Hi everybody...

I'm pretty new to rod bulding...I've seen and helped my dad build some, but never any of my own.
Anyway, I had a question about the reel seats that mount the reel directly to the blank such as the Pac Bay Minima...Is mounting the reel in this fashion hard on the blank?

I'm building on an ISB822.5 blank with split-grip handles if that helps.

Thanks in advance!

Justin

Those are made so at least the rear section does not need an arbor. You may just have to ream out that portion to fit it in the spot you want on the blank. The threaded portion of that reelseat needs an arbor. If you have to ream out the rear section, just be careful at doing this. Since there is not much material on the bottom portion of it, it is easy to ream it off center a bit. Found out the hard way when I went to put my reel on after the first one I did. I can make the reel fit, have to barely slip the rear portion in and push the reel down to get it in the froom hood. Then tighten it down good.

Justin, The reel itself helps to add a little rigidity to the blank, even on a medium power blank there will not be a great deal of flex in the seat section. Try to get a seat as close as you can to the blank diameter or just a bit smaller and sand it to fit. Keep in mind there needs to be a minimal amount of space for the epoxy and you should not have to force it down on the blank. I like to mount the reel when I epoxy the seats and stand the rod up to keep it aligned and hold some downward pressure on the bottom seat.

If I read your question right, the reel foot does not sit directly against the blank with the Minima seats. There is a small gap between the foot of the reel and the rod blank.

Thanks guys...I asked the question before knowing enough about those reel seats.

I looked through a bunch of the pics on here and got a pretty good idea of how they work and how they go on.

Just ordered a PacBay Minima reel seat from Utmost, so I guess we'll see how it goes.

Justin