my seat is just a little bit bigger than the blank. i understand you build up with tape on each end. where i am confused is this. is the only contact the seat makes with the blank is on the tape? surely not. do i slide the seat back a little and then fill the space between the seat and blank with glue or what? how does the seat glue to the blank? how do the vibrations transmit to the seat?
thanks
chuck

You could always try graphite arbors instead of tape

Chuck,

A reel seat being larger than the blank is normal. You must fill the gap, so to speak, with a couple of arbors. Some builders wrap a masking tape build-up to form arbors. I use fiberglass drywall tape. You can buy high density or "brick" foam arbors. You can even use a couple of cork rings. Do a word search for "reel seat arbors" on this board. A lot has been posted here on different methods.

Bill Doherty

Chuck, I often use tape if the clearance from the blank to the seat is small. I usually make three beads of 3/4" tape, one at each end and one in the middle. The trick is to make sure the epoxy seals the tape along its sides to seal off the elements. After that make sure the seat fits on all three beads of tape with very little clearance. You should feel no wobble. Filling the voids between the beads of tape with epoxy does nothing but add weight. The sensitivity is good but arguments will abound if it is better than the "brick" foam arbors. Smear the epoxy on the tape generously and slide the seat on and rotate as you go. Do this several times to ensure the inside of the seat is thoroughly coated with epoxy. Then wipe off the excess between the beads of tape and position the seat and let cure. Use alcohol to clean up the rod where you have been sliding the seat back and forth.

Masking tape has been used successfully for many years by many rod builders including myself. Three courses of half inch tape rolled on tightly to form the bushing works best for me. Just a snug fit with liberal applications of Rod Bond on the contact surface plus alongside the tape next to the blank. It's not necessary to fill the voids, just the tape edges. I have gone to using the web type fiberglass drywall tape and found it superior to masking tape. It comes in rolls two inches wide so I split it in half and make two courses of the one inch width at each end of the reel seat, leaving about 1/4 inch space front and rear. I fill the front 1/4 inch void with Rod Bond before fitting on the foregrip.

In cutting off reel seats that have been installed using tape I have found them to be very solidly mounted except where there was too much clearance between seat and tape or where inferior gluing methods were used. Most of the loose ones were apparently installed using finishing expoxy or some sort of light glue that didn't stay where it was applied. I think using Rod Bond will solve that problem. Years ago I used fast curing epoxy and it worked great but was somewhat of a problem trying not to make a mess.

Capt. Harold

I bet you could go around the world a couple of times with the masking tape used by custom rod builders. Sounds kinda crazy but has & does work quite well. I still use on all my fly rod seats - - sensitivity doesn't matter there. I have mostly gone to the graphite arbors on spinning seats & use seats fitted to the blank with no arbor on casting seats. I really can't tell any difference in sensitivity between the tape and the graphite arbors on a spinning seat but use the graphite as a selling tool. I tend to go up a size or two in reelseat when I'm using the arbors & use the smallest that will fit on the blank if using tape.