This may be just a bit off topic, but it certainly has to do with rodbuilding. I would like to turn some handles for baitcasters that match the wood of the handles I create. Has anyone done this before and how in the world do you take of the old plastic ones and install the new wood ones. Thanks

Some knobs are pressed on and some have a screw holding it on. Look for a small pop-out plug on the knob - screw will be located under it. If no screw is found it will be a lot of work to change knobs. Pressed on knobs have to be cut off, a new mounting shaft machined and figure out a way to mount it to the reel handle and the knob to it. Here's a photo of one I made.

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Most of the reels that have a screw that holds the knobs on use 8X5X2.5 bearings in the shaft. You would need to have 8mm counter bores on each end of your knobs for the bearings to fit in, you would have to measure the plastic knobs to know the correct depth for the counter bores. Some reels come with plastic bushings instead of bearings in the knobs but it’s cheap and easy to replace these with bearings and sometimes they may be the difference between a $100 7 bearing reel and a $250 11 bearing reel……..