I had a rod built a few years ago with a split reel seat. The rod builder said he used an epoxy that was very strong and expensive. He said it was the same epoxy used to attach the tiles to space shuttles. My first thought was don't the tiles always fall off the space shuttles. :D Anyway, the stuff was rock hard and held a skeleton reel seat solid without much surface area (steelhead rod). Looking to pick some up for future split reel seat builds if anyone know what kind of epoxy this is. Thanks for the help.

Hysol makes most aerospace epoxies that I know of. Not cheap though. They make very high quality stuff but it's all meant to be measured precisely by weight so you might want to invest in a good scale. Might want to check them out.

Rodbond has worked great for me on numerous split reel seat builds. If the surfaces are prepared properly i dont see you breaking it loose ever. just my .02

i would have to go with the rodbond as well, lightly scuff the exact spots on blank, for better adhesion and you should be fine.

I cant imagine a situation where anything stronger than rodbond is required. Surface prep is a bigger factor when dealing with bond strength. You have to wonder when someone makes claims like that if they are really true. Just because an adhesive is used to bond the tiles on the space shuttle does mean it is ideal for a fishing rod application. Temperature ,flexibility and brittleness all need to be considered .

Freddwhy (Rapt-Ryte)

I put rod bond on a crack on a coffee pot. I made coffee in it every day for well over a year and it never leaked Till I broke the pot for good LOL

It's your money but sounds like over kill

Bill - willierods.com

I love the split reel seat and have built many of them and have had no problems with adhesion. I use Rod Bond for all my builds. However, I did have the front section slip one time and that was due to me using wide masking tape under the section. The tape was wound several layers thick and the tape slipped, not the epoxy. Lesson learned, I always use arbors to fill the gaps now.

Steve

Most any common epoxy is going to be more than strong enough for use on fishing rods. When a failure occurs, it won't be the epoxy. It'll be something related to the rod itself or due to poor surface prep on the part of the rod builder.

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

My guess is that builder used Rodbond or similar, and a bit of 'marketing' to sell you on the strength...

Rich the marketing was "kinda" appropriate.

The original use which created the need for two part expoxy system was aerospace

The man the brought Rod Bond to the rodbuilding market helped put a lot of airplanes in the sky first!

Ralph - Epon 828 forever! At least rodbuilders are not required to use guanadene carbonate and dry ice!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/06/2011 09:17AM by Bill Stevens.

My buddy worked at Raytheon for a while.
He gave me some "structural" epoxy that came in yellow tubes it was a pain
to use as it had to be mixed in specific ratios like 2 parts A to 3 parts B or somethiing like that.
I don't remember the brand or part no. though.

I always used Locktite or Devcon (liquid) extended time epoxy, now
I use rod bond. Both are more than adequate for rod building. I know this because I've tried taking
them apart, you've got to cut the handles and reel seat off..

Its a tan-cream color epoxy and will not hardly get soft even when I hit it with a torch! The skeleton reel seat was setup where the fore grip area was just the small part of the skeleton. The back of the reel seat was the threaded part. This put a lot of pressure when screwed down on the very small fore grip and it would never hold. I will post a picture later. The epoxy used on this rod is different than any other rod I have tore apart.

Pretty sure the shuttle's tiles use a silicon/rubber based glue....not epoxy.

Russ in Hollywood, FL.