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Blank Splice - what do you think?

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Flatbow

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Okay, here's the deal. I got a good quality 9 foot graphite surf blank for free - the catch being it had been broken in shipment.

 

I checked the blank, and saw that the broken ends were just jagged enough to still mesh. This of course made for a close fit and also ensured the spine/grain/longitudal whatever was the same as when it was made.

I cut 2 pieces of hollow fiberglass from and old rod, sized one to slide down the inside of the butt on the graphite blank until the tapers matched, and then cut the other fiberglass piece so that when it wedged on the outside of the graphite.

So what I now have is a spliced blank with (from the inside out), a 3 inch glass sleeve, the graphite pieces joined to each other as closely as possible, and an outer glass sleeve. Everything was given a coat of good epoxy, and when I cut the outer glass sleeve, I was lucky enough to have a guide in the middle, so there's a good thread layer on the outside.

SO, before I make a short story endless, is it or ain't it? cwm31.gif I'd like to know before I go to all the effort of putting guides and a handle on it.... Thanks, Les

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Build it, use cheap parts, and use it as a spare rod. Let that useless ham handed nephew use it when he comes to visit. If its brokem or lost, you havn't lost much, you get kudos for letting him use a custom made rod.... wink.gif

Beware before - Beware after.
Trust in haste - Regret at leisure
Trust at leisure -Regret in haste
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As a general rule it is normally best to trim back the broken ends of a blank to prevent splits from travelling further up the blank when it is put under load. You may get away with what you have done in this area maybe not.

 

The integrity of the repair is laregly going to depend on the strength of the glass fibre spigot and sleeve. There is a very good article on repairing broken blanks on Tom Kirkmans rod building site. rodbuilding .org. Just go into the libary at the top and look for the article it is easy to find.

 

Repairs near to the tip end are the most dificult to effect.

 

If you don't want to risk spending more time why not glue on a tip top with hot melt glue, tape on a few guides, lash on a plate reel seat and make a couple of dozen hard casts with the max weight the blank is rated for. This should show up any potential weakness. You could also tie off the line to a fence post and heave on the rod a little.

 

If it survives this heh you may get a servicable rod out of it.

 

Good luck.

 

Mike Oliver

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Good Idea, Mike, not sure why with all the brain drain I put into trying to come up with a fix I didn't think of it (never said I was smart, mostlly just cheap....

The break is just about exactly where you'd cut it for a two piece,and if all else fails, I do have a neighbor kid who'd love it. And think of how bad he'd get hooked on stripers if he broke his new "Custom" rod on a fish eek.gif He'd be the school legend for a while - what a story for his buds - "The Old Man and The Seabrook (Striper)"

I'll let y'all know how it turns out... thanks

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I repaired about a dozen and a half rods by sleeving them. I only use an internal sleeve, then wrap the break on the outside and epoxy it with rod builders epoxy. As long as it's far enough down the blank not to kill the action, it works very well. Although I never had one let go on me yet, I don't know if I'd want to hook a fifty with it.

"Don't believe everything quoted on the internet, some of it is made up" ~ Abraham Lincoln
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I think it is a good idea. I have repaired numerous freshwater rods that were broken and they made serviceable rods. Will it break again? Who knows? Will a brand new rod break? In the right situation it might. I would put a layer of thread the complete length of the break and give it a good test. One thing, it doesn't cost anything but time, and it may wind up being your favorite rod. My favorite creek rod that I built almost 30 years ago has been broken and repaired several times, but where it goes, I know it will get abused, so I live with its "ugly" nature.

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I've never tried a sleeve, but I car-doored a 9wt fly rod just above the foregrip years ago and fixed it with light fiberglass cloth and west system epoxy - a little stiff, but I still use it.

I've done stuff I ain't proud of, and the stuff I am proud of is disgusting.

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