Made a rookie mistake last night after making 20 or so rods I finnally made a big time screw up while makin my casting rod I Put my casting reelseat on upside down. Can I change it now or am I stuck with it. I used Rod Bond to attach it to the blank. Am I stuck with this???

No, you're not stuck with it. Reel seats are inexpensive, cut it off and install another. The cost of a reel seat is worth the peace of mind you'll have knowing that everything is right.

BTW, forget trying to boil the reel seat in water to remove it. Rod bond cures like concrete. It will not loosen.

Lou

What do you mean you put it on "upside" down? Just flip the rod over. Unless the guides are already on it, this shouldn't be a problem.

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Hmmm "upside down"?? If you mean the reel seat and guides are on "opposite sides" you probably won't notice a huge difference. If you mean "upside down" as in this is a trigger seat you're done - cut off & start over. If you mean "upside down" as in "downlocking" - you could easily live with it --- in fact you might like it as there will be grip vs reel seat under your hand when casting.

Am I missing something? If the guides are already on the opposite side of the blank, remove and re-wrap the first few guides and create a spiral wrap.

I have a feeling he feels he put the seat on opposite the spine location he wanted. Rather than cut the seat off, I'd just build it and use it. It won't make that much difference. In fact, I doubt you'll be able to readily tell the difference.

........

I recently built my first spinning rod (third rod overall) and mistakenly put my reel seat on so it is a down locking seat :o. I decided that I can live with it. It'll give the rod some character, along with all the other mistakes!

Peter

Ditto Don...


Andy Dear
Lamar Manf.

Greg, Whatever you do, don't cut it off.

Immerse the rod to the seat in hot but slightly boiling water. Every couple of minutes or so use moderate pressure to twist the rear cork handle until it slides off.
Then start working the reel seat the same way.
Unless you break the cork during the twisting, the handle and reel seat are reusable after they have been cooled down and cleaned up.
Hot water seldom ruins the components.
I have performed this process 3 or 4 times in the last year.
You don't need to do anything more drastic than that.
The key is to have a pot of water deep enough to immerse the rear handle and reel seat at the same time.
The bond holding the components usually releases them well before the water reaches 190 degrees. The rule of thumb is to keep the water below 220 degress. Some say that is the temperature where the rods resins start to soften.
I think the hottests I ever worked the rods was 160 degrees.

Good luck. Let us know how it went.

Greg,

If you used Rod BOnd, I highly doubt that you'll be able to boil it loose. I tried for 6 hours a few months ago to no avail (I had nothing else to do). With regular epoxy this works very well. Rod Bond is just "too good" and I've never been able to remove the seat without a dremel. I'd love to see it done, though. I had to cut off a top of the line Struble fly seat... That was a loss I'drather not take again.

John

Tom,

Heresy! ;-) " I have a feeling he feels he put the seat on opposite the spine location he wanted. Rather than cut the seat off, I'd just build it and use it. It won't make that much difference. In fact, I doubt you'll be able to readily tell the difference." The side of the spine the guides are located on not making a difference? My world has been turned upside down...

Mark

Mark. I think you are kidding, but in case not, remember that the rod must travel in two diametrically opposite directions. The guides are on the "wrong side" 50% of the time. To really mess your mind, try building the lower half strong (on the spine), the upper half soft. Or vice versa.

Don, That's an excellent suggestion. I've built a few rods where I didn't spine he lower hald and only spined the tip top. In fact I built a 9 ft 9wgt fly rod into a baitcaster, with the spine oriented along the guides. I didn't like the way the action turned out for a baitcaster, so I removed the double-foot casting guides and wrapped single-foot spinning guides. It works like a rocket., and I have great control over the Coho I hook when bringing them to the net.

Patrick. Which side of the blank did the guides end up on? Were you still using the casting reel? On a fly rod, I think the case can be made that we should be putting our guides on the soft side and reversing for the lower half. I like to feel the rod bow on the pickup and perhaps it is loading a little more with the benefit of the water haul. I don't feel the load as well as I begin the forecast (no matter how I aligned the spine), perhaps because of the haul that I am also imparting during the cast. I also think you can feel the fish a bit better at the tip if you build on the soft side.

When I originally built the rod, I built the reel seat from a Wiebe Casting Reel Seat. When I rewrapped the rod as a spinning rod, Icut the casting trigger off and then polished the end to remove any remaining material. The spinning guides were located just like any other spinning or fly guides, opposite the spine.

In truth, I thought it would make an awesome baitcasting rod using a Shimano Chronarch low profile reel. The problem was the rod was too moderate at the tip. Every cast created lots of occilations, causing the line to birdsnest way too often. If I could get line out, it did a great job of fighting and landing Coho.

Once I converted it over to a spinning rod, I fish it with a Shimano Sustain 1000 or 2000 spinning reel.

Overall, the Pac Bay blank I built it on feels pretty good. The current setup casts light lures (3s / 4s) accurately and certainly as far as I need it to go. I would rate power at 1.

My friend built a similar blank into a spinning rod as well, except the spine is located down from butt to tip. It casts well, but it feels soft in the butt section, making it feel like control of fish at the boat or at the point of landing, is not as controllable.

As far as sensitivity, I rely more on the feel within the line than I do the rod.