How to repair a broken fishing rod
Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2015 12:14 am
Back in March 2011, I'd ordered a 15 lbs 2-piece Shakespeare Ugly Stik Spinning Rod from Cabelas. IIRC it retailed at that time for US $30 and tacking on the usual Cabelas shipping and import duties (here) it finally landed home at about twice the price. Anyhow, as it happened soon after it coming home the two pieces got "jammed" together and while attempting to dismantle it, the ferrule got completely destroyed (see picture).
So I had this broken rod lying around for the past few years and I'd almost forgotten about it till I moved house late last year. Anyhow, so while sorting through my stuff at the new place, I realised I had this lying around and I thought I may as well try and see if it could be made in to something useful!
First step was was to align the two pieces together and use a very small amount of loctite/ feviquick to "lock them" together - so that the main repair could begin.
Second step was to give the entire joint area a mild coat of epoxy (I used areldite) - see photo. Third step take a bit of strong twine (I used #30 braid) to make a strong "whipping" around the joint. The way to do this is to take a start point and hold one end of your braid there (a small bit of scotch tape helps hold it in place - see photo), run it straight down the length of the repair and from that point on start to wind it back to the start point. Once you read the start point, you wind all the way back - giving the whole thing a double "wind". If you search for a few videos on how to attach a "guide" on to a fishing rod you should be able to get a fair idea about how to go about it.
Once this winding was done, I gave the entire repair another coat of epoxy and allowed it to cure overnight. Next day, I used another twine I had with me - a weaker but slightly thicker everyday type of thin nylon cord - I probably could have done without this step, but I just wanted to give the joint a double "coat".
So once again I gave the entire joint a full wind and then a half wind on the way back (about 3-4 times the space between each wind on the way back and then tucked it in as I would have done for a line guide. Then gave the entire joint one more coat of epoxy and allowed it to cure 24 hours. Done! Now you have a functional one piece rod, which hopefully should give you some years of service. Better than throwing it away - eh?
Cheers
Abhijeet
So I had this broken rod lying around for the past few years and I'd almost forgotten about it till I moved house late last year. Anyhow, so while sorting through my stuff at the new place, I realised I had this lying around and I thought I may as well try and see if it could be made in to something useful!
First step was was to align the two pieces together and use a very small amount of loctite/ feviquick to "lock them" together - so that the main repair could begin.
Second step was to give the entire joint area a mild coat of epoxy (I used areldite) - see photo. Third step take a bit of strong twine (I used #30 braid) to make a strong "whipping" around the joint. The way to do this is to take a start point and hold one end of your braid there (a small bit of scotch tape helps hold it in place - see photo), run it straight down the length of the repair and from that point on start to wind it back to the start point. Once you read the start point, you wind all the way back - giving the whole thing a double "wind". If you search for a few videos on how to attach a "guide" on to a fishing rod you should be able to get a fair idea about how to go about it.
Once this winding was done, I gave the entire repair another coat of epoxy and allowed it to cure overnight. Next day, I used another twine I had with me - a weaker but slightly thicker everyday type of thin nylon cord - I probably could have done without this step, but I just wanted to give the joint a double "coat".
So once again I gave the entire joint a full wind and then a half wind on the way back (about 3-4 times the space between each wind on the way back and then tucked it in as I would have done for a line guide. Then gave the entire joint one more coat of epoxy and allowed it to cure 24 hours. Done! Now you have a functional one piece rod, which hopefully should give you some years of service. Better than throwing it away - eh?
Cheers
Abhijeet
