Bamboo Tips - Tips Area
Hardware - Ferrules - Removal

< Home < Tips Area < Hardware < Ferrules < Removal

A question was asked about removing a ferrule that was epoxied onto a blank, here are the responses:

Gentle heat is great, but then stick the ferrule in a cup of ice.  Wait about 2 minutes, and it will be as if the epoxy were never there.  Scary.  (Jeff Schaeffer)

PS: learned this from Jeff Wagner.

I found out the same thing recently.  You don't even need the ice; just heat it up and let it cool down.  It will slide right off.  (Robert Kope)

Before I smartened up and started using hot melt glue to attach ferrules, I used epoxy. I now need to replace a ferrule. How do I remove the broken one? A heat gun blasting the ferrule for ten minutes last night had no effect.  (Richard Nantel)

Heat it, and then chill it. Might take a couple of tries, ferrule puller is the best way to get a hold of it. DON'T TWIST!!  (Pete Van Schaack)

While the ferrule is hot , you need to pull. You should heat slowly. I love what Ralph Moon says, "You need to heat slowly like you are cooking steak " Heat  from the inside out. If the ferrule is a loss you can pull with pliers . To save the ferrule make yourself a ferrule puller. Drill some holes in 1 inch board about 10 inches long. Cut the holes open with a cut parallel to the sides. Put a piece  of leather on one end to make it a clamp.  (Rich McGaughey)

I would rather not put too much heat on a rod section to remove an epoxied ferrule.  I put the section in my lathe and remove it with a file. No heat involved at all.  (Dave Norling)

I think you're interpreting Mr. Moon correctly, but I don't ever want one of your steaks! The  slow cooking  is for pot roast  (and ferrules). With a steak, you want to sear it quick, exactly the opposite of what (I hope) Ralph suggests!  (Art Port)

Does anyone know of away to remove these epoxied on ferrules?  (Pete Van Schaack)

Gentle application of heat (heat gun, alcohol lamp) will  break down almost all 5 minute epoxies.  Give the ferrule short bursts of heat in order to prevent cooking your finish or delaminating the rod sections.

Be sure to point the ferrule away from you though.  Sometimes heating the epoxy forms a gas which propels the ferrule rather violently.  (Harry Boyd)

Can someone give me some advice about cleaning epoxy off the interior of ferrules?

I'm taking the parts off a rod and I'm planning to reuse the ferrules... can I use acetone to break down the epoxy to make it easier to remove?  Or should I try a "mechanical" method?

Or is it worth just getting another set and not risking poor adhesion?  (Eric Koehler)

Place the ferrules in a small container with white vinegar for several days.  The epoxy will eventually turn milky and become soft. At least that is what Devcon Epoxy will do.  (Tony Spezio)

An overnight soak in acetone should loosen the epoxy enough so that it can be cleaned out.  (Kyle Druey)

How would one go about removing old Power bond from NS?  Without ruining the ferrule?  (Robert Hicks)

Are they turned from solid stock or soldered?  If soldered I'd try soaking them in boiling water first, and then scrape with the dental picks and attack with various Dremel Tool bits.  If they are solid you could put them in the oven or hit them with the heat gun without worry.  (Brian Creek)

I recently had to remove a male ferrule I had overlapped.  The ferrule was attached with PU glue.  I was very impressed by the strength of the bond.  It took repeated heatings to break down the glue and I basically had to destroy the ferrule (one tip rod, so I had an extra male) to remove it.  Any thoughts on the longevity of PU on ferrules.  In the short term the bond is excellent.  (Lee Orr)

I am trying to remove a male ferrule from a 10.5' Pezon Michel. I have warmed it to where the ferrule cement is boiling but it is not moving. I am suspecting the ferrule is pinned but I have not been able to find it. Does anyone know where PM pinned the male ferrule? Any tips on how to locate it is appreciated. (Morten Lovstad)

When I have to remove a pin that I can't seem to find, I dig out a black Sharpie.  Color the entire ferrule with the Sharpie, then lightly cuff the ferrule with 4/0 steel wool.  Most times, you'll get a small  black ring or part of a ring where the pin is.  (Mark Wendt)

I polished the ferrule and could not see any sign of a pin so I made a proper device to hold it in the vice and managed to pull it off. No pin.  Next time I will try the methods suggested, Sharpie and soot from a candle.  (Morten Lovstad)

Sometimes the fit is so snug, that even heating up the glue enough for it to bubble and giving it a quick pull isn't enough.  When that happens, you need to be real careful to a) not add more heat until the cane is charred, b) delaminating or breaking the cane at the ferrule station by pulling it too hard.  Sometimes, heating it up, then dowsing the ferrule in ice water will help break it loose.   (Mark Wendt)

If you cannot find the pin just cut the ferrule clean in half's with your dremel drill and a diamond cut of disk.  If you go really slow you can do this without any damage to the bamboo.  Avoid excessive heating at all cost it will snap the bamboo under the ferrule when you pull it.  If it does not move the first time after heating up it almost always means there's a pin somewhere.  Mark's idea sounds is a good one.  (Gary Nicholson)

Well I did get this solved, sort of.  But I find it easier to replace the bamboo than the Pezon et Michel ferrule.

The rod section was left in water for a long time on a trip to Alaska and delaminated.  The owner, who wants to be anonymous, decided to add some glue and bound it up with a fly line.  The result was a section with a 90 degree twist and shaped like a J.  I am now soaking the tip to delaminate the section.  Then I will dry it in the oven, clean the triangles and reglue.  I am prepared to make a new section if it goes bad.  I will keep you informed.

The problems started when I told the owner 'no problem I can fix it'.  (Morten Lovstad)

Funny how that happens, idn't it?   ;-)   (Mark Wendt)

The rest of the story.  The section did delaminate in a short week.  Looked like it was glued with hide glue, but I am not sure.  I cleaned it up in the planing form by gentle scraping and after it was dried I glued it back together, this time with TB III.  The section came out straight and without the twist.  Happy ending!  (Morten Lovstad)

It appears I did not sufficiently relieve the male ferrule and pulled off the female taking one of my rods down recently.  I built the rod in the upper midwest and I think the bamboo probably took on some water this spring, at any rate the ferrules were too tight.  I used U40 to bond the bamboo to the nickel silver.

Now I need to see if I can get the female ferrule off the male.  Any ideas?  Would WD40 work?  My freezer is too small to put the section into.  Thanks to anyone who has a dandy idea on this!  (Dave Kemp)

Use 5 minute epoxy to glue a proper sized drill bit to the female ferrule, then clamp the drill bit into a vise and pull the male off. After they are separated heat the female ferrule with a heat gun to free the drill bit then clean up the female ferrule and reglue with U40 rod bond.  (Frank Drummond)

Good idea but I would glue the bit into the MALE ferrule and pull on the female. More to grab that way.  I'd also use Ferrule-Tite.  That way just a little  heat will disengage the  drill bit.  (Larry Swearingen)

Oops.  Jumped before thinking enough. Missed the fact that this is on a rod where the bamboo pulled out of the MALE ferrule. Still I think I would just reglue the rod section into the ferrule and pull away first before I tried all that other fancy stuff.  (Larry Swearingen)

Yeah I have a ferrule with a drill bit in it Try Larry's Idea first.  (Ralph Moon)

You could shrink the metal by freezing the ferrule sections with liquid nitrogen.  And you can get a small amount in those wart freezing kits.  Or you purchase a small amount of dry ice and pack the ferrules in it for a bit.  Just my two cents worth.  (Robert Holder)

I do repairs only and this is pretty common.

Take a small piece of hard wood, drill a hole just large enough into the wood for female to pass through but not the male. Using a dowel fitted to fill the female ferrule, insert the dowel, and then use a piece of inner  tube rubber wrapped snugly around the outside of the ferrule for leverage, pull the ferrule out. Support the section with the male end so it doesn't give you any trouble.

I would not glue the dowel into the female ferrule just make it snug enough to fit maybe even with a heavy push but no tapping with a hammer or such. In times past I have even gone to the extreme of using the computer spray cleaners during this process since the gas is generally nitrogen and it gets cold enough to lower the temp of the stuck ferrule. You might have to use the whole can but this does save a ton of work time.  (Rudy Rios)

I had a female ferrule sheer off just below the water seal, the sleeve is mounted using Rod Bond u-40 (I used Elmer’s Ultimate for the strips).  What is the best way to get this stuff to release the bamboo to ferrule bond.  I haven’t tried anything yet and thought I’d check with you all as to the best and safest method.  The 15/64 female ferrule failure was my fault for machining the wall thickness down to .010 on the sleeve just below the water seal, dumb move on my part!  The ferrule sheer point was right at the point of the step down.  It did last for about 12 hours of fishing though. (Mike Monsos)

Since it's ruined anyway, just grind a slit in the side till it can be spread and comes off!

That was easy!  (David Dziadosz)

That was easy!  I judiciously used a small file to run a cut from the serration slit to the break point and with a slight (very slight) touch of the heat gun it released nicely with no effects to the shaft.  (Mike Monsos)

For future reference, should you ever need to remove a fixture originally mounted using U-40 Rod Bond, I'm pretty sure it will release its hold with the application of heat in the neighborhood of 220 degrees F.  I seem to recall reading in Todd's Tips that boiling water is hot enough to do the trick.  Perhaps other more experienced users of Rod Bond will respond to correct me if I've given you bad advice.  (Bill Ernst)

I have a loose male ferrule, but not so loose it wants to come off with gentle pulling - no twisting.  It's epoxied on so can I assume I need to heat the ferrule slowly until the epoxy gives, or is there a better way to go attack this problem?  Last resort, will be to cut the blank, but I'm sure there must be some good tricks among this group to save me from needing to take such drastic action.  (Tom Key)

With luck you might not have to remove it. Heat it enough to soften the glue and keep pressure on it with a gloved hand until it cools back down and the glue resets. You may find that it is once again tight and will hold up for quite sometime. If that doesn't work then heat, remove clean the inside of the ferrule and any glue residue off the cane and reglue with fresh glue.  (Will Price)

A word of warning. A friend glued a ferrule on a tip which he subsequently broke, causing him to try to remove the male. I believe the epoxy was Golfsmith's. He heated it gently, cooled it, heated it a bit more aggressively, cooled it again, both without effect, then heated it a bit more, turning the ferrule into a missile that was never found and the last 3/4" of the tip section into a fluffy blunderbuss-looking bit of fibers! You might wish to aim your ferrule into one of those gun test thingies you see on the cop shows on TV while heating it!  (Art Port)

Look very carefully at the ferrule and make sure it's not pinned.  Sounds almost exactly like what a pinned ferrule does when the adhesive lets loose.  (Mark Wendt)

You probably want  to be sure that it's not pinned.  (Peter McKean)

I don't pin and can't really see pinning ferrules with the epoxy we have available today. I have a spinning rod that the ferrule is about as loose as you'd ever want. It fits together better than any I've ever seen, and has a loud pop when pulled apart. Ever so often you have to realign the guides because it will twist, I'm guessing from the spline in the rod. But it has never came apart!

So if a glue joint gets loose, will the ferrule actually come off the rod?? I don't know, it's never happened to me,.,.errr..,,,yet! (David Dziadosz)

Using an alcohol lamp I heated up a male ferrule to remove it from a tip section - I miss calculated the section length and needed to remove a 1/4 inch from the section, The ferrule glue I used was Ferr-l-tite so I had to heat it gently to remove it. All of sudden it went pow! And the end plug of the male is now separated from the male tube. I couldn't believe the heat was enough to separate the plug from the tube unless there was a fault with the plug seal.

Any rate, what's the best thing to do.

Should I try to repair the ferrule by using solder or should I contact REC/CSE for an exchange? Will they exchange it or will it be deem my fault and insist I buy another. I'm not sure if I can get a single male ferrule.

If I should repair it myself how do I go about it? (Boris Gaspar)

Actually I have the CSE 2009 price list in front of me. The retail price of a single male is $16 for size 8-11, $17.10 for size 12-15, and $18.05 for size 16-19. Prices are the same for Super Swiss and Super SD, and for standard or truncated length. Larger sizes are available up to size 28. The cost cannot justify the time and effort to try to repair the old one, but the experience might.  The phone number for Classic Sporting Enterprises is 802-525-3623.  (Robert Kope)

Thanks. I guess the old adage: measure twice & cut once is for more than one reason... I'll order a replacement but I might still have a go at repairing the damaged one anyway.  (Boris Gaspar)

I lost a ferrule plug after re heating in my oven. I didn't notice it was missing until I was fishing the rod. I couldn't find the plug so I just heated the end with a soldering gun and kept adding solder till the top was filled in. Then just flattened it off with a file. So far it's been working just fine. I included a picture of it.  (Ken Paterson)

Regarding the ferrule moisture plug; I did solder the moisture plug back into that male and it worked just fine. Ferrule is back on the rod. I lapped it to fit and is perfectly good in appearance & utility.  It wasn't hard to do successfully first attempt.  (Boris Gaspar)

Several times I had to remove ferrules to salvage them for replacement on new sections. Heating them and trying to catch the ferrule when it pops off is a problem. Last week I had three ferrules to salvage to use on a replacement rod.

A couple of months ago I was removing a ferrule for a replacement tip and it shot off like a .22 rifle shot. I still have not found that ferrule.

I thought there had to be a better way. I had an old extension cord laying around so I striped the insulation off and took a strand of Copper Wire from the group of wires. Wrapped one end of the strand real tight on the ferrule left some slack and wrapper the other end on the bamboo.  When the ferrule popped off, the wire attached kept it from flying across the room. Had no problem doing the three ferrules this way.

Thought I might pass this on. (Tony Spezio)

How about hanging an on old twin size sheet (or new one) with a couple nails from the ceiling at your work station? The sheet should hang above the bench you are are working at, and pull the bottom portion toward you, so the sheet hangs at an angle.  Bunch any excess or perhaps roll the excess cloth to form a wall.  I hope you get the picture I am trying to describe.  When you pull the ferrule and it flies in the air, the ferrule gets caught by the sheet, and then rolls down the sheet to the bunched up material at the bottom...safe and sound to be reused. (Bob Cross)