Couple of observations on factory rods

[willwork4fish]

I put up a post on the WTB page for broken high end rods. I was mostly looking for Weibe reel seats and good guide sets, also some guides for random repairs and budget builds. Anyway I strip the guides, save whatever winding checks I can and reclaim the reel seats. Some rods are really well put together, others no so much.

Duckett - I just picked these up because it seems like I end up fixing a lot of guides on Ducketts and don't generally keep micros in stock in my shop. These by far are the easiest to pull apart. You barely have to boil the seat (or heat it up from the inside with a reamer chucked in a drill) to get the blank out from the seat. It appears to me that they don't use much epoxy at all on these. I normally use my dremel with a sanding attachment and just sand the threads off the guide foot but my dremel took a crap and I had to use a flame to heat up the epoxy and scrape with a knife. Guides came off really easy. They also have the least consistent wraps and had some tape or paper arbors under the seat.

Megabass - Great thread finish, takes a little bit to get them off. Wraps were also really nice. Reel seat came of fairly easily when boiled.

Dobyns (Champion) - Honestly the hardest ones to pull apart. From the guides to the seats to the wraps IMO the best built ones I've seen along with Kistler

Kistler (Zbone) - Really well built about the same as the Dobyns. Seat came off a little easier than the Dobyns but still really on there.

Falcon - This one was an older one. Came apart with a little more effort than the Duckett but was still pretty easy.

Loomis - Older GLX and GL3. The Weibes are pretty hard to get off. I think it's a function of how overbuilt the seats are. The wraps on these two in particular were a little inconsistent.

Anyway, it seems like you get what you pay for, probably no surprise. The Ducketts were the cheapest and also IMO built the cheapest. The only higher end one that kind of surprised me was the Megabass seat and how easily it came off.

[John Jackson]

Good info. Thanks

[Bassbme]

Hmmm .... you gave me an idea. I broke one of the spinning rods I built and would love to save the reel seat .....think I'll chop it down and pop it in an 8 quart pan full of boiling water ......

[Ryan]

Hmmm .... you gave me an idea. I broke one of the spinning rods I built and would love to save the reel seat .....think I'll chop it down and pop it in an 8 quart pan full of boiling water ......

I saw a youtube video of a guy that put it in the oven and it worked.

[willwork4fish]

Hmmm .... you gave me an idea. I broke one of the spinning rods I built and would love to save the reel seat .....think I'll chop it down and pop it in an 8 quart pan full of boiling water ......

It's actually pretty easy, yeah you just boil it for a bit (maybe 5-8 mins) pull it out with some tongs and give it a twist. I use channel locks on the blank and just a leather work glove on the seat because its hot. If that doesn't work then if you have a set of the fiberglass reamers that you can chock up in a drill just put it in there and go to town. Your not trying to ream out all of the blank, just use the friction to heat it up to melt the epoxy and the blank will eventually just twist out.

Since I've started doing this I've probably got a dozen reusable seats. Most of them it's tough to tell from new.

If you boil it, go get an old pot from Goodwill or something because there is some residue that comes out and will make a film on the pot.

[D.O.C. 989]

I use a heat gun, no problems.

[basscatcher89]

Those Duckett Micro Magic I usually get 1 to 2 a month to repair. I've had the same rod multiple times before but never for the same guide. I've been repairing them and using a few locking wraps and never have the problem again. But I guess that would take time in a production environment.

[Bassbme]

Ryan, Will, and D O C ..... thanks for the ideas. I think I'll try the heat gun first. Then the boiling water, then the oven. I think something that may help me out is that I mounted the seat using one of the urethane foam arbors.

Thanks again guys!