I'm trying to remove a reelseat from an old fenwick fly rod. i have immersed it in boiling water for an hour; used a hair dryer at the highest heat setting; no seat pins are visible on the reelseat. Anyone have alternative methods of removal, other than cutting it off with a dremel?-gb-

Gene,

If the seat is of the aluminum kind, what I do is remove the rubber butt cap or plug if it has one, mask the end of the cork grip near the seat, if it still exists, and then use a long handled butane lighter to heat it just enough to break the adhesive bond. Boiling water only gets you to 212 degrees and a hair dryer is for hair . . .Even if you cut it with the Dremel tool, its still stuck to the bushings - you need to break the adhesive bond.

Have the hand with the lighter in a leather glove so when you think it is hot enough, you can twist it off fairly quickly. Try to get even coverage with the flame. Aluminum conducts heat well but any spacers used won't so unless you totally torch the seat, the blank underneath will not be harmed.

Good luck and be careful.

Charlie

If you have some blank pieces of close to the same ID and OD of the fenwick- cut the fenwick rod in front of the reelseat. And then clean the inside of the fenwick and insert a spigot that closely matches the fenwick ID taper that is about 10 to 12 outside fenwick diameters long to bridge the cut, Then use a piece of rod blank that matches the fenwick OD over the butt end of the spigot that is the orignal length of the fenwick piece cut off. Use Rod Bond. It will give you plenty of working time.
I assume your not going to save the old reel seat? If you are- try more heat after it have been cut off and remove the old blank section which will likely be damaged due to amount of heat used to loosen it.
Joe Kassuba
HIS Rod Shop

good advice to remember. I finally got it off. I kept it in boiling water for one hour and 45 minutes, taking it out every 15 minutes to try to pull it off, then plunging it in ice cold water for a minute before returning it to the boiling pot; it took a long time but finally released. Thanks for the advice.