snuggly over the protuding plug you are set to trim and glue the plug in place. If not try another piece of blank. If you have close but not quite there fit, you can sand the plug a little until you get the proper fit You want the plug to span at least 3" or so on both sides of the break, better a little more than a little less. Align the butt and tip sections to get everything square. Once the plug is glued in place, I remove the protective tape or thread wrap, and then do another thread wrap using waste thread spanning the break on both sides. This helps to hold everything in place under pressure. Once the epoxy has cured remove the sacrifical thread and rewrap over the repair, you can do a small decorative wrap if you wish. Such a repair will last a very long time, and because of it's location you will have a difficult time noticing any difference in performance. This plug repair precludes the removal of the guides, which would be necessary if doing a sleeve repair. Hope this helps.
Norm

Carl and Norman,
Since this will be a permanent REPAIR of a broken rod rather than producing a spigot FERRULE to allow the rod sections to be separated, I would think the precision of the taper fit would be much less important as the epoxy will fill any void; obviously, the closer the better but not critical. Not everyone has a stash of sacrificial blanks/rods. What are your thoughts, Norman?

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.

Carl

I would consider fitting it with a ferrule (metal or otherwise). Because the break is near the handle and close to the stiffest part of the blank adding a ferrule at that point should have very little effect on the handling of the rod and provide a good repair.

Good luck
John

p.s.
If you want a selection of rod blanks, go to a a sporting goods store that has a charity box for good and bad rods that have been contributed to the box.

Let the folks at the store that you are a rod builder and are looking for blank material.

After asking permission, most stores will let you go through the box - and select what you wish for 0 to a very little money.

Not a bad thing to have a box of good and bad rods around to take care of repairs for anything that might happen to come in.

Take care

The method in the library works just fine, and IMO, is more reliable than the other methods. I did a fly rod using it and I had CCS numbers on it from before the failure. After the repair the numbers had not changed.

I have used the method on a number of rods broken more near the tip and it has worked fine and has lasted a number of years.

go to the Library , like Tom suggested, and follow Ralph O'Quinn's method. I have many ,many repairs on the water and never had a failure.

I do as Norman does, but always clean the inside of the broken segments where the glue's going to be with DNA prior to gluing. There can be some nasty stuff on the inside of some blanks (release agent?) Leave a little room for the glue you could split the blank if not careful. (too tight a fit)

Ralph was a Master :-)