I didn't think I'd need to ask, since another BB covered this subject, but alas, shut down a few years back, so I can't retrieve it. It's rod building forum covered at length several ways to remove reel seats from rods that are being rebuilt. I recall some advice about the use of heat, but am skeptical about using that on a graphite rod. If no one has used a slick technique they can share, I think I'll just put a small cutting wheel on the Dremel tool and cut it lengthwise. It's an all aluminum seat. Sincerely, Salmo g.
So it depends on weather you want to save the blank or not. Are you removing the seat so you can re-use it, or are you removing the seat so you can reuse the blank? If you want to save the blank, you can dip the reelseat into boiling water and test it every few moments to see if will come loose. The heat activated resins usually start to flow at 200f to 250f, so prolonged dipping in boiling water *may* damage the blank. As a side note, Lamiglas bakes their blanks for 2 hours at 250f... If you don't want to save the blank, then you can do the boiling thing more aggressively. More than likely though, the blank was wrapped with masking tape arbors and there is very little epoxy holding it together so a bit of heat briefly applied will remove it. Otherwise, the dremel is about all that is fullproof. -- Cheers -- James
give the rod to me. I have loosened the rod seats on two rods now. Of course it was mid stream on a day of fishing.
John, I've already taken the hunting knife to the foregrip corks and stripped them off. You sure you want to use the rod in this condition? James, Hmmm, I'll see if I can get some heat on the reel seat. It's a Spey rod blank, so there's the aft grip that I'd just as soon leave on and not have to replace. I most definitely want to keep the blank. I like the reel seat, but don't mind sacrificing it to get this job done. Yeah, there is two or three sections of masking tape arbor that I epoxied the aluminum reel seat to. Sincerely, Salmo g.
The boiling water trick works. especially if you do it slowly, dont get it too hot, and just heat the seat as much as practical to loosen it. Epoxy lets go at about 600 degrees f. The tape will fail first and it all gets soft before that temp. The water is a slow way to heat but protects the blank form damage. Flame is a bad idea.
Damn well not be the rod that I gave you! That friggin thing has both a full length poly arbor and enough Rod Bond to choke a horse!
As a side note... I've found that it is *MUCH* better to chuck the rod up in a lathe (or homemade drill lathe) and sand the cork down, than it is to use a knife. The last time I removed the cork with a knife, I knicked the hell outta the blank, and almost took a finger!
