Has anyone used those graphite arbors to anchor reel seats? Will masking tape do the job as far as longevity goes? I read an article that suggested that masking tape arbors don't last. Please enlighten me. Remember, I'm just completing my 4th rod so I haven't much experience. Thanks

Bruce, there is probably more on this subject in the archives on this board than any other subject. Use the search feature and take a long look. After you study all this material for a week of reading I really would be interested to hear your conclusions. Try "arbors" for a start.

Gon Fishn

I should have thought of that first. I figure I'd cut to the chase and ask the professionals. Thanks! I'll peruse.

I would use the graphite or Flexcoat poly arbors, they are a fast, "forever" solution to reelseat installation. I replace a couple cardboard or masking tape arbored reelseats a year. In all honesty though it's mostly due to poor bonding practices than to arbor failure.

Flexxoat arbors!!!!!!!!!

graphite

Dave von Doehren
PRRODS......If man built it , man can fix it.and if man built it man can break it !

I've used both and am kinda sticking with the graphite. Both easy to work with, both can be glued into the reel seat and then reamed or pre-drilled with an arbor bit and then reamed to fit. The graphite are a bit ( not much , but a bit) lighter. I let the price determine final say in it.

Putter
Williston, ND

MASKING TAPE = PAPER
WET PAPER = PULP MUSH
PULP MUSH = LOOSE REEL SEAT
Q.E.D. -Cliff Hall+++

Cliff, I'd say you got right to the heart of the matter. I wish all posts were that precise.

Given the above choices I wouldn't even consider masking tape as an arbor.

Stan Grace
Helena, MT
"Our best is none too good"

I have taken apart factory rods built some 40 years with badly corroded metal reel seats, and found that the masking tape arbors sound and in factory new condition. Recently I was given a rod with a loose reel seat to tighten up the seat. Something was mighty fishy with this deal, it was given to me by a third party standing in for the second party who had the rod built by a PROFFESSIONAL rod builder about a year ago. I was able to twist and warm, twist and warm and pull off the real seat (fly rod), and found to my amazement --- graphite arbors, Upon examining this professional job I was amazed at the ineptness. The seat was bonded to badly fitted arbors with a liquid epoxy which looked to me like one of our thread finishes. Closer examination showed me that it was about 20% bonded --- that is about 20% of the available bond area was bonded. With a good bond, this should be enough to give a life time of service, but this one was bonded so poor it didn't even give a year of service. I cleaned up the mess, drilled out the seat and ground off the junk from the bare rod. I wrapped the blank with masking tape to fit the drilled out seat, fitted the parts quite precisely, then coated the inside of the reel seat and entire masking tape arbored blank with rod bond and re-assembled. The original bond was so poor that it didn't even tear cork on the handle when I took the seat off. My matching the handle with the re-installed reel seat was a piece of cake. I know this job will hold up for a lifetime or two, as I have several hundred running around here and there put together with masking tape, that are holding their own with the graphite arbored -professional-jobs. I will add another line to what Cliff Hall has penned
MASKING TAPE = PAPER
WET PAPER = PULP MUSH
. ROD BOND = DRY PAPER
NO NEED FOR PAPER EVER TO GET WET
GOOD WORKMANSHIP = GOOD EVERLASTING JOB
POOR WORKMANSHIP= QUICK DEMISE TO PRODUCT


I am not contending that Masking tape arbors are superior to graphite arbors. Quite the contrary, I am a believer in using graphite arbors as the number one choice. However I am also contending that there is nothing wrong with masking tape as the arbor when the situation demands it. It just has to be used prudently and with the proper appreciation of its requirements to be fully encapsulated with a water proof agent. Hundreds of thousands, probably many millions of rods were built with masking tape arbors, long before we ever heard of graphite arbors. In the past 40 or 50 years I have cut into hundreds of them and found most of them to be as good as the day they were assembled, and most of them were inside very corroded metal reel seats. As custom builders, we shouldn't throw out one of our proven tools, just because something better has come along. Sometimes we need those old tools, and its best we know how to use them.

Ralph

Touche, ROQ. - If encapsulated with epoxy, masking tape arbors should stay dry & stable. If the masking paper ever gets wet, ... that's when trouble starts. -CMH+++

If the blank diameter is very close to that of the reel seat, I still use masking tape for arbor material. Much easier and faster than thread or cord for me and I trust that it's waterproof when it's done.

Putter
Williston, ND

I have removed reel seats from rods that have been submerged in water and found the masking tape arbors to be a sticky gooey mess with no structural integrity. If they are used and remain dry they most likely perform well but if they become wet they deteriorate. Why take the risk by using them?

Stan Grace
Helena, MT
"Our best is none too good"

I do it because I trust my workmanship I guess, Stan. That's the only guarantee that anyone who gets a rod from me has - my ability to make those decisions and trust in myself. It does work if done properly. One like you tore apart and have mentioned here wasn't done properly.

Finish needs to be done properly, guide spacing, guide grinding, etc. They can't just 'be done' , they need to be done right or there'll be HE## to pay down the line.

The only thing that solves these problems for a builder are their eyes and their mind. Got a problem with something in rod building? LOOK at the problem then use our MINDS to figure out how to fix it. (Or just post questions on .org and let someone else do the thinkin' for ya) LOL!!!

Putter
Williston, ND

Thanks Tom... y'all keep rubbing it in about the latest Rodmaker issue.... Pretty soon I'll know which pages to go to first. LOL

Putter,

Sort of like CP/NO CP. If it works and you trust it, do it!!

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

Yeah, it's like that. As long as someone I trust hasn't told me that there can be problems even if done to the best of my abilities...

Putter
Williston, ND

There can ALWAYS be problems with anything, no matter how you do it, you just have to trust your own ability/judgement in the end!

And I know that all 3 times, I did it to the best of my ability and it still failed... so I can't trust it anymore.

Putter
Williston, ND