Sorry to hear what happend...
and to all the other naysayers..... This is where we learn our limits, we should thank him for actualy doing it the way he did so that others can learn from his experiment, and who better to do an experiment like this other than a shop, props.
A good suggestion also would be to get a "freebie" exam of the rod maybe see if any of the "metallurgists" would find out if it was a fluke a weakened rod by manufacturing process or something like that.
Hope you get it back out on the road soon...
Good luck!
-E
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