Another question. Of the dozen or so rods I've done, I've built arbors out of masking tape each time. I notice that a lot of the reel seats in handle kits I buy come with a graphite arbor that is pre-fitted to the reel seat. How the heck do you ream those things when the hole is so small. Any downsides to using the prefab graphite arbors? I'd just as soon make them out of tape, but if it already comes with the graphite one, why not? Seems like less epoxy would be required too.

Take a look at the Flex Coat pilot bits. They make opening the bore on those arbors a matter of just a few seconds. You select the one that is just a tad smaller than the OD of the blank where the arbors will be adhered. Then, put the pilot tube into the standard 1/4 inch opening and buzz through the arbor/s. Takes all of 5 seconds. Then take a standard hand reamer and with just a few quick strokes, finish the bore off to a perfect fit.

Believe it or not, this is much faster than winding tape arbors. It also provides you with a lighter yet more rigid, more durable, seat to blank mount.

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The way to use those is to glue into the reel seat first. When set, then ream to fit.

If the butt of the rod is greater than 3/8 you can use the Flex Coat bits which save a ton of time, plus the material reams so easily, that you can hand ream in under 5 minutes to a perfect fit. It could not be easier or better.

Drew

Thanks so much guys. Most all of the rods I do have a butt larger than 3/8, just couldn't figure out what reamer to get in there other than trying to home brew one out of sand and a very skinny piece of scrap blank. When I first started a year ago I cheaped out and bought a set of the razor wands. I've found that re-loading cutting grit onto them is not a great solution...just seems messy, non-uniform (with some grit still remaining from the original) and doesn't hold up really well. Plus, they're murder on my forearms when trying to ream a tennessee handle. I broke down and got some of the better ones that can be chucked into a drill and have a spiral of sandpaper. They really seem to do the job well but were pretty pricy at $60 for a set of four. The smallest one is still on backorder I guess, so hopefully it will work well with the pilot bit.

When the geometry is right, the foam arbors are the way to go. You can make ramps out of them too. They are so easy to turn that the biggest risk is taking off more than you want. The rod shown in the photo has foam ramps that actually are integral with the reel seat arbor function. The front one goes in from the front, and the rear from the rear, meeting halfway under the reel seat. The transition from the seat to the ramp is very comfortable, and the foam rigidly glued to the blank and seat, and covered with epoxy finish, provides good sensitivity.

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