Stuck ferrules, candle was and joint tape

[thorarinna]

I know from rod building that the blanks are hollow all the way.

Rod builder put "something" in to fill the end, it's just cosmetics.
So if you remove the filling, you got rid of this problem?

Thorarinn.

[AlbaSurf]

The reason the ferrules stick is that a vacuum develops in the stuck section of the rod. You put the rod together in the morning when the air is cool. There is air trapped in the hollow section of fly rod above the stuck ferrule. It heats up during the day and the air expands and leaks out of the hollow rod section.

You might put the rod in the shade while you stop for lunch, or worse, dip it into the cold river. The air inside rod section contracts, pulling the ferrule tight and sealing it. Now there is a sealed vacuum in the rod section keeping the ferrule locked.

Ice the ferrule and you make the female and male sections of the ferrule suddenly shrink. They shrink at different rates and the vacuum seal is broken.

I was wondering why that worked! Thanks SilverCreek!

[Steven McGarthwaite]

I use a small bar of soap to lubricate the ferrules, if stuck apply a hot cloth to the female ferrule wrapped tight, replace the wrapped cloth with replacement hot cloth, letting the female ferrule to expand in diameter from the heat, then the ferrules can be separated. I use a bar of soap, on the male ferrules, because it is easier to clean out the inside of the female ferrel with a Q-Tip that has been immersed in some very hot water to clean out all the buildup gunk inside

Or....

You can wrap the male ferrule in dry cloth and add a protective wrap of saran wrap, then run hot water on the female ferrule, to allow it to expand in diameter. Keep the male cool, let the female get hot.....

~Parnelli

[Bamboozle]

Thorainna:

Glad you got your rod unstuck without breaking it.

Regardless of what you do going forward, it isn't a bad idea to check your joints during the course of the day. I do that just to make sure nothing is loose because I don't use wax on my rods since the manufacturer doesn't recommend it.

I only had stuck ferrules once and that was on a day where is was really cold in the morning but very warm in the afternoon. Ice cured my problem that day but because of that, when I am fishing in similar circumstances I make a point to loosen and refit the ferrules once it warms up. It has never happened since.

[Silver Creek]

I know from rod building that the blanks are hollow all the way.

Thorarinn.

My understading is that you cannot buy a blank that is not plugged.

These blanks are hollow as they come out of the oven and off the mandrel. BUT they are then plugged on the male end at the factory. It prevents crushing of the male side of the ferrule when placed into the female side. But it also allows a vacuum, to develop only in individual sections. I would not try to drill out the plug. That is for a tip over butt ferrule. For spigot ferrules, the spigot is the plug.

The rod builder doesn't do it, they come that way.

[thorarinna]

I check the joints many times a day, very often they are loose. I check them by pushing them together, maybe I should take them apart?

The plug in the male end is soft, at least in my rod, so I think it's more of a cosmetic than protection. But I would never take it out, it's just a thougth.

"Keep the male cool, let the female get hot.....", aren't we all trying to do that

Thorarinn.

[MontanaMoose]

That's the way i do it Thorarinn, when i check them later so they don't get stuck as the day warms, i take them apart and put them back together, letting in 'new' air. Here's something...when you check the joints so they don't get stuck, put them back together by offsetting the guides by a quarter turn then slide the sections together and lightly twist at the same time, finishing with the guides lined up as the last move in the same twisting direction. Hope you understand my poor account of that !

Ane yep, some kind of wax. One small white birthday candle will last a long time as you only need to make a few lines here and there on the male ferrule.

Cheers,

MontanaMoose

I check the joints many times a day, very often they are loose. I check them by pushing them together, maybe I should take them apart?

Thorarinn.

[thorarinna]

I will have to try it this way.
And yes I do twist them as you say when I put them together.

I see from the answers that only one uses tape on the joints, maybe few people do that.

Thanks,
Thorarinn

[Silver Creek]

I don't know about you guys but I can tell when a ferrule is getting loose. The fly rod just doesn't feel "right". It loses what I would call "crispness" and takes more effort to cast.

Also you may notice that the guides are slightly rotated off axis from each other. Most folks will flip the rod over and sight down the guide side of the fly rod. I sight down the rod with the guides on the bottom. You should see an equal amount of guide projecting on each side of the blank. It seems easier for me to notice very slight rotation of one rod section from another using this method. Since you hold the rod this way anyway, you can do it quickly.

Basically though, whenever I feel that change in the castability of the fly rod, I reseat the every ferrule.