I put a new reel seat on a project the other day and miss my alignment mark a little. I am usually pretty careful and have never had to move a seat once I epoxy it in place. I used rodbuilders epoxy to glue the seat. How do I move it? I thought about the hot (boiling) water trick that I use for removing reel seats but they are usually junk and I don't know if I do it, do I need to remove all the epoxy and start over with new epoxy?


Jason Henderson

If this is going to be a spinning rod and the amount is off just a very, very small amount, I'd not worry over it. I assume you're lining things up with the straightest axis? If you're lining up with the spine then I'd certainly not worry about it. I know this sort of thing can mess with your mind but unless you're off your mark by a pretty good amount, I'd try to forget it and just move on with the rest of the build.

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I would say you have a couple of choices depending how far off "a little" is. Cut it off and start over or align the guides and the tip top to the reel seat.

Jason,
If you are off a little with respect to the spine, and haven't yet wrapped the guides. don't worry about it.

However, if you are off with respect to the guides - then it is likely you need to fix something.

There is a fair amount of money in a cork handle and reel seat. If you don't have a huge amount of time in a fancy wrap - the best thing to do is to probably take off the guides and rewrap them.

Or, you could cut off the butt grip, cut off the reel seat, and put on a new reel seat and new butt grip.

I have never found any one having much success in trying to move a reel seat - once it has been well glued.

Roger