There was a thread a while back on this (now archived), and here is my update following a problem I had on Friday. Incidentally, I have only fished 5 sessions since buying my handle, and I do look after my gear perhaps more than most.
On Friday, on a dry and dusty bank, I had 3 fish and decided to move, but the handle had all but locked solid, and it was making a very gritty noise as I tried to collapse it. I decided to remove the net and spreader block and hold the handle in the river, hoping some water might free the debris. This sort of worked and I used some sun-tan lotion to attempt to lubricate it.
This is what I did this morning :
I drilled out the pop-rivet holding the chromed end where the spreader block fits, and removed this - the small amount of araldite (I think) was easily scraped off both surfaces. I then cut off the very end of the rubber end-cap at the other end.
The inner tube could now be carefully coaxed out of the outer tube. On the end of the inner tube is a sleeve about 3" long which serves to stop the inner rattling about and also acts as an end-stop to prevent the inner from coming fully out in normal use.
I cleaned everthing up and used some wet and dry to minimise the scratches, both on the sleeve of the inner tube, and the inside of the locking mechanism.
With the chromed end in place, and aligned with the hole in the inner tube, I carefully drilled through the rivet hole, and right through and out of the other side.
Having sprayed the inner tube liberally with wax furniture polish, I re-assembled everything and with a single turn of masking tape on the inner tube to ensure the chrome end fitted snugly, I fitted an M4 pan-head screw, added a plain washer, and then an M4 Nyloc nut.
The nyloc nut will stop the assembly inadvertantly coming adrift in use, probably at the worst time in practice with that near-PB just about in the net, but cannot normally be undone without tools so an on-the-bank cleanup would be impossible. To use a wing-nut instead would be asking for trouble.
There is now an open hole in the very end of the handle - I may try plugging this with a champagne cork or similar. If I didn't keep the spreader block screwed in to the handle when not in use I might consider putting a cork plug in the top end of the tube, low enough to allow the spreader block's thread to fit, to minimise dust and grit entering into the open threaded hole.
I do know that others have had problems but I do also know that there are those who have not. For this reason I will not criticise the design as such, except to say that any dust or grit within a pair of near-parallel tubes would, in my opinion as an engineer, inevitably suffer the problems experienced. Shame I didn't have my engineers hat on when I bought it?
paul4
On Friday, on a dry and dusty bank, I had 3 fish and decided to move, but the handle had all but locked solid, and it was making a very gritty noise as I tried to collapse it. I decided to remove the net and spreader block and hold the handle in the river, hoping some water might free the debris. This sort of worked and I used some sun-tan lotion to attempt to lubricate it.
This is what I did this morning :
I drilled out the pop-rivet holding the chromed end where the spreader block fits, and removed this - the small amount of araldite (I think) was easily scraped off both surfaces. I then cut off the very end of the rubber end-cap at the other end.
The inner tube could now be carefully coaxed out of the outer tube. On the end of the inner tube is a sleeve about 3" long which serves to stop the inner rattling about and also acts as an end-stop to prevent the inner from coming fully out in normal use.
I cleaned everthing up and used some wet and dry to minimise the scratches, both on the sleeve of the inner tube, and the inside of the locking mechanism.
With the chromed end in place, and aligned with the hole in the inner tube, I carefully drilled through the rivet hole, and right through and out of the other side.
Having sprayed the inner tube liberally with wax furniture polish, I re-assembled everything and with a single turn of masking tape on the inner tube to ensure the chrome end fitted snugly, I fitted an M4 pan-head screw, added a plain washer, and then an M4 Nyloc nut.
The nyloc nut will stop the assembly inadvertantly coming adrift in use, probably at the worst time in practice with that near-PB just about in the net, but cannot normally be undone without tools so an on-the-bank cleanup would be impossible. To use a wing-nut instead would be asking for trouble.
There is now an open hole in the very end of the handle - I may try plugging this with a champagne cork or similar. If I didn't keep the spreader block screwed in to the handle when not in use I might consider putting a cork plug in the top end of the tube, low enough to allow the spreader block's thread to fit, to minimise dust and grit entering into the open threaded hole.
I do know that others have had problems but I do also know that there are those who have not. For this reason I will not criticise the design as such, except to say that any dust or grit within a pair of near-parallel tubes would, in my opinion as an engineer, inevitably suffer the problems experienced. Shame I didn't have my engineers hat on when I bought it?
paul4
. Thats how mine has locked up!
