Hey guys,

I think I have been putting on way too much epoxy on my reel seat arbor to blank connection points. I have used graphite reel seat arbors for all of my builds. I ream them out to where they are snug but not too tight. I then proceed to apply epoxy on my blank to the point where it accumulates quite thickly on the blank---1mm thick or so. I have noticed, however, that most of it does not even stay where I want it to; the majority of it gets squeegeed out the sides! This usually ends up in waste, longer clean up times, and I end up getting a lot of residue from coffee filters and paper towels all over my EVA.

How much epoxy do you all put on your blank to arbor connection? Is it just a thin coat? My guess is a thin coat to cover the blank. I think I have just been overcompensating thinking it's going to do a better job holding up in the long run but I'm starting to think the benefits of smothering my other components with epoxy just isn't worth it.

Am I not reaming the arbors enough? am I using too much? What is a good rule of thumb as far as amount of epoxy applied?

As always, thank you,

---Carlos

The thinner the glue line, the better the bond. You want to put on enough to make sure that all the mating surfaces are covered, so you want at least some squeeze out. This lets you know you've got enough on there. But there's no need to over overboard. If you have a close fitting assembly, a thin coat of epoxy is all you need to apply. If you see any squeeze out at all, you'll know you have enough.

.........

Carlos,
Tom is dead on as always. But we should also mention prep. The rod blank needs to be scuffed up for lack of a better word. Mark the location of the grips and the reel seat then use a scotch brite pad and scuff the blank. There was an article several years titled the water break method... In essence you want to sand the blank (lightly) until the point a drop of water breaks and spreads out when put on the rod. In other words a bead of water when placed on the un-sanded blank will simply sit. Similar to a drop of water on a waxed car. If sanded/scuffed/prepared correctly the water drop will break and spread out on the blank. Once sanded/scuffed just wipe the surface with a dry paper towel of rag…No solvent of any type. If you use a solvent it tends to smooth or repair the surface. Leave it raw. Even scuff the inside of the reel seat in the same manner.

It does not matter how much epoxy you use if the surfaces are not prepped correctly. At some point the bond will always break.

Right or wrong you will find you own way that works. For me when I use arbors I ream them to fit on the blank tightly where I want the reel seat to be. Then I glue the one at the tip end of the seat into the reel seat. So I end up with a reel seat with the top (or toward the tip) glued in (I used Devcon 5-min epoxy). Then when it comes to time to glue the seat onto the rod I put a thin coat of rod bond (or your choice) on the rod, slide the bottom arbor on, put additional rod bond, and slide the reel seat with the glued in arbor into place. The glued in arbor will act like a squeegee and the extra epoxy will bunch up around the arbor and come into contact with the reel seat. Again, no need for extra epoxy to try to make this occur. If it happens it happens.

Additional tip. Don’t scuff the blank in any area that will be visible. Areas like between split grips, exposed reel seat where your finger would touch the blank. Leave these areas alone. If you sand them you will see it on the finished rod.

If you get around Kansas City give me a call. I would be glad to work with you.

Gabe
Neal’s Custom Rods

I have had pretty good success masking my eva when seating reel seats. Just wrap the eva with painters masking tape. Put an extra "sacrificial layer" near the mating surface, that you can easily peel off once you have removed the bulk of the excess epoxy. I leave the rest of the tape on during the build to protect the eva.

Fred I used tape on my cork grips and reel seat etc.. It helps greatly with clean up. But for any new builder, be careful the tape will pull out the filler from the cork imperfections. If it occurs just have some pit paste handy.

Use the blue painters tape Less adhesive on thr cork

Bill - willierods.com