Reason I'm asking is I epoxied the gimbal to a live bait rod I'm starting (using dry wall tape for bushing). After the epoxy had dried and I was fitting the slick butt, I realized the gimbal wasn't perfectly straight on blank axis. So I had a small gap between gimbal and slick butt on one side ;-((.

I've done a few rods before with a gimbal and never had this problem. What I did this time (and normally do) is stand rod on it's end in the gimbal and let epoxy dry. Evidently this time, I was concentrating so hard on lining up the gimbal "notches" with the spine, I must not have noticed blank was leaning slightly in one direction.

I decided to cut the gimbal off and start again (only lost an 1" of blank but trashed the gimbal unfortunately). After I had cut it off, wondered if I could have used heat and saved the (aluminum) gimbal??

Anyway, before I try again, I would sure like to know what others do. I have a feeling my "self taught" method is not the best one.

Now that you have "trashed" the rod go ahead and try as much heat as you need to try different ways of getting it off. Start with hot (boiling) water and then move on up to flame (alcohol burner) then to a propane torch. When you're done let EVERYone learn from your "bad" experience. BTW that's why I put the slick butt on first or at the same time as the gimbal and then let them cure as one unit (which I assume you've learned).

Or... buy another gimbal and spiral cut this one off.

.........

I always put my gimbal on after the rod is finished. I can chuck up the rod without having to worry about scaring the gimble. I have used heat from torch many times to remove gimbles. I started out with some old rods that people gave my and learned how much heat to use.