Repairing rods

[KeviR]

Several years ago I read a series of articles on FAOL about repairing rods. link I'm fairly handy so I thought I would give it a try. Several repairs later I'm pretty confident. I have only tried to repair "clean" breaks. I have never tried to do a segment replacement - that would be a lot harder. My thinking is that for a small repair, even if the repaired area is a little stiffer than the original taper, that's no different than a ferrule. I'm not a great caster, but the repaired rods seem to cast the same as they did originally, at least as far as I can remember the action. I did a repair for a friend and he said the rod subsequently had a "tick" when casting. I'm not sure what the problem was. I should probably disassemble it to see if I can find the flaw. (My buddy doesn't fish it anyway.) That's the only repair I've done that I would consider a failure. One friend I did a repair for and on the very next trip, he broke the rod again. He gave up on the rod and donated it to me. I repaired it again and gave it to my daughter to learn with.
Has anybody else tried to repair a rod and have some experience to share?

 

[KeviR]

I had a really sweet SP 8'9" 3 wt that I made the mistake of sending back to Sage to repair. They said they couldn't repair it, they could only replace it with a newer model - a ZXL 8'6" 3 wt. The replacement was nice, but not as sweet as the original. Looking back, I would rather have the repaired SP than the new ZXL.

 

[Vtsalmon]

I love tinkering with rods . I build them and repair them . Over the winter my buddy brought my his father’s vintage true temper rod that his friend broke the tip off of about 30 years ago . He asked if I could fix it . I put a stent in it from a piece of graphite blank and epoxied it in then wrapped over the repair varnished the wrap and revarnished the other wraps . The other rod I repaired was a phillipson tc76 from the 50s I use this as a back up . It needed on guide re wrapped so I rewrapped it and varnished . I feel repair and building rods is some thing all fishers should try . It will give you a better understanding of your rod and how the work plus save you money . I have attached pics of repairs .

 

[KeviR]

I've never repaired a fiberglass rod, but since the goal is to try to re-create the "stiffness" of the original, that means that for a fiberglass rod, a smaller graphite stent can be placed entirely inside, meaning that the repair is only visible as the wraps on the outside. I have only repaired graphite rods, so the repair needs a fiberglass (lower modulus) sleeve (larger diameter) to try to match the stiffness of the original. That means that there is an lump where the sleeve is. Works, but not as aesthetically pleasing.

 

[Steeltrap]

Performance far outdoes looks.

 

[Vtsalmon]

You can stent graphite also I see no advantage to a sleeve . Unless one could not find a stent in the size needed. The repair either way will never be the same as original action or flex . It can come close and one has a usable rod again

 

[KeviR]

Performance far outdoes looks.

Totally agree - the repairs don't bother me. In a certain way, they are a point of pride.