I'm hearing that five minute expoxy is a bad idea for reelseats. I put one on last night just because it would be faster, but I'm seeing posts that say this is bad. I used graphite arbors for fitting on the reelseat, and it seemed to get on there good and solid, but I'd like to get the reason why people feel this is bad.

-- Cheers
-- James

James dont let the whole good vs bad paranoia get you. It will probably be just fine. Tests on epoxies have shown that longer cure epoxies have better adhesion properties. It is on now and probably will stay that way. Next time you might want to try a different type. Also I hear Rod Bond is good. Relax and have fun putting the rod together.

Yeah, I was using rod bond before, but I'm trying to see what I can do to speed things up. This is one of the steps I don't think I'll be cutting short in the future though. At the very least, it is a 4 wt rod, so it probably won't go through too much abuse.

-- Cheers
-- James

I usually use it for my personal 'beater' rods..I' haven't had one fail..yet...but, I'm in freshwater & Great Lakes trolling, & long ( surf blank) muskie rods are about as stressful as mine get. I'd likely not use it for the 'real fish' ...

Not enough working time with 5 minute epoxy. Rod bond allows you to fiddle. If you must, glue up insert and hardware and let that set before trying to center the unit on the rod. Big bug a boo is reversed hardware that you won't notice until too late with 5 minute epoxy.

We're talking five-minute EPOXY here. If you have prepared the blank for good adhesion, nothing will be able to tear the reel seat apart. Five minutes is plenty of time to make final adjustments of the assembled reel seat. (As Don said, check your components first to make sure all is in order) It sure beats Rod Build for time to cure.

Jim

All I know is that you can loosen 5 minute epoxy with heat. That's why it is so popular for tip tops. You're probably OK but I'd opt for "Better Safe than Sorry" next time. With my luck, someone would leave it in a hot truck all day and it would loosen.

Mike

There are various types of 5-minute epoxies. Many are incredibly strong and form a bond that is far more than sufficient for use on fishing rods. The only real downside is that you don't get a second chance - you need to have parts assembled and aligned very, very quickly. I know builders that have had accidents in this regard, not getting things quite where they wanted them and then finding the epoxy had set to the point where they couldn't move those parts the last little bit.

If you prepared your surfaces properly and got your parts aligned where you want them, then go fishing and don't worry about it.

............

Tom makes a good point here, although I don't think it was intended - if the epoxy wasn't strong enough, then the fact that it set up too quickly wouldn't be an issue - they wouldbe able to move it the way they neeed to. Since it is strong enough, once it sets that cannot move it, so it should be strong enough.

I used to use it on my tip tops - I lost TWO 1" sections of blank trying to remove the tipt with heat, the blank "melted" & I never was able to re-use the tips. Another problem I had with teh 5-minute is that when it gets freezing cold, if the rod gets banged around, there is a good chance of the bond breaking & the tip coming off. This happened to me twice as well.

New way to remove epoxied on rod tops there Billy? Stick 'em in the freezer!!HAHAHAHA!
Seriously, you could use the five minute stuff for anything that you can line up and position VERY quickly. You'd have to be very accurate and have measures to prevent any slippage from occurring. Basically, the setting time is it's big drawback. Makes it hard to use efficiently, plus cleanup is sometimes a real b!#@h.

Ted..

Don't know if this has anything to do with 5min epoxy but i've got two reel seats where parts of the metal skeleton has come of the wood spacer. In both cases the seats were already assembled when i bought them. I use 24hr epoxy and have never encountered this on the seats i assemble myself.

For the light rod it is on it will probably be OK. If you intend to do a quality job next time use Rod Bond. Then you can give a guarantee
5 min for tip tops and they do come off OK if carefull and you don't over heat

Tom Kirkman Wrote:
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> If you prepared your surfaces properly and got
> your parts aligned where you want them, then go
> fishing and don't worry about it.

That's why the last thing I do is put the reel seat on. I do the guides and then when I'm ready I'm so
annul I put a reel and line on the rod and string it up to make sure everything is lined up properly
before using my 5 minute epoxy.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/07/2005 09:23AM by Ron Hossack.

How do you set up your guides? If the reel has to be used in order to set the guide path but the guides are on first ??
Would it be easyer to put the handle and seat on then the guides to the reel in the seat??

bill boettcher Wrote:
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> How do you set up your guides?

After spining the blank I put the grip on then position my guides using a long
wooden dowel to get as straight as I can.

> If the reel has to be used in order to set the guide path but the
> guides are on first ??

Then I make my arbors friction fit and mount the reel and seat and
string the line and move the guides as necessary.

> Would it be easyer to put the handle and seat on
> then the guides to the reel in the seat??

It may be easier. But I screwed up once and put the mortice on the
wrong side of a DC blank so I just try to illiminate that posibility and
mount the seat last.and try to minimize any post 1AM mistakes as I can.

If it works for you - go for it

bill boettcher Wrote:
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> If it works for you - go for it

Thanks Bill ... since I'm still learning this hobby and the wife
frowns on me ruining a $75 dollar blank (it's ok for the dogs
or the grandson to puke all over the carpet) I'm always
looking for ways to illiminate my tendencies to error.

Don't know if this will help but I find since the seat is important, I mark the spine, then figure where I will put the guides and the seat to them, then mark with tape 1/4". Then the first thing I put on is the seat ( measure for the handle ) Just a suggestion
Keep the wife happy !

Since I build mostly bass rods, I build from the butt to the tip. The cork handle first, then the reel seat (blank exposed ones fit tight to the blank), then the foregrip, winding check, hook keeper, butt wrap, guides and lastly the tip top. Sometimes I put the guides and top on before the butt wrap but mostly not. I cant do it much different unless I use an oversize reel seat and I really dont like those.
Dave