Well, I've build a bunch of fly rods and I've decided to take an attempt at a spinning rod. I pieced together a St. Croix package (blank, and pre packaged reels seat) to my preferences. The only problem is I'm a little confused with the reel seat.

It's a St. Croix SGT-14 handle that comes with a fuji reel seat. It's the type with an ~12'' rear grip and then a ~4'' foregrip that turns down to lock the reel in place. The rod is a SCII Med-Heavy, Fast Action 8-17 lb, 1/2-1 oz. 2 piece spinning rod. What's confusing me right now is:
-the inside diameter of the grip is very small and I'll have to do a lot of reaming correct?
-would I build up arbors on the blank where the actual reel seat would be, or will the seat be fine after it's rod bonded to the two parts of the cork grip?
-what are the 3 small, hard foam pieces included? They are ~1'' long with an ~.5 '' diameter? They seem to fit inside part of the reel seat. Are these 3 suppose to be used as abors and reamed to fit my blank? (there won't be much left of them if this is the case)
-why do I have winding checks? If the fore grip spins down, the winding checks place on the rod will change. Do some just epoxy it to the front of the fore grip for show?
-If I'm doing any thread wraps in front of the fore grip, would I start the thread directly in front of my fore grip after it's been tightened down to the reel? If this is the case, the fore grip will go over top of the wraps when it is loosened. Is this what most people do?

Sorry for all the questions, but didn't find this on any searches here. Any good sites for building handles like mine?

Thanks

You will need to ream out the grips to fit the blank. Power reaming with the reamer chucked into a drill will speed the process up a lot. I clamp my drill into a vise, chuck up the reamer (epoxy an old drill bit into the end of the reamer) and lower the grip down on the reamer so I can control the reaming. The 3 foam pieces are reel seat arbors, they are epoxied into the reeal seat and then reamed to fit the blank. Be sure to lightly scuff all of the blank that will have adhesive on ot so as to get a "water break free" surface for a good bond. You can epoxy the winding check to the front of the foregrip for looks (if you want) What I would do with a butt wrap, would be to do the wrap with the foregrip/seat hood OFF of the blank and set the wrap up so that the end is covered by the grip when the reel is installed.

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!!