Change Pole Tips

By Alan Shepard

Start by making a nice cup of tea. I find it goes well with a couple of chocolate digestives.

Pour the rest of the boiling water into a pan and position the pole, on which the tip is to be changed, so that the tip is submerged in the water. If you have done this before and found the new tip to be a tight fit, throw the new tip in the water as well. This will soften the plastic a bit and make it easier to fit.

Drink half of the tea and consume one biscuit. The old tip should now be nicely warmed up.

Remove the pole from the water. Use an old towel, or a new one but don't tell the wife, and pull off the old tip. Some tips come fixed with a small pin. In this case use a Stanley knife to slice away the softened plastic. If you are unlucky and the pin doesn't drop out from the pole, pull out the pin with a pair of pincers.

Set the temperature of your waxing iron to 120 degrees celsius. Place it upside down. I find that a small saucepan does a good job of holding it in position. Don't forget that this should be a different pan from the one with hot water in it and it should definitely be empty, except for an iron.

Take a stick of thermo setting glue.

Melt a small pool of the glue on the iron base and warm up the pole tip at the same time.

Roll the tip of the pole in the glue.

If you have left the new tip in the water, fish it out and dry it, then using the old towel to protect your hand from the spike on the tip, slide the new tip on. Ensure that you slide it all the way. If you don't, the tip tends to wobble under stress and the plastic will eventually break where it is hollow.
Make sure that the tip is pointing in the correct direction relative to the pole handle. Check another pole if you start to get dizzy.

Finish the tea and the last biscuit, wipe down your waxing iron with a paper towel and tidy up the kitchen before you get into trouble.

WARNING - Fitting pole tips and losing weight are mutually exclusive.


Changing pole handles uses the same procedure, but needs more glue and a larger pan of water.

If you need more excitement in your life, you can use a blowtorch to heat up the various bits, but you need to be extra-extra careful if you are working on a carbon fibre pole.