I am having terrible luck removing old reel seats from rods I want to refurbish. My last attempt, I used a Dremel tool and made cuts the length of the reel seat and applied heat. The fiberglass ends up shattering under the reel seat. Does anyone have any other ideas I can try? I have one more left and I am desperate. Thank you.

Dennis, I have had good luck with using a dremel to cut through the reel seat on all 4 sides of it, being careful not to cut the blank, and then using a screw driver blade to carefully separate the sections. Works for me.

Thanks Sam, I'll give that a try. I guess the more cuts I make the better my odds will be. Hopefully I can give it a shot this afternoon and I'll let you know how it turns out.

Ditto to what Sam said. Go real slow with cutting process. Actually took one off yesterday. Only one cut then pried apart with screw driver.
1st unscrew the locking ring.
2nd cut off holdown hood
Now you should have just the sleeve to work with.
My biggest problem is sanding down all the old epoxy.

Another tip is that sometimes it's better to make a spiral cut rather than a straight one on 2 sides. A couple of spiral cuts in the opposite direction should give you enough small pieces to work off with a screwdriver.

Once the old epoxy is exposed, you can heat with a flame to loosen and remove but you're right, it's the toughest part of the job.

Terry

i also took one off this week and used a Dremel and cut it on 2 sides but i also had to cut the metal reel sleeve on both ends , but it cane off easy.

I've had success using a hacksaw to cut the seat parallel to the blank to remove the bulk of the seat so that the heat from a propane torch, applied carefully, will loosen the epoxy without effecting the blank.

Good luck.

Dan

Dennis,
Ge a good heat gun.

You can use a torch, but I wouldn't recommend it because it is much much too easy to apply too much heat to the blank and ruin the blank.

Cut the reel seat, cutting not quite through.
Apply heat in the area of the first cut. Gently insert a wide screwdriver in the cut and twist while applying heat. The split will open up a bit.
Now, move on to the next cut and repeat. Again, apply heat and twist to have the cut slightly open.

Continue around the reel seat, twisting the screwdriver to open each cut as you apply heat to soften the epoxy. Don't overdo the twisting of the screwdriver nor the heat and you will gradually work off the real seat.

Once the reel seat is off, then apply heat in a small area, and scrape at 90 degrees to the blank to remove the epoxy.
Work in small areas and before you know it, the reel seat will be offf, the epoxy will be off and there will be 0 damage to the blank.

Just work slowly and carefully and you will be fine.

Take care
Roger

Ive never used the heat gun,buts thats good advice.
I use the dremmel/srewdriver as well..

Just prayed to god you never get a cheap,plastci reel seat..I had one a few weeks ago.
The heat from the cutting bit,re-melts the plastic together while cutting slits....You talk about a p.i.t.a.
I had to make about 8 cuts (multiple trys on each one)before it finally started coming off,and it came off in chunks too.
I have nightmares about that rod.........It was just for testing different wraps,but then I realized that the blank had great action....go fig?

The heat gun is a great idea as I think the heat from the torch has been to real culprit. This is an old rod with a metal reel seat that is a booger to get through and bend back. I am going to make at least 4 cuts the length of the seat and apply heat as I try to pry it back and remove. Would Acetone soften the glue at all? I am looking for something to help get the glue off the blank once the seat is removed. I did use a Scotch pad on the last one and it worked OK, but took a while to complete. I will be sanding this blank down and painting with automotive primer and paint. Can you tell this blank means something to me?

Dennis,
Normally Acetone or any other solvent really won't touch cured epoxy.

But, gentle heat does a very good job of softening the epoxy enough to easily scrape it off the blank.

But, as I pointed out - heat softens the epoxy of the handle adhesive.

Blanks are made of epoxy coated graphite. So, if you overdo the heat, you can certainly make a mess of the blank.
Just use enough heat to soften the heat on the surface, but not enough heat to do anything to damage the blank itself.

--
If you use heat to help to remove finish and or guide adhesive down the blank for guide removal - remember this as you go near the tip.
When you are at the butt of the blank, or near the butt of the rod, the amount of glue and or finish on the blank is a very small percentage of the blank itself.
However, as you near the tip, the amount of finish on the rod gets close to the amount of epoxy in the blank itself.
So, be very very cautious with any heat- if you use any near the tip of the rod for finish or guide removal.

Take care
Roger

I just took the old seat off of a Berkley series one spinning reel that I have had for 20 years. This was a split gripped rod, with a plastic exposed blank seat. I made a couple cust with the dremel tool as you guys said, then applied heat, took pliers and peeled the seat off in chunks. for this type of seat, the heat gun did wonders. I also used heat on some old guides in the past, and the heat really melted the old epoxy, so I could just pull it off, carefully cut the threads.
Thanks for the advice here! Once again, you guys really helped me out!
thanks
kyle Robinson