I just received my Batson's U3 fly seat in the mail. Its pretty nice looking but I have a few questions about it. First, am I suppose to glue the seat together before I glue it on the rod? Or do I glue up the wood insert to the rod first and then glue the hardware to that? I've never put a fly seat together so I'm totally clueless. Thanks.

~Jon

There is certainly something in angling that tends to produce a serenity of the mind

You can epoxy it all together at the same time. Ream out your grip and have it ready to go on and tape the parts of the seat that you don't want to get epoxy on. When you are all set mix up your epoxy and glue it all together.

Jon,

I always have the reel seat glued up ahead of time, epoxying all of the parts together EXCEPT the end cap. This allows me to see where the inside of the seat is relative to the end of the rod when I install it for the final fit and it also keeps me from being in a hurry and forgetting to put the reel seat foot ring on before putting the butt cap in place!

Always rough up the insides of all metal parts and take the shine off of the wooden parts before epoxying them. Clean and degrease the metal parts as it doesn't take much of an oily film to prevent a good bond. I use U-40 Rod Bond mixed as directed.

I then shim up the rod blank to accept the seat and mark the end of the seat on the blank so I know how far to slide the grip onto the blank. I test fit both the seat and the grip that has been fitted for the blank w/o epoxy, to make sure all will fit well and everythng will be on center. With all of the parts of the reel seat and the grip in wet epoxy is not the time to see something wrong. If all looks well, I remove all parts and epoxy the grip in place after roughing up and degraesing the grip area of the blank. The loose reel seat in the back of the grip ensures the grip wil still be centered after the epoxy cures. I use some of this batch of epoxy to secure the tip top. After the full cure of the grip, I then install the reel seat aligned with the proper spine and finish with the buttcap. I wrap a piece of masking across the but cap and adhere it to the sides of the grip so it acts as a clamping procedure and prevents the seat from sliding or moving in place.

This may appear to be somewhat time consuming but it always works and no part of the procedure is rushed and a quality product is the end result. You can't rush quality!

Good luck and enjoy.

Charlie

I do it charlies way, almost verbatim. I actually have wondered at times if I was doing it right, but it works for me so I never asked, good to know I am in line with others technique.

For reel seat assembly, I glue the threaded barrel on to the insert, using 5 minute epoxy, wait 30 minutes, . ( i guesstimate the glue-ups hardness by the hardness of the leftover epoxy). I put on the reel to check the alignment before glueing up the fixed hood. Glue on the fixed hood (also 5 minute epoxy).
I don't shim up the blank; I use foam arbors, glued to the inside of the reel seat, also with 5 minute epoxy. I let the reel seat assembly sit over night before I ream it to fit its spot on the blank.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/16/2009 08:51AM by George Forster.