Fellow rodbuilders,

I'm stuck with a problem of material choise in one of my current rod projects. I'd like to use U-22 reel seat from struble for this rod and would like to install it to CTS Revo blank. The problem is that outer diameter of the blank is quite big (around 13,5mm) and inside diameter of U-22 is around 16,5mm if I remember right.

Anyway the problem is that walls of insert will become very thin and it makes it unpossible to use wood at this case. I thought maybe I could use polyester bar for making insert. Does anyone have any experince of this. Tom did make something like that at top of one of his handles some time ago. Color of this polyester bar should match blank and wrap colors (blue/white)...

Example of this material can be seen here [www.brisa.fi]
There mother of pearl and ice blue looks very nice...

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks, Antti

There are a lot of things you can do here. You can certainly bore a wood or plastic insert that thin - you just need to be accurate. Or, you can do something directly on the blank and mount the skeleton seat parts on either side of it. A thread wrap, marbling, feather inlay, etc.

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

Antti,
I believe you own a set of my mandrels right? You can mount the insert on the mandrel and turn the walls "paper thin" without incident. I have done this many times on a particular brand of blank that had notoriously large butt sections (1/2" o.d. on a 5wt.). The average builder had a hard time finding a factory seat for a 5wt. with a bore that large.


Andy Dear
www.lamarfishing.com

Antti,
I've used acrylic inserts that Dave Winslow of Winslow Rods makes and sells on @#$%&. You could drill these out to fit fairly large diamater blanks. I used one on a six weight. Do a web search for Dave Winslow rods and you can contact him and ask him about the inserts he makes.

Joe

Indeed options are there, to choose one is a bit harder...

Tom,
Maybe I need to try to bore one seet I have turned and see if I'm able to do it without breaking it...

Andy,
Yes I do have your mandrels and they work fine, but largest i have is diameter of 10mm and I need to make bore to this one equal to 13,5mm. After the drilling is done, how I could attach wood block to mandrel? By the way, Your DVD has been a great help and I REALLY love working with my lathe :)

Joe,
I sent email to Dave, well se what he suggest....

Turn your insert on your 10 mm mandrel. Slip your turned insert on your next smallest mandrel it will spin freely. Mount your mandrel in you your lathe then with 1 piece of masking tape wind some 220grit sandpaper using the rotational direction of your lathe to tighten the sand paper to the mandrel. It will flap around as the mandrel spins with the insert flopping around the mandrel loosely. Now you can tighten the sandpaper up wiuth a touch and slide the reel seat onto the sand paper. Just let the insert slip in your hand from time to time while sanding the inside of the insert. A bit of paying attention is needed to keep everything centered. After a bit jump up the 10mm insert sanding in the same manner. Before you know it you will have the insert bored out to 13 mm and with a bit of care it will be centered just fine. A bit of a hastle but it's a lot easier then doing it by hand. You can also reverse chuck a round file but you can't get as thin as with sand paper.

I hope that wasn't too confusing, if it was and you want to give it a try just email.

Scott

Antti - when I've had a similiar problem I've turned cork shims for the mandrel. I bore cheap rings so that they fit tight on the mandrel (in your case a little less than 10mm), firmly place them on the mandrel and then turn their OD down to the ID bored turning stock (13.5). I mount the turning stock on the shims and turn down to size. I've been able to get them pretty thin - and a couple of times too thin :) I've found that my success is directly proportional to keeping my skew chisels sharp. btw, I've had a lot better "luck" with tight straight grain wood. Burl is a real pain for me, but that is primarily a function of my turning skills.

Thanks, will try these soon