I have several rods that I have broke the last few years or so. Anyway to remove the reel seats, several nice reel seats I would like to use again… maybe boiling them for a few? Thanks for any input
I have several rods that I have broke the last few years or so. Anyway to remove the reel seats, several nice reel seats I would like to use again… maybe boiling them for a few? Thanks for any input
Most rod builders use some sort of tape usually masking tape to fill gaps and then glue the handle on with some epoxy
I don’t think hot water will do much to get it off
The few times I converted some handles over I had to rip and cut the old handle off basically destroying the reel seat
yea figured as much, thanksOriginally Posted by Mr.Bass
Getting them hot enough to break the epoxy without them melting is the trick. If you use a heat gun you can heat it up to break the glue sometimes. Be careful and use something to grab the reel seat with it will be hot.
Production rods don't have the care in rod construction that we put into a rod, rarely have I seen a fully encapsulated tape arbor and minimal epoxy at that, the last Berkeley I worked on wasn't glued down with epoxy, looked like the old phenolic glues. I would think you have a decent chance at reel seat removal, the less mass the water has to work on the better, cut the reel seat out of the rod first. Don't use a pot you plan to cook out of later to be on the safe side.
All great info, thank you
I have boiled them and pulled them off with gloves.
Cut the seat out of the rod. Chuck it up in a lathe and bore the blank out of it.
Yes, I've read of people steaming them then pulling them off. I've never tried it.
Tom
Yeah, if you've got a lathe lol. What I do is cut the blank with a dremel and leave maybe 1/2" by the rear of the seat. Chuck up a dream reamer in a drill and ream it. Your not actually trying to ream out the blank from the seat but the friction will heat it up a good bit and soften the glue. I wear a leather glove on the hand I'm holding the seat because it'll get pretty warm and also if it catches and starts spinning the trigger hurts. Eventually it'll start to give and you can pull it out with some pliers. A lot of the time you'll have to use a flathead screwdriver to separate the blank from the bore and just kind of work at it.
If the reamer gets stuck, don't reverse it to get it out. It'll separate the abrasive strip from the reamer. I've had to re-do my reamers a bunch of times mostly from doing this.
In my experience a heat gun is more likely to warp the seat itself.
I have tried all the ways people claim to pull reel seats. I’ve only succeeded once (by boiling and finagling) but the seat wasn’t in salvageable shape afterwards. Ultimately, I realized that it just wasn’t worth the time and aggravation to try and save a $10 reel seat. Even a $25 reel seat wouldn’t be worth the headache. I’ve got tons of salvaged lock nuts / seat hoods though. LOL.
I’m with JJohn on this one. ^^^^^ Haven’t tried but do cut the guides off broken stuff. That’ll save you time and some money down the road.
2013 BassCat Cougar
Serial # 1B962763
I'd say I can get off 75% of the seats I try in 10 minutes or less using the way I described above. It is a little bit of work but for some of the nicer seats it's worth it, especially the ones you can't buy like Daiwas, Megabass etc. I buy a lot of higher end broken rods for the parts. Usually pay like $10 each for them. I'll typically be able to get the guides, seat and hook keeper...sometimes a winding check plus I've got plenty of scrap blank lying around for repairs. I've done two in the past couple of weeks where guys crushed the blank behind the grip, epoxy a new piece of blank in there and add a butt and almost good as new. I also use reclaimed parts for budget builds, charity rods, raffle rods etc. Raffled a rod last night at my club's meeting, $59 blank, $10 for the seat and guides from a broken rod, $6 for an EVA grip and butt and some of my time. $75 in parts and someone got a rod that's better than any $200 factory rod.
Like said above I normally cut the blank close to each end of hte reel seat then I start with drill bits till I can't go much bigger then take the reamer in there. Usually before I get to the reamer everything breaks loose inside the seat. I'm surrounded by Dobyns junkies. Their warranty program requires cutting the blank right above the reel seat so I've got alot of reel seat pieces from Dobyns in the shop lol.
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