Do-it-yourself fishing rod repair

Issues related to the replacement of broken rods remain very relevant in Russia. Andrei Yanshevsky shares his experience in repairing float rods.

The difficulties are due to many reasons. Firstly, we do not have any branded guarantees for fishing tackle. Secondly, there are no eternal tackles. Sooner or later, due to the fatigue of the rod structure, material delamination occurs, the tightness of the lacquer coating is violated, the density of the joints of the knees is violated, and much more. Thirdly, sooner or later, the rod is stepped on, pressed by the door or broken during casting in a strong headwind or hooked on bushes with a snap.

Fourth, and this is very important. Often buyers ask if a broken knee can be replaced with a similar part from a different rod. Theoretically, it is possible, but only if you are very lucky. Each company-seller, when ordering gear at manufacturing plants, gives them their own designs, which, at least a little, but differ from the designs of other companies.

There are about four dozen manufacturers of high-quality float rods in the world, and each of them uses its own materials, which are also somewhat different. In practice, it is very difficult to match the knee from one rod to another. Elbows can be almost the same, but differ in taper, wall thickness, stiffness and power. Even if you take the knees from one rod and replace them with the knees of another rod made at the same enterprise, you still have to be lucky so that they dock. Although such cases do occur, they are extremely rare.

The exception is only two domestic firms - "Sabaneev" and "Volzhanka". They provide spare parts for all their products in full.

Therefore, in all other cases, it must be recognized that on-site repairs will remain relevant.

If we take into account the statistics of float rod breakdowns, then based on the data of the Sabaneev Technology Center (the only professional center for repairing rod knees in the country), the causes of breakdowns and their nature can be arranged in the following sequence.

In the first place, of course, are the breakdowns that occurred due to careless handling of the rod. Most often the rod is stepped on. If one knee is broken, then it’s easier, but if you stepped on and pushed through several knees, then it’s cheaper to throw away the rod and buy a new one.

Very often the rod is pressed down by the car door. Such cases are typical when fishing smoothly flows into a relaxed holiday, and preparations for home are carried out already in the dark. I personally know about the case when they managed to break the spinning knee in seven places, as in the well-known anecdote with a knife. The knee did not want to "get" into the car, and they gradually pushed it through, and each time they tried to close the door.

In third place are breakdowns that occurred during an overload of the rod. Overload occurs when very heavy rigs are used. With a long and insufficiently powerful rod, they try to cast the rig against a strong wind, while trying to cast the rig with a hook caught in the bushes and during attempts to break the rig after a “dead” hook with the rod.

During overload, a knee fracture usually occurs in its lower third (photo 1). Such breakdowns are subject to fairly simple repairs. To do this, with a diamond tool (any other tool does not cut carbon fiber, but breaks it), cut the cut, as shown in photo 2.A shortened lower leg is obtained, which fits well with an even thicker lower leg. The upper part of the broken knee is inserted into the lower part and the entry is adjusted, shortening the lower part of the upper trim until the mating length is three diameters at the junction or two to three centimeters more (photo 3). After fitting the fragments, it is better to glue them together with a drop of waterproof glue. This is how you can repair a knee that is broken not very close to its lower or upper edge.

The described repair option is used when restoring telescopic rods. The repair rod has a completely different action and reduced length, but you can fish with it indefinitely, that is, until the second unforeseen event.

The situation is worse if there is a split of the knee in its upper part, from the end of the knee (photo 4), or if the butt knee is broken, or in the case when the angler certainly wants to maintain the original length of the rod. In this case, a bandage is used. Bandaging of a broken knee is also used when repairing the knees of pole spinning rods and match rods (photo 5).

You can carry out self-repair at home using the following technology. A broken knee needs to be planted on some kind of mandrel. In reality, it can be a conical stick made of wood or a thinner rod knee. In industry, these mandrels are made of hardened metal. In order to then remove the repaired elbow from the mandrel, the mandrel must be covered with a separating layer. As such a layer, you can use a plastic film, but it is better to use a lubricant. The best results are obtained when wax is used. But it is relatively difficult to get wax now, it is much easier to stock up on wax polish for floors and furniture. Grease is applied to the mandrel along the entire length.

In the place where the brace will be created on the repaired knee, there should be a lot of lubrication. A knee is put on the mandrel with grease, and you can start repairing. A thin, not thicker than 0.12 mm, fiberglass is taken. The simplest thing is to take a piece of fiberglass, which is used as electrical insulation or as thermal insulation.

Fiberglass must be annealed on an electric stove. During annealing, wax lubricants are removed from the surface of the glass fabric. You can also anneal it on an open fire, you just need not to overheat the fiberglass so that the fiberglass does not start to melt. If you still accidentally burned the fabric and it became brittle, then it must be replaced, otherwise the strength of the bandage will be low. After preparing the fabric, you can begin to manufacture the binder.

As such, epoxy resin is used, which is designed for polymerization for at least 10–12 hours. The slower the polymerization goes, the stronger the connection will be. The most suitable are conventional resins for domestic use. The resin is mixed with a hardener in the proportion recommended in the instructions for it. Mixing is very convenient in polyethylene lids, which are used to close glass jars. The resin is thoroughly mixed. It is better to do this by placing the lid on a warm radiator. The heated resin will have a lower viscosity and better impregnate the fiberglass.

Cutting is cut out of fiberglass. The dimensions of the cut are made such that the bandage covers the knee crack along the length - 3-4 cm on each side (photo 6). The width of the fiberglass should be such that it wraps the knee at the fracture site four times, but not less (photo 7). Cutting fabrics are impregnated with prepared resin and carefully wrapped around the kink. At the next stage, the fiberglass must be fixed and sealed. For this, a lavsan film is used.

It is optimal to use an old tape, and a narrow one.The tape must be placed on the fiberglass with the side on which there is no magnetic layer, otherwise it will be very difficult to remove it later. The tape is placed turn to turn, with an overlap and at a constant tension. In this case, excess resin will be squeezed out to the surface (photo 8, 9).

Part of the resin will also go inside the knee, and in order not to stick the knee to the mandrel, a separating layer is used. After winding, which is called crimping, the squeezed out excess resin is removed with a rag and the resin is waiting for curing. The next day, before removing the tape, it makes sense to warm up the repaired area. To do this, the easiest way is to use a hair dryer or another source of warm, and preferably hot air. After warming up, the strength of the connection will increase.

You can do it differently. Remove the tape by simply winding it, warm up the repair site. In this case, the knee can already be heated to a temperature of 100-120 ° C for half an hour. At higher temperatures, household resins can change strength characteristics, and it is better not to risk it.

It should be noted that repairing the knee at home will not provide a complete restoration of the strength of the material. Cold curing resins are afraid of exposure to moisture, so you have to dry your knee after each fishing trip. But in general, this method of repair provides the necessary strength and reliability. The life of the rod after such repairs is usually at least two to three years.

Separate problems arise when the uppermost knee is fractured. If the tip is not hollow, then it should either be replaced or shortened to the point of fracture. Attempts to repair with a bandage give satisfactory results only in cases where it is possible to join the fragments with a piece of a very thin-walled and light tube. But, as a rule, nothing good comes out of such a repair. It's all about the additional mass that is contained in the tube itself. Every gram of excess weight at the end of the rod greatly changes the action.

In the life of every spinning angler, unfortunately, there are times when his fishing gear breaks and you have to repair the spinning with your own hands.

This is especially offensive when a breakdown occurs at the very beginning of fishing. In this case, the ability to repair the rod is very limited. Modern materials from which spinning rods are now produced require some preparation and some time in order for the repair to be of high quality.

Every experienced fisherman knows how to treat rods as carefully as possible, and they are not designed to push them off the coast, in case fishing takes place from a boat, or for other, uncharacteristic tasks. However, sometimes situations still arise, after which you have to think about how to repair a broken spinning rod. The most common of them:

1. Careless carrying spinning rod in working order tip forward. This can result in you accidentally "sticking" it into a tree trunk or into the ground. In most cases, this leads to the need to repair the tip of the spinning rod.
2. Using baits that are too heavy, those that exceed the upper value of the rod test. In this case, with an amplitude cast, the spinning can simply break (fold).
3. There are frequent cases when the assembled spinning is placed on the ground and on them. advancing, or lean against the car with the door open, and they break when it slams shut.
4. Accidental hitting the blank on the side of the boat or the railing of the bridge, may cause cracks in the bridge. High-tech and expensive spinning rods made of graphite materials are especially afraid of such shock loads.

You should always remember that fishing with a broken rod automatically turns into an ordinary vacation near the water.

Of course, sometimes such breakdowns of rods occur in which they have to be thrown out, or given to professional masters - rodbuildersspecializing in the repair and assembly of a wide variety of blanks.

But more often, nevertheless, spinning rods are damaged, which almost every fishing fan can fix. For instance:

• Fracture of the rod tip.
• Damage to the access rings and tulip.
• Fracture of the form in the middle part (of his knee).
• Damage or deterioration of the handle.

Let us consider in more detail how you can repair spinning with your own hands in these cases.

Very often you have to do do-it-yourself spinning repairs due to tip breakage. This is a double nuisance, since a tulip is located here - the final access ring, which takes on the main load.

Tops, depending on the material and design of the rod, are hollow and monolithic. It depends on the method of its repair.

In this case there is the ability to splice the top with the main part of the form. This is done like this:

1. To install inside and connect both parts, you need to choose appropriate size rod. It should roughly match the inside diameter of the hole. It can be an elastic metal or carbon rod, a sewing needle, etc.
2. Both parts deburred and degreased.
3. The matched insert and the ends of the connected parts lubricate with epoxy.
4. Everything connect and let dry.
5. In order to increase the reliability of the connection, the junction can be varnish. The color of varnish for spinning repair can be any, including colorless. The main thing is that it should be of high quality, with good water resistance.

When repairing spinning with hollow tip, there is no need to rearrange the tulip, the main thing here is to place it in line with the rest of the rings.

In this case, there are two repair options:

• try to connect both parts;
• remove and rearrange the tip from the tip to the main body of the blank.

In the first case, you need to choose elastic tube of the appropriate diameter, into which you can firmly insert both parts, and fix this connection with epoxy glue.

• carefully heat the base of the tulip using a hair dryer or a lighter;
• remove it from a broken tip;
• with the help of a file adjust inner diameter the base of the tulip to the diameter of the remaining tip;
• with epoxy glue make a connection tulip and tops;
• for greater reliability, wrap the junction with a strong thread and fill it with varnish or the same epoxy glue;
• after the glue dries, we will get, albeit a little shortened, but quite functional spinning.

All the described manipulations for repairing a broken tip will most likely change the action and length of the repaired spinning rod, but keep it in service and give you the opportunity to go fishing with it more than once.

Spinning rings repair, which include the tip, most often have to be done in connection with their failure and loss of functional qualities. In this case, do-it-yourself spinning repairs are best done at home, having previously prepared. Before starting repairs, you need to: equip an appropriate workplace, purchase a new set of tulip rings, prepare glue and tools.

Spinning repair associated with the replacement of rings should be carried out in the following sequence:

1. Heating the base of the old rings, remove them from the rod.
2. The places where the new rings will be attached are treated with fine sandpaper and degreased.
3. Using epoxy glue, firmly fix the new rings.
4. For a tighter fixation, we put a bandage on top and, after the glue has hardened, cover the attachment point with varnish.

When replacing rings, it is very important to ensure that they are in line. Consistency must be maintained.

Breakage of one of the spinning knees, this one of the worst injuries. In this case, to replace it, it would be rational to find new inexpensive knee at the fishing store.

If this was not possible, then you need to try to restore the knee. Repair of spinning rods in such cases is similar to the repair of their tips:

1. If the knee is hollow, we select an elastic rod of the appropriate diameter to insert it inside the knee. If it is monolithic, then it is necessary to select a suitable tube into which we will insert both parts of the broken element.
2. We clean both parts from burrs, damage and degrease them.
3. The connection is made with epoxy glue.
4. Let the glue dry and cover the element with varnish.

If hollow knee, when repairing a spinning rod with your own hands, at the junction of the broken parts, you need to apply additional bandage - we impose several layers of nylon thread and cover it with the same glue. This will give additional strength to the connection.

Sometimes there are cases when the form receives damage to its top layer or crack. Most of the time this is fixable. It is necessary to carefully clean the spinning surface along the entire length of the damage with a thin sandpaper, adding another centimeter on each side, then cover this place with a thin layer of good waterproof glue and wrap it with a dense layer of nylon thread. After the glue has dried, cover the layer of thread with the same glue and apply a second layer of thread. You need to repeat this procedure three times. After that, we apply a layer of varnish. Thus, you get a fairly reliable tire, which will allow you to use spinning for its intended purpose more than once.

Often, under the influence of external factors, begin break down cork handles spinning rods. In order not to lose it completely, its repair should be started as soon as possible:

• A few corks from wine or champagne must be destroyed and rubbed into crumbs.
• Mix this crumb with waterproof glue.
• The resulting mass must be filled with all the chips and irregularities formed on the handle.
• After the handle has dried, it must be processed with a file and sandpaper.

The handle, restored in this way, will be able to perform its functions for a long time.

Learn from the video how to make do-it-yourself spinning repairs if the spinning tip is broken:

The possibility of its further operation depends on how and how well you can repair the spinning with your own hands, or with the help of a specialist. A repair made carefully, without haste, using quality materials, although it will change the appearance of the rod and some of its characteristics, will return it to its former performance.

In this article, we will consider the most common breakdowns of telescopic rods and simple ways to repair them.

The most common malfunction in a fiberglass telescopic rod is the loss of one of the knees. In this case, we disassemble the rod, clean the rough end of the drop-down knee, wash it with gasoline, dry it and apply a very thin layer of epoxy glue. Then, using the skin, we adjust the knees to each other.

Another problem is a broken knee. As a rule, for such rods, breaks occur in a spiral. Let's talk about two ways to repair such damage to telescopic rods with your own hands.

The first thing to do is to clean the fracture and wash it with gasoline. Then lubricate with epoxy glue, wrap tightly on top in one layer with a nylon or “gas” strip 2-3 cm wide, dry and lightly clean with emery cloth. If the correct knee fits easily into the repaired area, another layer of fabric should be wound.

The second way to repair consists of the following. The fracture, as in the first case, is cleaned, washed with gasoline and lubricated with a thin layer of glue.A very rigid PVC tube, the length of which is 5 cm longer than the break, the diameter is 3-3.5 mm less than the diameter of the repaired area, and the wall thickness is approximately 0.8-1 mm, is placed in a container with acetone or a solvent for nitro-paints by 30- 40 min.

After the tube noticeably increases in diameter and becomes elastic, we pull it over the damaged section of the rod. A day later, when the acetone evaporates, the tube will very tightly compress the fracture site. For reliability, if the diameter allows, wrap the tube with a thin nylon thread.

Such a repair of a telescopic rod is simple, it can be easily done by hand, and most importantly, it allows you to significantly extend the life of your rod.

In the following videos about repairing telescopic rods with your own hands, you will see a few more repair techniques: