Hey All,

I did have a question I was hoping someone could help me with. I'm working on a tear down of an old graphite bait casing rod I have laying around. I am pretty new at this. I'm cool with removing the guides and the EVA handle (as I have done this before), but I must admit this will be my first attempt at removing a reel seat

I have already did a search on this site and did find a ton of ideas on how to do this. I don't, however have any real tools to speak of. Yes, I know a dremmel tool would make quick order of this, but I don't have one. I don't even have a hacksaw!

So the boiling idea looks good to me. I do have a big pot for frying turkeys and such so got that covered. To please the wife and not make a mess of the pot, I will be putting the rod into one of those disposable oven cooking bags. As I understand about 10 minutes right?

So anyway to the question. The rod is sealed on the end with the butt cap (which I was hoping to remove at the same time). When I submerge the bottom 14-18 inches of the rod, won't the air inside the rod itself expand and explode/damage the rod? I know the air in the hollow blank really has no where to go as it is heated. Won't that rupture the blank itself?. Should I try drilling a small hole in the butt cap to create an opening for the pressure to stabilize before I submerge it?

If a cutting tool is better, would a hacksaw work? I was looking to buy a small hand held fine tooth saw anyway, does anyone have a recommendation for an easily to find (Home Depot and such) small hand held saw for this application and other rod building uses?

Thanks in advance for any info.

Harold

Harold,
1. to remove the grips - simply use a pair of slip jawed pliars. You use the coarse part of the jaws near the joint to chew up the grip while turning the pliars. This action will quickly remove the grip.
2. Remove the residue, simply heat up the residue, and then use a straight edge razor blade - pulled across the blank at 90 degrees to the blank. You will be scraping the blank to remove the glue residue.
For heat, you can use a gas stove, an alchol lamp, or small torch.

3. To EASILY remove the reel seat, you really need to cut it off. It is pretty tough to get the reel seat uniformely hot enough to get the glue soft enough to soften the glue.
Do your self a favor and pick up a dremel tool. It makes so much work around the house much easier. With the dremel tool and a few cut off wheels, you can slice through the blank in just a few munutes. Cut carefully, so you cut - not quite through - then use a screwdriver in the crack to pop the blank apart. Once you separate it into two or three pices, it will quickly pop off the blank.

4. Then, continue the heating and scraping procedure to remove the arbor build up and residual glue before replacing the reel seat and grip.

Take care
Roger

Harold,
When using the boiling method you don't let the rod sit in the water long enough to create enough pressure to explode any thing. When using the bag, wrap it tight like twisting it on, getting as much air out of it as possible.
Follow the link below and reread the instructions by Ralph. The link is to what I did and I followed Ralph's instruction to the letter and it worked perfect, I did not use a bag.

[www.rodbuilding.org]