G'day Guys,

Just thought I'd post this experience.

Installed a reel seat on my son's boat rod that I'm re-building on the weekend. Blank was 9mm diameter and reel seat was an 18. I used drywall tape as the bushing and doubt I'll use that again to take up such a large gap.

So I wrapped on the tape to the right diameter so it was just a snug fit on the reel seat. Thought to myself "I'm never going to get epoxy worked right down onto the blank through such a large thickness of tape". Did a search on here and found some posts that confirmed what I was thinking. Best to unwind the tape and start applying epoxy and then wrap over, continue with epoxy etc. Anyway, did that with both bushings, went to slide on the reel seat and guess what? The epoxy had lubricated the tape and it was sliding. So here I am, up to my armpits in epoxy, sliding bushings and going nowhere fast. Decided to scrap the lot and start again. So started again, got one bush wrapped and epoxy impregnated, but it started to slide too. Next bushing, used a small peice of masking tape to fasten the drywall tape to the blank, got it wrapped on and epoxy impregnated no problems. Reel seat slid in to place, luckily first bushing did not move much. Front grip installed no probs and winding check to finish it off.

All valuable learning experience but frustrating at the same time. From now on I'll be using reamable arbors for such a large gap and save the drywall tape for taking up very small spaces.

Cheers

Jason



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/2006 10:26PM by Jason Groombridge.

Hey Jason,
Sounds like fun. I saw the same problem coming after I received my (second) real seat, the ID was real big (the first reel seat ID was to small) and it was the only size made in this model. Have you heard of Rod Bond? It was my first rod and I was nervous about using all that epoxy to fill the big bushings. I read posts about Rod Bond and knew I should get it.

Let's fish,
Chris

Chris,

If I was the type of bloke that enjoyed having teeth pulled then yes, I would have called it fun. I have heard of Rod Bond but I don't have any. As this is my first rod I have just used a good quality 2 part epoxy I have on hand. It's actualy a boat building epoxy, not that it really matters. I'll probably upgrade to the "proper" stuff at some stage when I place an order for components to do my next rod.

Jason

Ful llength arbors are CHEAP.....and it sure makes things easy and a really nice fit.

DR

Duane,

I'm keen to give them a go. Mucking around with big blobs of epoxy and getting covered in the stuff is no fun. I don't really care about the cost. From my point of view the easier installation outwieghs any cost difference anyway.

Jason

rod bond with the drywall mesh tape would have been to do of course but for a large space like that (and even without) those arbors are sweet. i used one on a buddy's rod. he bought it from REC. flex coat brand of arbor?? in the end, it was remarkably easy.

eric
fresno, ca.

Jason, My first experience with dry wall tape worked out well, I measured as you did, unwound and started to reapply - but I started to wrap it DRY onto the rod for about 4-5 turns - then I started to apply the epoxy, rod bond in my case, and continued to wrap around the rod. That may have been your undoing, or perhaps your brand of epoxy just melted the drywall glue and cased all of your problems. That was a nightmare of a story I have to admit, thanks for sharing. Best of luck on your next go.



Fred Crum
Dixon, Ca.