I am doing a complete tear down of a rod. I have never removed a reel seat before. Nor have I ever used a Dremel tool. Well after borrowing the Dremel from my father-in-law, I was able to do both. The reel seat I was cutting off had the blank exposed at the bottom. In other words, the reel seat sat flush to the blank (no arbors). I was able to cut it off, but I did cut into the blank (graphite) by accident (beginner's mistake...but still learning). It is about a quarter inch long and almost through the graphite (lengthwise). It is about a foot up from the butt. The rod is very stiff and only the top third bends under reasonable stress. I have test stressed it in the area of the cut with no ill effects. I even put it on my knee and stressed in the cut area to were it felt like the rod was going to hits it's natural failing point. Again no creaks or any other signs of failure. This is going to be a rod for my older son (15). I would not use this if it was for someone other than my immediate family. I plan on building on it as it is anyway (because again I put plenty of stress on it already with no ill effects) and even told my son "Well if it snaps, we will know why".

It is 6' and I don't want to cut it any shorter. Is it ok to build on? Has anyone else "cut" a rod by mistake and still able to use it?

Harold easiest thing to do is cut a fiberglass sleeve the same size as the reel seat, thats fits over the blank glue it in place then build as normal, no one but you will ever know the difference.
John

Not only will it be the easiest, it is the best method AND it will be stronger than ever. You picked the right place to do your learning, no permanent harm done.

John Britt Wrote:
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> Harold easiest thing to do is cut a fiberglass
> sleeve the same size as the reel seat, thats fits
> over the blank glue it in place then build as
> normal, no one but you will ever know the
> difference.
> John

Thanks guys for the ideas. They are Great!

I guess as a beginner I really don’t have a bunch of spare blanks to choose from. I am picking out the only ones I have in the garage that are worth a tear down to learn with. So don’t have much “stock” in making sleeves with. I was very disappointed about my cut. Here are the pictures (seen under miscellaneous) to see what I have done. Sorry about the quality.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

[www.rodbuilding.org]


Like I said I put it under pretty strong stress to see if it would fail. It did not after many attempts.

I know there is no answer to this question, but what are the chances that it is going to fail. Making a sleeve is a huge set back. I’m willing to do it; it’s just going to take me a long time to find a suitable “patch”.

Since you put it under "pretty strong stress" by hand and without a reel seat ... IMO, just go about business as usual. The added strength of the reel seat and arbor will add to what seemingly is durable enough already. Do use a suitable arbor material - graphite foam, polyurethane foam or fiberglass tape (drywall) ... don't use masking tape.

Thanks Jim,

You have a good point. Where the cut is there is going to be the reel seat right over it. I can imagine the area coated with epoxy surrounded by the new reel seat should help strengthen it.

I really did flex it as hard as I could without it hitting it’s natural breaking point and it holds strong. It is in the last foot of a very stiff rod and it does not really even flex were the cut is anyway.

If anything this will be part of my learning experience. This was just an old throw away rod anyway (that is until I started building…now there is no such thing as a throw away rod in my eyes). I really don’t have a lot of money to spend on this addiction because I do have a wife and kids. I need to spend my money on other things. Hard to justify why I need more rods when I already have about 20 in the garage (that’s why kids rods are cool, the wife has no objections if it’s for the boys). My skills are not good enough to be tearing down all the rod rods I have. Most of them are in perfect shape. I guess that is why refurbishing old rods is so appealing to me. Not only do I get to practice and learn, so far the couple I have done came out really nice. They have a whole new life and I didn’t spend more than $20.00 on each one. This one too will have the “average” components. If it does fail, again I learned the true failure rate of a mistake like this, and I won’t be out much money (low cost reel seat and grip, I can always reuse the guides).

Thanks again for your help!

Harold,
In the future, of you do any more of these tear downs, you might try the following.

Go ahead and use a dremel or band saw to trim down the reel seat.
I generally cut it on both sides of the blank. Then, I put a couple of screw drivers in the slot that is cut down near, but not through the blank.
Then, twist the screw drivers, and the blank, will split and pop off the blank.

Take care
Roger