Hello,

Well my turn has finally come to take on the task of removing a tip-top that will not budge at all w/multiple applications gentle heat.

I have both a 3-sided file and hacksaw blades and would appreciate if anyone could walk me through their process of splitting the tube for removal.

Is it better to cut diagonally in a spiral, or should I cut vertically in line with the blank?

Does it matter which part of the tube I make the cut?

Many thanks in advance for your help..

-chad

I normally spiral cut them, starting at the ring end. Often the first bit of spiral cutting allows them to pop open and come off easily. I use a file.

....................

Chad,
For those tip tops that are virtually impossible to remove, it might be just as well to cut the tip of the rod for the 3/8th of an inch that holds the tip top. On most rods, the 3/8th of an inch of tip removal will make little difference to the rod, and it is certainly better than badly damaging the tip by having big tip top removal issues.

Be safe

Chad I use a 90 degree air grinder with 1.5 inch sanding disks I start sanding the tip if it is hot glue the friction will heat it up and they will come off if it is epoxy I sand till there is a split in the tube and the heat expands the tube and I take a pair of pliers and peel off. I do 30 to 40 rods in a hour .try to file a split in the tube then then apply heat.

R U heating it and trying to pull it off by hand? I have had great luck with just sticking a paper clip into the eye of the tip top and putting rubber bands on the other side of the paper clip. Hang the rubber bands over something you can pull on and then hit it with some heat. The tip top not the rubber bands lol. Worst case if you do over heat it and melt the blank under the tip top, like said before, its so little that it doesn't matter much. I just spin the rod in my finger tips with a lighter under the tip top until something gives.

Hello,

Appreciate all your replies and e-mails,

Yes, I've always heated the top a little while spinning and pulled it straight off by hand.

But now I'm looking forward to trying that rubber band method that a few of you mentioned.

Applying heat while pulling simultaneously sounds better than having to pause between heating the tip and attempting to pull it off.



Update:

I was able to spiral cut the tube and peel it apart with long-nosed pliers, but was not as delicate as I should have been and ended up scratching the blank in a few spots.

It didn't matter though, because when I inspected the blank where the tube had been, I found that it was crudely whittled down in order to fit the tip-top.

This is on a mass-produced hollow fiberglass surf rod from the 70's with what looks like original components.

I suppose the whittling was an attempt cover a variety of blanks using only a few sizes of tip-tops, or just someone else's repair.

Either way there was just too much material removed for my comfort, and so I ended up trimming the blank as Roger suggested.

Should this problem come up again, it's good to know that there are more than a few options--progressing from rubber band to die-grinder...I'll save the dynamite for last..;)

-chad



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/29/2015 07:42AM by Chad Barlongo.