Fishing Pole Repair Kit

You can either wrap the tape around several times to secure it from unwrapping itself too much or use a small piece of packing tape or similar high tack tape to hold it in place while it is being shrunk and during the cure.

If you can't see any 'weave pattern' like small squares in the professional repair then it's likely they've used a unidirectional carbon fibre reinforcement, rather than a woven reinforcement. It would be possible for you to use this same reinforcement in your home repairs, in fact we do sell unidirectional reinforcement, although there would be some extra considerations if you use this format of reinforcement.

Firstly, we would NOT recommend using only unidirectional carbon for the repair. When a pole has been cracked or broken, it's generally better to add at least some strength in the 'hoop' direction. Since unidirectional carbon will add strength only in the direction of its length, you would need to do at least one wrap of the woven cloth (as supplied in the kit) before finishing with a unidirectional. The second consideration is the handling of unidirectional carbon; you will find it quite delicate and tricky to handle compared to the stabilised woven cloth that's included in the fishing pole kit.

If you do want to experiment, take a look at our unidirectional carbon fibre reinforcement.

Although we don't market this kit for repairing carbon fibre bike frames, there are a lot of similarities between the materials and process needed to repair a carbon fishing pole and those needed to repair a carbon bike frame and so there are a number of circumstances where customers might decide to use this kit to repair a bike frame. Given the potentially safety critical nature of repairing a bike frame, it's important to point out that whilst the materials in the kit might be appropriate for a bike frame repair, it would be the responsibility of the person doing the repair to assess the suitability of such a repair and to carry it our it competently.

In terms of the structural integrity of a repair to bike frame tube (like a seat stay) the key principle is to add as much carbon to the damaged area as has been compromised by the damage. For example, if the seat stay tubes have a wall thickness of 0.5mm and the fibres have been fully broken/cracked then you'll need to add 0.5mm of extra carbon over this area to restore the original strength. Given that the 100gsm carbon included in the kit is 0.1mm per ply, that means you'll need to add 5 layers/wraps of the cloth to achieve a 0.5mm thickness. Considering that the original tube probably uses predominantly undirectional carbon fibre in its construction, depending on the nature of the damage, you may even choose to add still more thickness to compensate for the fact that the carbon fibre kit is woven and not unidirectional and therefore adds only half its strength in the direction of the original fibre.

Yes you can use super glue to bond together the broken bits of the rod prior to doing the structural repair using the kit.

Yes this repair kit will work on graphite rods. The basic principles are the same. In essence you still wrap around the damaged area as before.

What you’ll need to do is make the repair on the inside of the tube. This is a little bit different but still perfectly possible. Follow these steps:

• 1. Select another section of pole that fits comfortably inside the broken pole, possibly not the next pole down ensuring that there is at least a 0.5mm – 1mm gap between the pole you select and the inside of the broken pole when you put the other section inside the broken pole.
• 2. Using some of the abrasive paper (120 grit) ‘key-up’ the inside of the broken pole so that the surface is clean and scuffed ready for the repair to be applied.
• 3. Wrap the good pole (the one that will go inside the broken one) with some of the shrink-tape, overlapping as you go. The shrink-tape will stop the resin from sticking to the good pole. Make sure you put plenty of tape on and don’t miss any areas where the resin might go. If you do, the resin will stick to the good pole and you could have a lot of trouble getting it out again.
• 4. Next, wrap some carbon fibre, wetting it with resin as you go, around the outside of the good pole. Wrap at least twice round, maybe 3 times round, so that when it is slid inside the broken tube it will be a snug fit.
• 5. Next, slide the good tube (wrapped with wet carbon) inside the broken tube, aiming to leave the repair bandage positioned correctly underneath the damaged area of the pole.
• 6. Allow the poles to cure in this position fully (8hrs).
• 7. Once cured, twist the good pole to remove it from inside the repaired pole. The pole should come out from inside the shrink tape. Next, remove the shrink tape from the inside surface of the repaired pole.
• 8. Clean up any resin that has dribbled through to the outside of the repaired pole using abrasive paper.
• 9. You should now be ready to hit the water again!

The ideal solvent for cleaning up resin spills is Acetone. However, it should not be used on hands because it will dry the skin. You should take care to always wear nitrile gloves when handling resins thereby avoiding the need to get them off your skin. If skin contact does occur then workshop hand-cleaners like Slig or Swarfega are effective.

No, Our Fishing Pole Repair kit contains EL2 Epoxy Laminating Resin that is classed as a hazardous material. We would recommend reading the Safety Data Sheet which contains full details of the hazards and suitable precautions. You can download and read the datasheet here: Epoxy Resin Safety Data Sheet