Rod butts

[Donnyboat]

Hi everyone hope your all keeping well & leaving some fish for me, I have a few old boat rods that have snaped of just above the handle, is it possible to heat them then remove the original butts to use on other rods or blanks. cheers Don. 

[jtwill98]

They should be salvageable. If you were going to dispose of them, what do you have to lose, other than some time? 

If you have a portion of the broken rod that you can get a firm grip of with a vice grips, vise, or other means, try heating the grip with a heat gun, hair dryer and see if you can break it loose with a twisting action.

It will take a lot of heat to break the epoxy bond. Another option is to try wrapping in in foil and throw it into an oven for 5-15 minutes at 350-400 and then attempt twisting the grip to break it free.

If you can't get a hold of the broken rod, you might try jamming a screwdriver or other object into the broken piece' hollow section instead.

Time and perseverance are you friends, Good luck!

[Midway Tommy]

A good hand/craftsman with a long drill bit and rat tail file could get them to the point where a good (homemade or not) rod reamer would get them ready to accept and glue in a new blank.

[jurelometer]

Hi Don,

I am not sure exactly  what you are trying to salvage, and from what kind of rod. I know that you know all this rod construction stuff, but for the sake of clarity, and to help the new folk:


On most rods, the blank goes all the way through to the butt cap.  Metal reel seats and butt caps can be removed and reused.  Since you are not trying to protect the blank, heat is your friend, as jtwil98 noted.  There will usually not be too much epoxy residue if you apply heat from the outside.  The epoxy will stay mostly with the blank.

I use a heat gun. It makes for fast work. The heat is directed right to the metal to epoxy joint, and you don't have to worry about whatever nasty stuff might be off-gassing  into the same oven that you cook your food in, not to mention fumes in your kitchen.  And more than a few of us here can attest to what the spouse thinks about using kitchen appliances for working on mechanical stuff

If you are talking about boat rods where the blank does not go through the reel seat - same idea, but you just have to detach the ferrule that goes over the blank. I don't mess with these rods, but I think that the ferrule needs to be  size matched to the new blank, as these rods are supposed to take a high load.

If you want to remove plastic parts, like the Fuji "graphite" reel seats, I don't think it so worth it.  They will most likely deform or even melt before the epoxy releases from heat, and are inexpensive enough that it is not worth the time to grind out the old blank/epoxy.

-J

[Donnyboat]

Thanks to everyone for there ideas, I will try to place an old rod in the vice, then heat the butt area up, I have a filter puller, I made from square tubing, & seat belt material, I have a socket welded to it, so I should be able to turn it, I will let you all know how I go, cheers Don.

[Donnyboat]

Okay, the filter puller I made, did not work the seat belt material was to smooth, anyway, with plenty of heat, with the heatgun, I managed to get a screw driver to slot across the bottom of the butt, it aventually came loose, then I placed it into the lathe, & cleaned the old epoxy out, then I mixed some megapoxy R69, & stuck it on, I will give it 3 or 4 days to set, should be good, cheers Don.

[jtwill98]

Good deal.  I hope it works out for you. 

[oldmanjoe]

The old boat rods , some had ferrules and some did not . They were glued into the reel seats like the butt was  .  This one is ferruled

[oc1]

These days, it's unusual to find one of those that is not frozen.

[Donnyboat]

Very pleased with it, although I wont place to much stress on it for a day or 3, cheers Don.