I just installed a Lakeland aluminum 2 piece reel seat with an id of .765. The od of my blank is approx. .550. I needed to build up the od of the blank and chose to use drywall tape/u-40 rod bond epoxy. After installation and waiting for the epoxy to set, I noticed that the butt piece did not align with the rest of the rod and had a noticeable crook in the rod. In other words, the blank is not straight to the reelseat. Thinking that the drywall tape was not perfectly round, I removed the reelseat after immersing it into boiling water to soften the epoxy. What do you recommend as the procedure to use to get the blank and the reelseat in perfect alignment?

Any time you use any sort of tape, unless you end the wrap at the exact same place you started it you'll be off one tape width to one side. You have two options - dump the tape and center bore a rigid arbor concentric with the rod blank and seat. Or... make the tape busing larger than needed and when the epoxy has cured turn it concentric with blank and seat and then glue up the reel seat.

You really shouldn't be off by that much, however, one width of drywall tape can't be very much.

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