Hi everyone,

I'm building my first graphite rod. It's a Sage Xi2-4 890. I've built bamboo rods before, but not graphite. I had decided on the Struble U-21 reel seat for my saltwater blank because I heard it is extremely strong and light. It's made from a titanium alloy, and so is supposedly corrosion free.

Unfortunately, the butt of the Sage blank is 0.405, and the Struble U-21 has a bore of 0.645.

Any suggestions for a solid yet light saltwater reel seat for my blank?

How much give can I get away with inbetween the blank and the bore? I.e., would a seat with a bore of 0.420 be fine for this blank? Will the U-40 Rod Bond just fill that gap? Or do I need to get a reel seat with a bore closer to 0.405? How close? I know I can't take anything off the rod the way you can with bamboo, and I don't have the tools to do my own custom bore on a seat.

I want the seat to be as light as is humanly possible, and prefer to have all-metal seats. I don't know. For some reason the wood insert seats have never done anything for me.

Thanks in advance for you advice.

C. J.

Use Flexcoat reel seat arbors. I think they make a size 18, which would about .700" OD.

Stick with the reel seat you have, it's a good one. You can use the Flexcoat arbors, brick foam arbors(graphite), or fiberglass mesh drywall tape to fill in the difference. If you use the drywall tape, wrap two one inch wide bushings out of it until the reelseat fits, then unwrap and re-wrap applying Rod Bond to the mesh from the blank out. You end up with solid Rod Bond bushings re-inforced with fiberglass mesh tape.

Thanks Gerry and Lynn. I just learned another new thing today.

I think I'll try the fiberglass tape idea Lynn. One final follow-up. I wrap them to determine the proper length of tape to create the perfect build-up, and then unwrap them. When I rewrap them with the Rod Bond, I imagine they'll get a bit thicker. After everything is dry, can you sand the tape/rodbond bushing?

C. J.

i doubt if you will ever find a reel seat that has a bore exactly the size of your blank. it is normal practice to fill that space with an arbor of some type. for years builders have used tape as an arbor. most books on rodbuilding have instructions on how to do that. or you can use the flexcoat arbors.

Charles , wrap the drywall tape on as Lynn described ,unwrap , and coat with rod bond . As you re-wrap it on to the blank scrape off the exess. there will be a lot of it . The seat should still slip over the bushings that youv'e constructed , the glue simpley sits in the voids of the mesh tape . You want to install the seat while the Rod bond is still wet , so , no need for sanding . The first time trying this method will be somewhat messy , so a can of alochol and a roll of towells is a must to clean the mess , if any .
The Flex Coat arbors are a good choice also , they can be drilled ,an turned down to exact fits.
Have fun , JD

Got Fish ?

Hey, has anyone ever used Carbon (graphite) fibre instead of drywall tape to do this? There are several kinds of graphite fabric available here: [www.fibreglast.com]

Plus, I imagine that rod builders must have lots of graphite fabric scraps around.

C. J.

Charles, you definately could use carbon fiber cloth, tape or tow, but it's expensive and would take longer to wet out with epoxy. Also I'm not sure why any rod builder would have any scraps of carbon fiber, unless they had it for some completely different purpose.

Mark

Like John said, but I usually cover the front hood with masking tape to keep the excess Rod Bond off of the metal. Install the seat while the epoxy is still wet and clean the excess off the masking tape. Then remove the masking tape. You'll need to tension the tape slightly as you re-wrap using the Rod Bond, but it should fit well. Make sure that the mesh is fully filled with the epxoy on each wrap.