As usual whenever I've got a little project its here I come with lots of questions. this is why you see my name a couple of times all over this board, but I think it is the best place to come. Anyway I stripped off all the guides and old threads from this pole I am refurbishing the only problem is a stubborn Aluminim real seat glued very well to what appears to be remnants of the foam handle that was fore grip and butt grip of this pole. Any ideas how I can loosen this real seat up with out doing damage to the blank. I am afraid iif I try and use strength allow to twist it off I will do damage to this old blank. Anything I can soak it in or drop a few drops down. Any ideas are surely welcomed.

Again thanks to all for answering my question over the past day or two.

Steve

Hi Steve,
a few reel seats i had to remove myself a little time ago. these seats were mostly of the fuji dps style type, but I'm sure this works also with aluminium.
If the blank is not diretcly glued to the seat (on most fly- and freshwater-rods there is masking tape or graphite arbors between blank an tube of reel seat) you can cut the reel seat without fear for the blank. i used a dremel with a cutting wheel and cut the reel seat in a spiral way down.then i lift the pieces away from the blank with the help of a screwdriver or similar. with a little care the reel seat should be removed. pls try first on an old rod - sounds cruel but it works.the only disadvantage is: you can't use the reel seat again.

greez from germany
Dirk

Steve you can search this forum and come up with as many ways of removing a seat as there are seats. One way is to use a cut off wheel on a Dremel tool and carefully cut through the seat, being sure not to touch the blank, then use a screw driver to pry both sides of the cut apart with a twisting motion of the screw driver. You may have to make more than one cut depending on how well the seat is epoxied on.

Regards......Doug@
TCRds

Dirk, we must have been typing at the same time.

Regards......Doug@
TCRds

good evening (in my case) and good morning doug,

this is what i love on the www. across all borders and time zones - a great bunch of people sharing same passions at the same time and sometime will equal results.
have a nice day everybody out there :-)


dirk

With the latest epoxies soaking in water usually does not work (even with masking tape arbors), warming the reel seat usually does not work. As already mentioned its best to avoid risk of damage to the blank and cut the reel seat off. I usually use a cutoff wheel to cut through the metal parts of the reel seat only. Deeply scribing the graphite parts of the reel seat with a ulil knife after seat has been warmed is usually enough to split the grip.

Lou

Try using some heat. A hair dryer or alcohol lamp will provide enough heat (don't hold the rod OVER the flame, but to the side of it). Use rags or pot holders to handle the hot seat & rod. Pull them apart carefully...don't use a twisting motion. This usually works well for me, even with well glues seats. If the seat is not worn, you can carefully remove the glue from inside the seat and reuse it.

2 cents, Tim

I just removed a gimbal this morning with boiling water that was put on with Rod Bond and mesh tape. The rod was very thick at the butt, not much worry of heating the blank too much. Put a screwdriver in the X of the gimbal and twisted right off.

So I imagine a bit of heat may help your reel seat as well as mentioned above.

Phil

Please see the post below.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/2005 07:52PM by Patrick Vernacchio.

Sorry Mr Reyna and the rest of you wealthy guys, but your assumption that it is impossible to remove reel seats that were attached using modern epoxies is incorrect. In the last year, I have removed 24 seats without having to destroy even one.
Hot water under 200 degrees is rod builder's greatest "eraser". Any recommendation to destroy a reel seat before even attempting less "intrusive" means, is well, not too cool. As expensive as real seats are, there is no shame to recovery.
It doesn't come off in a single dunking, and you have to work at it, but most will finally give up the ghost within 20-30 minutes.The amount or type of epoxy makes no difference. They all soften and release well before the integrity of the blank is affected.
Steve, Get yourself a deep enough pot to fully immerse the reel seat. Once the water shows any signs of bubbles, you can soak the rod without removing except to check for release.
And use a towel wrapped around the seat and gently twist. If the seat starts to turn, but show signs of resistance, put it back in the water. You are close to being done, but it might need a little more softening.

Patrick Vernacchio

I recently removed a Struble D2 seat from a 3wt Diamondback Classic blank that I desperately wanted to save and re wrap,and did so by boiling it.

I put the reel seat end in a heavy duty ziplock bag(the kind made for using in boiling water) and taped it up,then boiled it,checking every minute or so to see if it would loosen.I don't know which epoxy was used(it wasn't Rod Bond,but I've loosened Rod Bond with heat before as well),but it didn't take long before the seat just slide right off and the blank was unharmed.The epoxy left on the blank was still mostly solid,but was softer and had to be gently picked off until it was close to what I wanted.The seat insert had epoxy in it,but it was easily removed with a rat tail file.

It was a much easier job than I expected to be honest and both the seat and blank were able to be saved and re used(with a little extra work to re finish the seat).