Rod repair ? / new stripping guide

[Carter Simcoe]

I’ve got an old St. Croix Avid with the ceramic ring busted on one of the stripping guides.  

I never use it but I want to get it up and running again quick because it’ll make a great first 8 wt for someone who wants to tag along on a few trips to the marsh with me.  It’s a two piece rod so I’m not going to mess with mailing it back and I really don’t care if I ruin it so I don’t need to hear anything about the warranty.  

If anyone who has made a repair like this has any advice for removing the old guide and epoxy as well prepping the area for a new guide and new wraps I’d love to hear it.  

Thanks.

[Carter Simcoe]

.

[Steve K.]

If it were me…..I’d break out the single edged razor blade and start shavin’ away. After removing the guide, old thread and glue…Re-wrap a new guide and glop on some epoxy. Rotate the blank so it dries evenly….done. It ain’t rocket surgery.

[Darrin Terry]

Measure the distance from the next guide or from the top of the grip so that it can be remounted in the same spot. Razor blade will work for removing the thread, just make sure to only cut on the guide foot and only towards the guide not the rod. Do this by lating the blade flat on the guide foot and shave up the foot. A hair dryer will work to soften the epoxy finish enough that most can be peeled off. That should get you close bare blank with maybe just some bits from the underside of the threads. Repeated heat and maybe some scraping with you fingernail. Don’t balme me if you split the nail as it happens. Whatever you do, do not scrape with anything you even may supect of being harder than the blank. Also try not to damage the rod finish. Once it’s clean, place a pieve of masking tape around the blank both above and below the guide position and mark it inline with the other guides. Then tape the new guide in place. If you look around HERE, you can find a homemade wrapping station using mouse traps and a cardboard box. No realy it works. 🙂 It can be done by hand without a station, but not by me. You do want to use rod finish as standard epoxy will cure too hard. Also, make sure nothing with silicone is used as it will ruin the epoxy and cause it to craze.

Hmm. Avoid chemicals like acetone too. Use mineral spirits for clean up the epoxy.

Again, the site I linked earlier has a ton of info:
http://www.rodbuildingforum.com/

I am no expert, but I have built three rods and had to remove the stripper guide on my 2 wt a week after finishing the build to reposition it. Don’t do that if you can avoid it. Get positioned right the first time, not like me. 🙁

Darrin

[Bob Riggins]

First of all, yes, it is easy to do.  BUT, if you are only going to replace one guide, it may not be worth it to get set up.  You will need to set up some type of wraping platform, then you need to get the right thread and then you need to get rod finish epoxy, which is not the same as from Home Depot, then you will have to get the right stripping guide that will match the rest of the rod.  Buying one guide on line is not practical since once you pay shipping, you are paying double the price.

Are you in New Orleans.  If so call:

PROFESSIONAL SPORTS SHOP – 920 JULIA ST, NEW ORLEANS
504-522-3771

Tell them what you have and get a quote.  It shouldn’t be that much.

If you have someone do it, make sure they single wrap the guide and put on a thin coat of epoxy.

[Zach Matthews]

Carter –

Actually, replacing a guide might be worth it just in terms of learning how to do it.

[Carter Simcoe]

Thanks guys, I’ve built plenty of rods though.

[Darrin Terry]

In that case, the hardest part for me was removing the epoxy residue from under the threads. This was the only part I was troubled with. The rod blank I built on had a matte clear, unpainted finish. So I had no real worries there. Because of that, I actually used a plastic knife (picnic style with very large serations). With just a little work the gap in the serations was matched to the blank diamer in the section I worked on. Perfect scraper. Not sure how I would go at it with a painted blank.

[john nesselrode]

The peel and scrape already mentioned can be easier if you warm the rod with a blow dryer. Any residue left can be removed with fingernail polish remover.

[Mike Anderson]

Its so easy a cave man could do it.

[Carter Simcoe]

Its so easy a cave man could do it.

good, it’s on my list of shit to do this afternoon.

[Author]

Posts