NOTE: Photos are now available at: Photos, Miscellaneous, Jim Kinkennon, starting at "rod repair 1" and transiting left.
Address of first pic: [
www.rodbuilding.org]
While pier fishing in Panama City Beach, I experienced a blank fracture. I was fishing a 9' G1000 graphite spinning rod rated for approx. 1-3 oz. lure wt., using 20lb. braid loaded on a PENN 5500SS reel. I had already had wind knots. I was casting for Spanish mackerel, using a 2oz. egg sinker trailing a long fluorocarbon leader and a Clark spoon of light wt. My cast ended abruptly in a tangle of line, lure and a clean fracture 22 5/8" from the rod's tip ring. The Clark spoon was hooked into the rod tip. Probably a wind knot seized on a guide or the lure simply hooked the rod tip. Whatever, the rod broke.
When I got back from the fishing trip, I looked into a graphite insert to make a ferrule-type repair of the blank, without immediate success. I then found the tip section of an old fiberglass flyrod in the back of a closet. It fit into the broken tip section beautifully, so I trimmed about 6" of it off to use to line the fracture area and thus repair the broken rod blank. [
www.rodbuilding.org] I cut out a circle in the butt cap and pulled the repair insert into the butt section of the blank using braided fishing line [
www.rodbuilding.org]. I marked the repair insert where if exited the blank and removed it. It then fit nicely up to the mark in the tip section. I then used epoxy and glued the repair section into the butt section of the rod and set it aside to cure. The next day I applied epoxy to the tip section of the repair insert and glued the tip section back on the rod. [
www.rodbuilding.org] After the epoxy cured I wrapped over the fracture with size D thread and finished over the wrap. [
www.rodbuilding.org]
When cured, I took the repaired rod out for test casting. On the fifth test cast, the rod fractured cleanly through the site of the original fracture, right through the repair insert. I realized immediately that the fly rod blank used for the repair insert had never been rated for the stresses of casting a 2 oz. bank sinker in that position. It wasn't a bad idea, but it couldn't have worked.
I wasn't exactly back at square one, as I now had several inches of reinforcing material epoxied into the fracture area of the blank. What was one to do? In researching how to repair broken blanks, I had viewed a video on the internet made by Roland Martin, the famous TV angler. He recommended using a drill bit to salvage a broken rod, noting that the action wouldn't be as good, but the rod could be made usable. I decided to try that. Perhaps the repair insert could spread the stresses, and a drill bit could transmit stress from the tip section into the butt section without breaking or causing the blank to break. Using my drill index for my household power drill, I found that a 7/64" drill bit was the best size. It would fit into the fracture area, but not with even one round of masking tape or one layer of rod wrapping thread. I went to a big box home store and bought a two-card of 7/64" drill bits for about $6. I epoxied half of the drill bit into the re-broken tip section of the rod and set it aside to cure. [
www.rodbuilding.org] When cured, I epoxied the other half of the drill bit projecting from the tip section into the butt section. [
www.rodbuilding.org] [
www.rodbuilding.org]
Now that the fracture was again repaired, I considered how to support the repair so it might be less likely to fail again. The rod had broken just below the third of six guides that had been in a modified COF setup. I decided to investigate converting the rod to a NGC setup, using the 27X method. Selecting a Daiwa 5000 BGSW spinning reel I had, I laid out a line down through the guides from the center of the reel spool shaft. By looking at a Fuji guide height chart, I found that by replacing the 50mm stripper guide with a 40mm, I would almost be there. I had a 40mm guide, so I removed the 50 and replaced it with the 40. I then removed the guides above the fracture (12mm, 10mm, 10mm). I wrapped the 12mm guide right over the fracture and added a 10mm guide toward the tip. [
www.rodbuilding.org] There had been six guides, now there would be seven. The stripper guide was approx. 30 inches from the reel face, and I put the new 40mm guide in the same place the 50 had been. The choke point (approx. 71") would be the third of the three 10mm guides.
fr prev fr tip
guide inches size
1 5.00 5.00 10mm
2 5.43 10.43 10mm
3 5.90 16.33 10mm
4 6.41 22.75 12mm (site of fracture in blank)
5 8.25 31.00 20mm
6 11.75 42.75 30mm (this guide is just slightly large, but not too much)
7 13.5 56.25 40mm
reel face 30.00
total 86.25
Guides which had been added or moved were taped on and test cast. Results were excellent. Static test looked very good. Guides were then wrapped on and finished.
A hole had been cut in the butt cap to insert the fiberglass repair segment. A nickel coin was epoxied into the opening.
I already had all the additional guides needed. I used some finish, thread and epoxy.
Cash outlay was approx. $6 for a two-card of the needed drill bit.
The rod looks good and performs very well. Now, we'll see when we go fishing again if the repair holds together.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/2023 09:04AM by Jim Kinkennon.
