On a spinning rod. Do you face the reel seat with the threads to the tip up or to the butt down?
Rob

Boston, MA

Threads on top, makes a nice transition from the rear grip. It's more comfortable than your hands resting on the threads in my opinion.

We just had this same question less than a week ago ... [rodbuilding.org]

I like my threads towards the tip for the reason Kevin mentioned.

Rob
It is really your choice.

Slip the reel seat on the rod blank and hold it in place wiht a bit of tape. Test it - with threads up or threads down. Check the feel and fit, and use the orientation that best suits you and your style of fishing.

If you are using built up handles and fore grip, you can go ahead and ream out the butt grip and the foregrip to match the reel seat. Then, also ream the plastic arbor to match the blank at the installation point.

Now with the rear grip in place, slip the reel seat in place - testing both ways, and then slip the fore grip in place.

The testing will give you a more realistic feel for the completed rod, if you do the testing with the completed rear and front grip.

good luck
Roger

I've just built my first two spinning rods and it turned out that one was uplocking and the other down locking.

The first was a 6'0" spinning rod, with a 4 inch rear grip and intended for a 1500 size reel. Without thinking too much about it, I built it with the reel seat as uplocking. It feels good and its proven to be a good choice

The second rod was 6'6" with a 7 inch rear grip and intended for a 2500 size reel. I decided to try a dry test run with the reel seat in both directions with the reel screwed in placed and the fore and rear grips in place. Funnily, it just felt a lot better with the reel seat as down locking and the whole outfit felt a lot more balanced in the hand.

If you build it so there is no exposed thread, like if you use the Fuji KDPS, it won't make a difference which way you mount it - especially if you build the fore and butt grips to match each other.