# Blown Up Century - Can it be saved?



## tjbjornsen (Oct 31, 2009)

Greetings oh wise rod building magicians!
I was using my Century TTL 3-5.25 oz a couple of days ago, and on a cast the top portion came apart from the bottom.
It is a rod that I bought off of these boards, and was wrapped conventional by Hatteras Jacks, and is an absolute beauty. 
I was throwing well under its limit with just a light Pompano rig and a 3.80 oz sinker.
(I only know that because I got a wild hair up my (Obessive Compulsive) nose a few weekends ago and started weighing sinkers to see what they actually weighed, and marked them all with a sharpie!)
At first I thought no bug deal, that has happened to me before, but when I went to re-seat the upper portion, it would not seat correctly.
I looked at the female (bottom) ferrule and there was no damage there, but as you can see in the attached pics, the upper (male) section of the ferrule sustained a crack that is about 1/2 inch long.
What Say You?
Is it saveable?
Thanks in advance,
Tom


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## Tacpayne (Dec 20, 2008)

Tom, here is a couple idea's first I would put a caliper in the female section and see what it measures, then I would measure the male section just above the crack and see what it measures. The ferrules on Centurys are usually long, but have several inches sticking out for wear. You may be able to trim the 1/2" off and be fine. If you cant I would have it fit with a spigot ferrule. If made correctly it will be a tight fit and should give you years of use without worry


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## tjbjornsen (Oct 31, 2009)

Thanks Chuck,
That was what I was hoping to hear.
My first thought was to drive something round into the the end of the male end and repair the crack with something durable like JB Weld It, and once that was dry apply a coat of it on the inside of the male ferrule as well.
But I will take those measurements and see if I can lose that much of the male end. 
There is indeed a good portion of the male end that does not fit all the way down into the female section.


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## jcallaham (Jan 1, 2009)

that happehed to me to me as well. I cut off the cracked area and it fit real nice ,but it exploded on the first cast,completley shattered. this was a1to4oz rod with a 2oz weight. 
The blank was new,the guides were taped on for testing, I just thought I did something wrong and wasted a good blank . It really hurt,two of the best casts I have ever made came off that testing session, not to mention the $'s gone. If I ever buy another one I'll make sure I get a good Warranty or send it to Chuck for repair.


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## fish bucket (Dec 5, 2002)

from the pix it looks like that rod can be saved.
i had one that had a small split that couldn't be saved.
i think it depends on whether or not the structural integrity of the blank is compromised.

maybe epoxy it into a 1 piece is a solution?


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## Garboman (Jul 22, 2010)

If it were me.....I would cut the split/cracked part off the tip

Then take Rod Thread Epoxy coat the "INSIDE" of the Tip with liberal amount of Epoxy working it with a brush to get it at least the depth of the remaining ferule section.

Then put it on a blank turning/drying machine to keep the coating even and turn it overnight...

Next day after Epoxy has set, coat it again and turn it again

Then I would "lightly coat" the OUTSIDE of the tip and sand to fit the female section after drying/turning for 24 hours

If Hatteras Jacks did not cover the female section of the ferrule with thread epoxy I would make sure that got wrapped and coated. Ryan or Jim might do this for you for free
if you asked them as well as reinforce the previously broken tip.


When Breakaway All Stars first came out, quite a few tips were cracked at the ferrule 
due to not enough Thread reinforcement, builders learned you had to have at least a couple of inches of thread/epoxy at the ferrule or the tip would crack from the stress.
DD had one break on him, I know of at least three others

If Blank blows up as did the other poster in this thread you can make the "bomb" Drum rod using the butt section from the Century blank and a 1508 or 1509 tip, it is very similar to the Breakaway Competition Butt. I fitted one up on an impulse from a Century Danny Moeskops competition rod and it is bad ass.

It took some amount of "Chutzpah" on my part to cut up a perfectly good $250 Competition Rod blank and in effect render it useless , but with care it turned out well
and the upside was that I made a popping rod from the tip

On the upside you are casting hard enough to break stuff and that is a good thing..........................


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## tjbjornsen (Oct 31, 2009)

"If Hatteras Jacks did not cover the female section of the ferrule with thread epoxy I would make sure that got wrapped and coated. Ryan or Jim might do this for you for free
if you asked them as well as reinforce the previously broken tip."

No, they certainly did do this. It has a very serious amount of thread and epoxy on the female end. No damage there what-so-ever.

"On the upside you are casting hard enough to break stuff and that is a good thing.......................... "
And that sir is the only part about this whole thing that has made me laugh. Good work there, I needed that one... 
I still haven't gotten around to bringing myself to cutting off most of the spool of line that I blew up when the broken end of the rod hit the water 10 feet in front of me!


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## Ronn (Feb 22, 2011)

Tom that reel is not the Akios 757CTM was it?


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## HStew (Jan 8, 2009)

+1 Garboman. 
Maybe drill or burn a very small hole at top of the crack before epoxy. I think I know how this happened but that don't fix the problem. Looking real hard at the last 3-4 " of the rod , it looks defective i.e. chips, striations, etc..


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## tjbjornsen (Oct 31, 2009)

Ronn said:


> Tom that reel is not the Akios 757CTM was it?


Yeah it was...
No worries.
"No Reel was harmed in the blowing up of this rod..."


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## tjbjornsen (Oct 31, 2009)

HStew said:


> +1 Garboman.
> Maybe drill or burn a very small hole at top of the crack before epoxy. I think I know how this happened but that don't fix the problem. Looking real hard at the last 3-4 " of the rod , it looks defective i.e. chips, striations, etc..


Awww... Now yer just egging me on to send another email to Century. 
I know I don't have a leg to stand on since I bought it used, but I was kind of wondering what they thought of the situation.
Haven't heard back yet.


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## tjbjornsen (Oct 31, 2009)

Maybe drill or burn a very small hole at top of the crack before epoxy.

How far above the crack should I drill this hole?
And then I assume that I shold leave the hole there after I cut off the broken portion?
My Father-in-law has a turner that i can put it on to dry after epoxying the inside, so I am going to try this route first.
And I just checked the length of the crack, and it is a full 3/4" long to where the crack dissapears.

And just to start preparing for worst case scenario...

"you can make the "bomb" Drum rod using the butt section from the Century blank and a 1508 or 1509 tip"

Anyone reading this thread have a wrapped (or unwrapped) 1508 or 1509 tip section lying around that they are not doing anything with?

Thanks again in advance for all of the help guys,

Tom


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## tjbjornsen (Oct 31, 2009)

Well,
I ended up getting a couple of very nice emails from Brian at Century, and he has urged me to get in touch with Ryan at Hatteras Jacks about a repair, so I am going to take that route first.
Thanks again guys for all of the help.
Tom


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## tjbjornsen (Oct 31, 2009)

Well, This is nothing less than an unabashed plug for both Ryan White at Hatteras Jacks and Simon (yeah,m I know, I got it wrong in my last post!) at Century in England.
Simon has followed up with at least 4 or 5 emails to me, contacted Ryan on his own, and then Ryan contacted me as well.
Everyone and their cousin is falling all over themselves to fix this rod and make it right, even though I have made it clear from the start that I bought this rod second hand, and in no way felt like they were responsible to go to the lengths that they are to fix this rod.
So this is a huge shout out to the people at Century, and Ryan at Hatteras Jacks for jumping into this fray as quickly as they have, even though it is a rod that is once removed from the original purchaser.
Bravo to all parties involved. 
If you are in the market for this sort of rod, you would be hard pressed to find better customer service, from the blank builder to the custom rod builder.
I am still shaking my head that they would go to the lengths that they have for a rod that was bought second hand.
Bravisimo!
Tom


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## AbuMike (Sep 3, 2007)

Top notch folks Tom. I like my Century more evertime I take it out....


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## Tama (Aug 5, 2011)

I found this post after a google search! I like the feel of Century blanks but I have had two with bad luck. One the ferrule split and the other the blank snapped just below the ferrule on the bottom section. One was the 9'6" and the other the 11'. The break off was during the cast and the split I noticed when putting the rod together. I stripped the blanks and built others with the components. After looking at the splits and break I don't trust thin blanks like this anymore. I think the split happened cause the blank is so thin and the ferrule takes alot of pressure. I like the Century's but I don't trust them anymore.


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## jcallaham (Jan 1, 2009)

Dittos, Iwould be real nervous about century, or Hatteras Jack, I read positive things about them on here but my experience doesn't make me anxious to go in that direction.


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## AbuMike (Sep 3, 2007)

I have looked at the pics over and over again. Really looks to me as if the spigot joint was not seated far enough. Looking at the pics it appears to only have been maybe 1.25" into the ferrel...I'm sure I'm wrong but just looks that way.


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## fish bucket (Dec 5, 2002)

interested in why you are nervous about century and about hatteras jack?
i've had at least 7-8 centurys and have had nothing but good experiences with them.
4-5 have been built by hj.
he does top quality work.
ryan is a distance caster so he knows how to lay out a rod when building.


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## tjbjornsen (Oct 31, 2009)

Mike's question first...
No, that joint was as deeply seated as it would go. I am a fanatic when it comes to doing that right, to the point of not putting a rod together without using ferrule wax. That rod in partiucular has always been a bitch to get apart at the end of the day, it fits so tightly, but I just deal with it because I always fear this kind of thing if I don't pay attention when putting them together.
JCallaman's Question second...
I can obviously not speak to your experiences, but I have had nothing but fantastic experiences with HJ. 
The two rods I have that they have wrapped are beautifully done, and they and Century have done nothing but go way, way out of their way to make this good, even thought this rod was purchased second hand. 
I would not think twice about buying another Century blank, and if I did it would be wrapped by the fine fellows at Hatteras Jacks!
As a matter of fact I will probably do just that when I go down and pick up this rod in a couple of weeks.
Tom


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## Tama (Aug 5, 2011)

I have not had dealings with Hat jacks so I can't comment on that and I'm sure Century will stand behind their product. I have stripped my blanks of the components and used them on other rods so I finished them and I needed the butt cap off the 11' Century. When I pulled it off and unwrapped some of the cork tape I noticed the butt is also split! I'm no genius but I'm not sure that's supposed to be like that. I had this happen years ago to a all star I had and was able to cut it above the split. I like the Century's light weight but the thin blank now has me thinking more about thin blanks and how well they will hold up. I fished the 11' hard for pretty much a full season that's all and the 9'6" I've had for a while but not what I would consider the lifetime of a rod. all I know is I gave them a try and they aren't for me!
Tama


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## chriscustom (Jun 17, 2006)

Garboman said:


> If it were me.....I would cut the split/cracked part off the tip
> 
> Then take Rod Thread Epoxy coat the "INSIDE" of the Tip with liberal amount of Epoxy working it with a brush to get it at least the depth of the remaining ferule section.
> 
> ...


Yeah..what he said Get the split wraped then coated. I've done this many times.


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## tjbjornsen (Oct 31, 2009)

I just wanted to take a minute to close the books on this one.
I picked up the repaired rod at Hatteras Jacks the week that Irene showed up. (Yeah, we had our week shortened, but that inconvenience is nothing compared to what the residents are still going through - my thoughts are with them every day...)
The rod was perfectly repaired. The cracked portion was removed, the edges sanded down, and the people from Century sent a sleeve that was inserted inside the male side of the ferrule and sealed to it from the inside, effectively doubling the thickness of the blank at the joint. 
The rod performed flawlessly. May have seemed just a touch stiffer than it was before the mishap, but nothing that hampered the performance in any way at all.
And, after repeated attempts to pay Ryan something for his time to repair the rod, he refused to take a dime. And remember, this was a rod that I had bought second hand, here on the boards, so I was not even the original customer.
So I have nothing but the biggest thanks to Ryan, and the people at Century Rods for taking care of this. All of them went way out of their way, when in reality none of them really had to do anything had they not wanted to.
Great, great customer service, and it will not be forgotten.
Thanks Guys!
Tom


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