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Finished My First Reel Seat

Rod Building 
2K views 12 replies 4 participants last post by  KB2 
#1 ·
I have been working this week on making my first reel seat, hardware and all. Here are a couple of pictures of the Finished Product.







Below are a few action pictures of the process.


Started by turning the marblewood insert.


All parts machined from brass bar stock


The sliding ring.


Single point threading the barrel.


Threads finished.


Relieving the barrel for the reel foot.

I think it turned out OK. I learned a lot, and will be able to improve the processes and the end result.
 
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#3 ·
I actually started with 1.25, because that is what I had. I would need to use at least 1" though, because the fixed ring (which is upside down on the photos by the way) has the flange at .875, and the knurled ring and sliding ring are at .812. I am thinking I need to order some Nickel Silver to try and also try some with aluminum. Since I can anodize colors in my shop, I might have to do some in colors other than the traditional silver, gold and black. Thanks for the compliment.
 
#5 ·
I do need to get a live center, it would help. But most of the time I just tighten the chuck real hard and take like cuts with good sharp cutters, making sure the piece does not move. I did look into the price of the NS, it is about twice as much as the 360 Brass I used on this one. Do you have a good source, the stuff I found is about $65 per foot.
 
#6 ·
I buy all of my stock from Onlinemetalss Seattle. They are about 10 miles from my house and pretty reasonable in price. Have you considered Doronze for your reel seat hardware? It's lighter, stronger and blue's up nicely plus about $100 for three feet of 1" bar stock. A lot of people complain that it's hard to machine but I don't think it's that bad when making my ferrules. Just use a sharp bit, set your bit below the centerline a touch and leave the top of your tool bit flat, no rake.

NS is nice but I like the looks of the Duronze and the price even more.

Mike
 
#8 ·
I buy all of my stock from Onlinemetalss Seattle. They are about 10 miles from my house and pretty reasonable in price. Have you considered Doronze for your reel seat hardware? It's lighter, stronger and blue's up nicely plus about $100 for three feet of 1" bar stock. A lot of people complain that it's hard to machine but I don't think it's that bad when making my ferrules. Just use a sharp bit, set your bit below the centerline a touch and leave the top of your tool bit flat, no rake.

NS is nice but I like the looks of the Duronze and the price even more.

Mike
Mike,
Have you ever made any out of regular stainless steel? I have not seen anybody else doing that, but it would polish up nice and not require any seconday finish. Probably is not much heavier than NS or brass, but is a fair bit cheaper. What about regular bronze, or any other alloys. I looked into duronze, it is an aluminum/silicon alloy, can't be too tough to machine. I will have to get a chunk of that and try it out.
 
#9 ·
I've only used brass before for some ferrules and my reel seat cap, ring and bushing, it works fine for me. I turned some aluminum for other projects (very easy to work with) but I haven't messed with the SS. For some reason I remember reading somewhere that it might not be a good choice for our uses like ferrules. Was it too brittle? Can't remember now.

Duronze is pretty easy to work with in my opinion.

Mike
 
#10 ·
I've only used brass before for some ferrules and my reel seat cap, ring and bushing, it works fine for me. I turned some aluminum for other projects (very easy to work with) but I haven't messed with the SS. For some reason I remember reading somewhere that it might not be a good choice for our uses like ferrules. Was it too brittle? Can't remember now.

Duronze is pretty easy to work with in my opinion.

Mike
SS is actually tough but kind of gummy, for ferrules it probably would have trouble with galling up and causing them to get stuck together. I don't see any reason that it would not work for reel seat hardware, other than being a bit tougher to machine.
 
#11 ·
I'm sure you are a better judge of what metal may be appropriate for the different components as my experience is very limited. I really should try new materials now and then if nothing else to see if I can learn what it takes to machine them.

I bet the SS finish would look nice on the reel seat hardware. The fun thing about having the lathe is being able to experiment if you like. I wish I had the skill set like you to take on screw lock reel seat hardware. I'll need study up on thread cutting and see if I can up my game. Don't be surprised if I don't pester you with a lot of questions in PM's.

Mike
 
#13 ·
Gents,
I have been looking for a lathe for just these types of projects. Do you have any local sources other than watching craiglist?
Dave,
I bought mine from Harbor Freight. Another place to look is Grizzly Tools, and Jet tools. Just Google them.

I had so much fun making the first one, I had to make another. This one has brass hardware as well, a burl madrone insert, and is downlocking.





 
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