Help needed - Rod ferule fiiting too little

[Lenny Lim]

Guys,

I am a little worried about the length of insertion for my rod ferule into the female end. After pushing it in, the rod ferule only travel approx. one third in leaving another two third exposed.

Question is,

1) Is this normal ? Would the rod strength be affected ? as I have seen a PE 6 broken with this issue.

2) I hate sanding it as I worry we might oversand it.

Rod type  : PD black diamond 77

Appreciate your kind advise.

Thanks,

Lenny

[Mark Harris]

Lenny - if that is really as far as you can insert the male ferrule, then it looks like an accident waiting to happen to me and is most definitely not right.  Especially so in my view, given the unforgiving nature of that particular rod model.

It is truly, truly ridiculous that premium rod makers send out rods that fit as badly as that and if it is easy for you I would send it back. Personally I have seen Smith and Patriot Design as big offenders on this front in the past.

Your other options are:

1. Make sure the female ferrule is completely clean and free of any debris stopping a perfect engagement of the male ferrule (unlikely).

2. Very, very carefully sand the male ferrule using  extremely fine grade sand paper. Do a tiny bit at time taking great care to sand evenly and not to remove too much.  If you do a forum search you will find a fair bit of advice on this posted in the past.

[Eric Tai]

That's pretty disappointing!

I'd be paying a professional rod builder to sand it for you for piece of mind.

[Ken Best]

Lenny,

I definitely would not use this rod with that problem.
If you bought it new from a dealer, make sure they didnt have 2 of this model and have the butt/blanks mixed up.
Rod butt/blanks can be individually sanded by the maker to fit.

Maybe an email to PD will sort the problem as they have a reputation to look after.
Or if all else fails, Duncan from Fishhead may be able to sort the problem for you as they are a stockist of PD rods and can contact them.

Ken

[Andy Rowe]

Lenny,

Was it like that when new or is the bad fitting a more recent development. I have found on several rods this occuring after some use, smith, 7 seas and shimano rods.

I just took some very fine paper to it, it is amazing how little work on the male will fix the fit. But i agree if you are not confident send it to a pro.

[Rick Smith]

Lenny,

Was it like that when new or is the bad fitting a more recent development. I have found on several rods this occuring after some use, smith, 7 seas and shimano rods.

I just took some very fine paper to it, it is amazing how little work on the male will fix the fit. But i agree if you are not confident send it to a pro.

Sorry, I know it was discussed before...but, do you sand longitudinally or cirucumfrentially? thank you.

[Mark Harris]

Was it like that when new or is the bad fitting a more recent development. I have found on several rods this occuring after some use, smith, 7 seas and shimano rods.

That's interesting Andy. Almost invariably, my rods tend to get a little looser over time (and wax comes into play), rather than tighter!

[Andy Rowe]

Hi Rick, definitely the latter. It takes very little work so be careful. This was my backyard method though so keep that in mind, and proceed at your own risk.

Mark, most of my rods are carpenter or ripple now and I've never had this problem with those, I really can't explain it as the joins were clean. What wax do you use? I over applied smith wax once and found after the rod was in the hot sun for a few hours the dam thing started moving during the fight.

[Jon Li]

My LR86 which has been with me since 2000 needed to be relaminated with epoxy to obtain the required tight fit with the handle , I guess the wears are not only in the male ferrule but the inner wall of the handle experienced some wears too thus causing the loose fit .

As for the rod is question , I think it's either swapped handle or just slack QC , I think the former is the more likely cause .

Jon .

[Mark Harris]

Andy - the only GT rods I use these days are Carpenter and Ripple as well. Previous issues I have had with badly fitting ferrules were Smith, PD and Shimano.

For wax, I usually just use a quality candle with a high bees-wax content and have not had any problems.

[Rick Smith]

Hi Rick, definitely the latter. It takes very little work so be careful. This was my backyard method though so keep that in mind, and proceed at your own risk.

Thanks Andy, will definitely give it a shot on my tenryu...