Is It Possible To Replace A Guide Insert Rather Than An Entire Guide?

[steelfish]

..... but lack of free time

since many years ago I never have actually any "free time" on a day or week even before working on rods & reels, now I just need to push some activities from one day to another one, maybe cut my sleep to 4hrs only for 3 days, get up earlier on sleepy sundays, etc. thats the only way to have a daylight job and work on fishing rods and reels after that

since you dont have any free time, when you are busy on the W.C.  , check some videos on how to install a fishing guide.
my compadre John (thorhammer) just gave your many DIY options

[thorhammer]

once you assemble the "stuff", this repair takes ten minutes tops. Take Tom's advice- youtoob it and it will make sense. I've been meaning to do a vid on very basic rod repair, sort of whats-laying-close-by-on-the-bench MASH unit thinking, for years. 30 or 50 lb braid works great in a pinch. Color it with a black sharpie. It will be the strongest wrapped guide on there for sure. Thing is, once you find that ten minutes, you'll tell yourself, "self, I saw on the yootube where a guy made a rod dryer out of an old grill rotisserie motor", right about the time your neighbor's grill burns out. You'll be on the street pile with a socket getting it out to repurpose. Then you'll find a broken rod in a trash can missing a tip, and go "oh hell, I got this...". Then You'll rewrap ten dollar St Croix you saw at a yard sale. Then you'll be back to Get Bit ordering blanks to build because your buddy what had the grill saw your nice work and wants a bass rod. Then you'll be sleeping four hours like Alex         

This isn't chikkn little sky is falling doomspeak....I broke a tip in about 1994, and now a few hundred rod jobs (starting with that rotisserie motor) later....

Compadre, get some sleep. 4 hours isnt good as a sustained practice.

[steelfish]

......... Then you'll be sleeping four hours like Alex         

.........Compadre, get some sleep. 4 hours isnt good as a sustained practice.

haha good one amigo !!
that was just an example to make a 28hrs day  

when I started to accept orders from outside my friendship circle, there is only one condition I ways say to accept a job, no rush time and dont put me due dates, so, with that said, if good day/night I dont feel like working on a reel or rod I just dont touch them and get my 8hr or 9hrs sleep 

[JasonGotaProblem]

John is right. 2 years ago i decided to build ONE rod. Look what happened.

[Walleye Guy]

I contacted the rod guy (that my wife located on Facebook) and he said he'll charge $20 to do the repair (normally it's $25 but I already have the guide).  I'll contact Get Bit and see how much the materials would cost to do it myself.  I already have the two part epoxy for house repairs.  I really want to do this myself but could see myself really getting into it.  The last thing I need is another hobby that I don't have time for lol.

[steelfish]

I'll contact Get Bit and see how much the materials would cost to do it myself.  I already have the two part epoxy for house repairs.

checking the color of the thread you need to wrap your guide, dont need to call Getbit, since you already have the rod guide and home epoxy just go to wallyworld or another place that sells upholstery black thread and follow the instructions of any youtube video about this job.


I went to the darkside on May 2016, when I asked for help to install a guide on a shimano trevala rod (sounds familiar, hu?), of course many at.com members came to the rescue.
https://alantani.com/index.php?topic=17977.0

few months later I modified a wood box I built to carry tools around the house to build me a "manual rod wrapper "
https://alantani.com/index.php?topic=18922.0


few years later Alan opened me my own custom rod section on the forum 
https://alantani.com/index.php?board=138.0

[Walleye Guy]

Guys, I just wanted to follow up.  I got scheduled at work for two more travel trips out of town for a few days each so I decided to just bring the rod to the local gentleman to get the guide repaired.  I think it was a blessing in disguise, though, because he said after he removed the factory rod varnish and thread and was setting up to start adding the guide that the rod broke right where the guide was located.  I wonder if I got it too hot when I heated it to remove the broken guide?  Do you guys see a correlation with what happened?  To fix it, he filed about 1/64 off each end to clean off the burrs, then sanded down a piece of solid carbon fiber rod to fit nicely and join the two pieces (about 4" on each side of the joint) and glued it in place.

[JasonGotaProblem]

The other possibility is whatever trauma damaged the guide may have damaged the blank too, but since you can't fish it with a busted guide, it was never bent to discover that damage.

Butttt I have definitely broken a rod by overheating it while trying to soften the wrap. In fact I learned 2 things about myself that day:
1. Alcohol and rod building don't mix
2. Uncontrolled heat should never be near a rod.

When i just absolutely can't get the epoxy off without heat, I've been known to soak a folded paper towel in very hot but nowhere near boiling water, put it in a Ziploc, and wrap it around the rod at that location for a minute or two. That way the heat is applied slowly and evenly, and it can't ever go above the temp of the water.

[thorhammer]

What Jason said.

     I have repaired a lot of rods with a shunt, and done properly, while it might change the action a bit, usually becomes the strongest part of the rod. Many years ago, I bought am armload of US gutts butt blanks, when they got out of the blank biz. As I would usually whack several inches off the whippy tip to get where I wanted, I kept the solid glass discards for shunts. They flex and do not break. Repair as you indicated and reset the guide train as necessary, so the shunt is epoxied in place and then overwrap the guide on top of the repair. The repair is totally hidden and now the rod in that section is solid with multiple epoxy coats. Potentially it then stresses the next weakest spot in the rod but I've yet to have a fail.

[Walleye Guy]

The other possibility is whatever trauma damaged the guide may have damaged the blank too, but since you can't fish it with a busted guide, it was never bent to discover that damage.

Butttt I have definitely broken a rod by overheating it while trying to soften the wrap. In fact I learned 2 things about myself that day:
1. Alcohol and rod building don't mix
2. Uncontrolled heat should never be near a rod.

When i just absolutely can't get the epoxy off without heat, I've been known to soak a folded paper towel in very hot but nowhere near boiling water, put it in a Ziploc, and wrap it around the rod at that location for a minute or two. That way the heat is applied slowly and evenly, and it can't ever go above the temp of the water.

Jason, what do you consider "uncontrolled heat"?  Would a lighter be in that category?  I used a lighter but maybe I should have used my heat gun instead.

[JasonGotaProblem]

The other possibility is whatever trauma damaged the guide may have damaged the blank too, but since you can't fish it with a busted guide, it was never bent to discover that damage.

Butttt I have definitely broken a rod by overheating it while trying to soften the wrap. In fact I learned 2 things about myself that day:
1. Alcohol and rod building don't mix
2. Uncontrolled heat should never be near a rod.

When i just absolutely can't get the epoxy off without heat, I've been known to soak a folded paper towel in very hot but nowhere near boiling water, put it in a Ziploc, and wrap it around the rod at that location for a minute or two. That way the heat is applied slowly and evenly, and it can't ever go above the temp of the water.

Jason, what do you consider "uncontrolled heat"?  Would a lighter be in that category?  I used a lighter but maybe I should have used my heat gun instead.

Yes I ruined mine with a lighter. Heat gun can be too much too if you hold it too long

[jurelometer]

For the record:

Two problems with heat guns:  First, unless you get a mini heat gun with a special reducer tip, you are heating way too large an area.  Second is that all the heat guns that I seen don't have nearly a low enough setting.

To remove the tip top, use some needle nose pliers, and while gently but firmly pulling on the tip top, quickly pass a lighter or similar heat source under the metal tube, taking care to avoid applying any heat directly to the blank.  If the tip top was glued on with ferrule cement or five minute epoxy, it should pop right off quickly, and any heat will quickly dissipate with the metal tip top removed.

I have never had to use heat to remove the other guides. Just slide a razor blade on top of the guide foot. Since nylon does not stick that well to epoxy, the rest of the thread will unwind right off the blank. This is also why I am not a big fan of using alternate finishes for rod wrapping, even field repair.

-J

[Midway Tommy]

For the record:

I don't think it can be put any clearer or better than Dave did. I have never needed to use heat to remove a mid blank guide.

[Walleye Guy]

For the record:

Two problems with heat guns:  First, unless you get a mini heat gun with a special reducer tip, you are heating way too large an area.  Second is that all the heat guns that I seen don't have nearly a low enough setting.

To remove the tip top, use some needle nose pliers, and while gently but firmly pulling on the tip top, quickly pass a lighter or similar heat source under the metal tube, taking care to avoid applying any heat directly to the blank.  If the tip top was glued on with ferrule cement or five minute epoxy, it should pop right off quickly, and any heat will quickly dissipate with the metal tip top removed.

I have never had to use heat to remove the other guides. Just slide a razor blade on top of the guide foot. Since nylon does not stick that well to epoxy, the rest of the thread will unwind right off the blank. This is also why I am not a big fan of using alternate finishes for rod wrapping, even field repair.

-J

Based on this procedure I can say yes I applied too much heat to the tip-top guide when I removed it.  I also applied too much heat when removing the last guide (next to the tip top) however I only used heat here (versus a razor blade) because I was trying to save the "tunnel" in the wrap so I could sort of cheat when installing the replacement.  These two heat applications were on two different rods.  The Garcia Vengeance rod was broken when the gentleman removed the wrap to replace the guide and the other rod is a Lightning Rod that just had the tip top replaced.  I'll try to fish the Lightning Rod before our Canada trip so if it's going to break then it'll break here instead of up there.  Actually, I should fish both rods before hand...