break my 1st blank performing an static test before building it

[steelfish]

When you got to do what you gotta do.  Keep lifting, keep living.🎣🐙

Gary,

on your last pic your rod must be pretty badly twisted!
the line looks like going at the side of the blank but the reel looks perfectly straight !

thats where the acid wrap benefits apply

[boon]

Mmm tends to happen when a conventional rod setup tries to "turn inside out" aka put the guides underneath to reduce the size of the arc. Often shortly before the rod becomes a 6-or-more-piece model, in the case of graphite rods.

[philaroman]

that beaver-tail grip ain't doin' much to protect the line, in THAT scenario