Dear all,

I am about to build up a trigger rod with the a.m. reel seat. To be on the safe side I ordered two, one with inner diameter of 13,5mm, one with 13,0mm innr diameter. How the should fit to the blank? The bigger one slides down one seatlength behind the planned position, the other one stops two inches "too early" if you let him slide by gravity.

So how the fitting should be in the middle area where the blank is exposed, tight, snugly, loose... ???

I intend to make the bushings in the front as well as in the rear area with dry wall (fiber glass) tape, which I used in the past already for the installation of a fly reel seat.

All comments welcome.

RGDS,
Ole

The fit at the opening should be snug with no gaps. I would ream the tighter one out to fit, if possible.

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!!

Jan-Ole,
If the reel seat drops down with just gravity to within two inches of where you want it then I suspect it is about the right size. When you put epoxy on the blank it should easily slide the additional two inches.
If not just take a rasp and increase the inside diameter slightly, mostly at the butt end. I have done this with many, many of blank exposed reel seats. You want them to fit snug. Not so tight that there is any danger of crushing the blank but still pretty snug. As long as you can still twist or rotate them a little to line then up then they are not too tight.

Both Emory and Mike have gave you good directions. One thing I would consider doing is making a bushing from cork or use a graphite arbor. Because you have to make the rear bushing first, slide the seat down to that bushing and then make the front bushing. I found it very easy to turn down a cork ring on a lathe and ream it out to fit both the blank and the seat for the front bushing.


Steve

Agree, ream the smaller to fit. I used the Fuji bushing for the rear and just filled the front with epoxy. Nice tight seamless fit at the exposed blank area.

Ream smaller to fit is the way to go. One little extra thing. If this is a graphite seat with no coating you will be fine. If it happens to be one of the new seats like the Forecast Textured seat be extra carefull when reaming. The texture coating will not ream out as particles and more than likely will leave a thin sheet like lip that you may or may not notice until you slide it in place. Be sure to check the window area to be sure that this thin sheet is properly trimmed off before sliding into place. It is almost impossible to trim this up after the fact without damaging the blank.

Gon Fishn