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Rod Repair
I have a 7'6" light wt rod that was broke about 7 inches from the tip. The break was "clean", like the blank was sawed in to. I didn't want to make a 6'11" rod so I tried to figure out how to repair it. The problem being the inside diameter of the blank was quite small. After playing around with various items to place in the blank I hit upon the idea of using a common sewing needle. I found one about 2'6" that fit snugly in the blank. I had to cut off the eye of the needle. I used superglue to anchor the needle then wrapped around the break, another shot of superglue and a couple of coats of spar varnish.
Yesterday I gave the rod a test and hit some small streams. I caught maybe 30 small trout, several pine trees and various rocks and other snags. The rod functioned without any problems. Hopefully it will continue to do so.
Tim
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Ingenious! Glad to see it worked and the rod is performing as planned.
Kelly.
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Thanks for the tip. Tim... I too often fish for trees, snags, & such...That pesky barbwire fence behind me is one of my favorites...Dan
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If it does not hold, and it may give right at the break again, put an over sleeve of fiberglass from any old 'glass rod over the break that extends about .75" both ways from the break. At 7", you should be between the first and second guides so you would need to remove the first guide and tip top. Taper the ends of the sleeve and do an overwrap to blend it in color wise. That won't come loose. Where the center is a bit larger, use a fiberglass insert inside with the fiberglass sleeve on the outside and it will hold. Use fiberglass as it will move with the graphite easier than a graphite repair piece will. Less stress on the glue and the repair will hold better.
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With a little luck that will last for years. My brother in law has fished with an ultralight spinning rod with a finishing nail in the last ft. of the rod since the mid '70's with no problems.
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I gave my grandson a Ross Worlwide 5 wt 9' piece combo as a graduation gift last year. He brought it over today and told me the tip broke off while float tubing Big Virginia lake last week. Asked if I could fix it. I told him sure, I had just read a thread about how to. He handed me the broken section, I asked where's the tip? He dropped it in the lake. UGH! I checked my supplies and have a tip top that fits it. He'll have to get by on a 8" 7" rod.
His day for showing up for Military boot camp (Air Force, San Antonio, TX) is Nov. 8 so we'll have a few more trips to try out the patch.
I used this method to repaid an "unbreakable" ugly stick spinning rod about 30 years ago but used a thicker piece of spring steel as an insert. Still have the rod and it's still holding tuff. Jim
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I have seen the needle trick done before. Also another trick is using copper wire.