Okay, so here's where I've been dissatisfied with my building as of late: when I mount a casting reelseat, the screw on end does not generally end up to be evenly spaced around the blank. There is always an uneven gap between the I.D. of the seat and the O.D. of the blank.

First off, it would be easiest if the manufacturers would make them the same diameter as the rest of the barrel. If it's a 13 mm seat, have it all the 13 mm all the way up to the end of the reelseat. But that's just me griping. I'm actually looking for suggestions on how to remedy my problem. So I can't place an arbor of any kind, as the realseat won't get over the arbor. So teach me, Obi Wan's of this craft.

AC
FishinFreaks
Rogers, MN

The CastAway casting seats used to have the barrel formed to be the same size as the hole. I think they may still be that way? Someone will have to chime in and say if they're still that way. I can't say for sure, because I bought a BUNCH of CastAway seats before the seats were re-designed. They're my favorite casting seat, as they give as much blank contact as a split seat, and all the stability of a full seat (for reel mounting).

Before I tried the CastAway seats, I was using Fuji ECSMs exclusively. In order to fill the gap in the barrel, I'd glue in a 16mm graphite arbor, then ream it out just a little to fit the blank.

Aaron Several options to help -:

Castaway fully exposed seats -

Use them as is or split -

[www.rodbuilding.org]

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Fuji ESCM are used several ways - split with match up - arbored for blanks smaller in diameter than 12.5 - as is or rams for blanks larger than 12.5.(rams eleminate heavy use squeaking when arborless

For assistance use the Contact Us Link at: [www.swamplandtackle.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/2011 05:01PM by Bill Stevens.

Aaron,
I wonder if you are making this too hard.
Cut a short section of arbor that will fit into the front section of reel seat that is larger than the blank.
Ream the inside of the arbor to fit the blank.

Now, when you glue up the handle, reel seat, arbor, and fore grip, if used - use slow drying epoxy and due everything in one glue up.
Put a layer of glue on the butt of the rod, glue up the inside of the butt grip, and slip it in place.
Glue up the reel seat area, glue up the inside of the reel seat, and arbors, and slip the reel seat and arbors in place, all at one time.
Then, if using a fore grip, glue up the blank area, the inside of the fore grip and slip it in place.

Finally, before the glue kicks and starts to cure- clean up all of the excess glue from anywhere that it shouldn't be.

p.s.
I will often use three or more different arbors on the inside of the reel seat, to fit the various internal parts of the reel seat - reaming that section of arbor to match the diameter of the blank at its point of installation.

As long as you use slow drying epoxy, you can glue up lots of individual pieces all in the same glue batch.

The key is to prefit everytihng, - making sure that all of the pieces fit perfectly, and that everything is in the right location.
Then, I simply slid all of the pieces up the rod blank toward the tip. If you are using arbors, use a thin rod, to poke out the arbor from the reel seat and be sure that you know what side of the reel seat the arbor must be moved from.

For big handle glue ups, I like to use a minmum of 30 minute epoxy and sometimes will use 45 minute epoxy to give me sufficient time to align all of the pieces. This is especially true, if I am gluing up individual cork pieces - and going all of the cork rings, reel seat, arbor, and fore grip all in one glue batch.

Take care
Roger

I glue the arbor in to the reel seat. Once cured, ream to for the blank and glue up, all in one piece.

it sounds like when you ream out your arbor you are not keeping the hole centered. if you are using the foam arbors don't use a power reamer. they ream very easily and you can do it by hand being careful in a very short time.

Like Scott suggested: glue in the arbor then ream. If you screw up the ream job, ream the entire foam arbor out and start over with a new arbor. Flex coat pilot bits make reaming a BREEZE. USE one to get close and then finalize the reaming by hand to fit perfectly every time.

DR

I tried the gluing in the arbor deal this afternoon. Much nicer. I only have one here, so I'm ordering some more as we speak.

Thanks for the input fellers.

AC
FishinFreaks
Rogers, MN

I glue the arbor in the seat first.

I've screwed up and forgotten to do that ahead of time and I was able to slide the seat into place and then ream an abor to fit another blank of the same diameter and then slide it down and inside the seat.



.................................

Better to have and not need than to need and not have.

Ditto's on John's theory.... you have to make sure you keep the center of the arbor while reaming to fit the blank. That's the only probable cause your problem I can see....?
Jeff

Jeff and John are right on.

Here is a little tip that I have learned over the years when reaming anything - i.e. cork ring, reel seat, or arbor.

Whenever I do any reaming, I primarily use my variable speed power drill, and an assortment of various sizes of round files. They never wear out, never need care and just simply last and last.

The thing that I have found, when doing any of this reaming, is to do partial reams from each side of what ever I am reaming. Since I use the variable speed power drill, I also hold the object in my gloved hand. As I am doing the reaming, I let the object slip in my gloved hand from time to time. Now and the, I will let the object hang up on the file and just spin the object. If I can feel any wobble or jump, I know that I am off center and will stop and check to ream the heavy side. I continue to flip, do the wobble check and let the object slip in my hand as I ream and the centering is right on.

The nice thing about using the various sized files - used in reverse - is that chunks are never ripped out of the material, as may be the case when using any type drill .

For the larger hole diameters, I will use rotary rasps that are chucked into my variable speed drill.

I have tried using bench mounted drills, Bench mounted arbors, and other techniques, but I have always come back to my hand held variable speed corded drill as the best way of reaming for my self.

In a perfect world, we could do as St. Croix Rods does on their factory floor. They have a machinest reamer built for every model rod that they build to perfectly match the blanks taper.

Then, they have a long reach drill press or equivalent, so that the ready made handles are simply inserted into the machinest reamer to a certain point for a given rod being built and the reaming is complete and is perfect. It takes them just a few seconds to ream their rod handles for their production rods.

I imagine that St. Croix spends a few hundred $$ for each of the reamers, but for a production shop, the money is retunred many times over in lower production costs, as well as production uniformity.

Take care
Roger

if you get a chance take a look a the video Flex Coat has out regarding this... you will be pleasantly suprised with the results! i got a free copy while I was at the show.