Are there any tricks to getting a clean, 90º cut on a graphite reel seat?

Masking tape, dremel with diamond cut off wheel, cut it a little longer than you want and use a sanding block and progressively finer sandpaper as you go to get it where you want it. I usually start with 80 grit to rough the dremel cut square, drop to 150, then to 400gr.

DR

That small chop saw I've posted about here that I also used to cut through blanks, using the same typical cut off wheel, cuts through a reel seat like butter. Word of warning though, if you loiter too long while cutting it the high speed wheel will melt and smear the material. In other words, a smooth continuous cut taking only as long a time as necessary is needed. Will try the tape trick as DR suggested in the previous post to see how that works. I then use a utility knife to scrape and bevel the edges. I get good results.

Lou

Anson,
If your making a no foregrip bass rod you don't need to be as critical as you cut the reelseat 1/8" shorter than the reelseat nut's length on the reelseat with a reel installed. You than never really see the reelseat and the threads.

I sometimes use a hacksaw and then use the disk on the side of the belt sander to square it up. Works great, every time. Sometimes I only used the sander if I don't have a lot to trim. I run my pocet knife around the inside edge on about a 45 degree angle to clean up any of the melted material that remains. And most times lightly sand the outer edge at a 45 degree angle (with fine paper) just to knock down any sharp edges.

I use teh masking tape as a guide as well, and a fine tooth exacto hobby saw (not a knife, serrated blade). I then get it all even with a sanding disk - a word of caution using this - make sure you feed teh seat perfectly perpendicular to teh disk, or teh resulting reel seat will be perfectly straight, but on a diagonal.

I have used a miter box and a hack saw blade to get a square cut on the threaded part of the seat and then snadpaper on a block of wood to smooth the end off. This end presses into the cork ring on the handle and looks graet but I am just a beginner at rod building.

14" chop saw with a bi-metal blade, then sand true with a belt sander combo. I shim the inside of the seat with scrap blank or a wood dowell in order to have a longer peice to work with. Fine tune the nubs with an exacto and 220 grit.

Ha Ha,You said "Nubs"

Freddwhy (Rapt-Ryte)

No, I said "NUBS"... Non Uniform Bulbous Scrapulates!!!! lol

I recently turned a fuji 16mm reel seat into a skeleton by chucking it in the lathe and using a parting tool. Worked well, quick and easy. I finished off with sandpaper. Tomorrow I am going to use the same method to reduce the length on a fuji quick locke foregrip for use as a small fighting butt on a lightweight fly rod.

John

For squaring everything after the cut, you can take an old crappy nut/hood, screw it on the threads, and use that as your straight-edge against the sanding disk. Obviously, after a number of sandings, the old hood/nut will have been sanded out of square, but then you just get another one.