I have a wood fly reel seat which is specified with a .360" diameter. The blank I am hoping to use it on is .378". I have always shimmed up to the reel seat diameter. What is the best way to bore out a reel seat with out having a lathe?

Thanks,

I just had really good success in a similar situation where I had to bore a soft wood fly rod handle which I had bored on the lathe to a 1/4" hole. I kinda did it on purpose to see how it would work. I have a good rat tail file and a handle drill. I found if you use the drill in forward the file bites way to hard into it and will ruin what you are working on. So I tried it in reverse and it bored right strait through it with no problems. To my surprise it stayed centered as well. So I tried it on some other stuff as well. Reason I did this was because I only have a 1/4" mandrel for my lathe. I am too Cheap to by expensive good mandrels.

Kurt , I use a crude honeing tool I made to remove material evenly out of seats and inserts . I took a round1/4 in , hollow , aluminium tube, 6 in long , and sliced it length wise 1" down in the center of the tube with a drummel tool . In the slice I put a strip of 1"wide emery cloth , about 3 in long . Put the other end in my cordless drill and let the emery cloth wind around the tube , grit out . Then I use the "honer" to evenly remove material by running it up , and down the inside of the seat/ insert wile on high speed. You may have to use a shorter piece of emery or as some call it, croucus cloth , to get a thinner dia to fit inside your intended work piece. The tool can be made of other material ,I just happen to heve the aluminium tubing at work . I hope I've explainet it so you can get the picture. It's simple and easy to make , it also works good. John

I use the cork reaming tape available for sponsors on the left. You affix it to a section of blank that will approximate your taper. I have inserted a steel rod (bolt) in the end to enable me to use my 18V cordless drill. The current one has probably reamed 20+ wood grips and is still going strong.


The how to for inserting the bolt came from RodMaker mag. I have not idea what issue. Maybe someone will jump in that knows.

It's a simple easy long lasting tool that will work.

Kurt; I have made mandrils out of two pieces of scrap blanks. I clean them and glue two - one into the other. They become strong and don't flex. Work well

You can make small beltgrit [Flexcoat] reamers and ream just about anything you will encounter in rod building. I have used them to ream out the regular graphite/nylon/plastic reel seats and the stuff works super with no signs of wear.Jesse

For a wood fly reel seat, and since you only need a little amount off, a small round file will do the job nicely.

Remember, we're only talking about 18/1000 of an inch here.