I'm building a rod with a Fuji PTS Low Profile Casting Reel Seat and a carbon fiber insert to fit it. The reel seat has open areas on the top and bottom where you can see the insert. (Hope that makes sense). Normally I would mount arbors or make tape arbors, put rod bound on them and slide the handle in place. Wipe any excess rod bound off and I'm done. My problem is how to glue up the reel seat without getting rod bond all over the carbon fiber that shows through the openings in the seat. I'm planning on putting an arbor on each side of the carbon fiber insert. If I slide the handle on as I normally do I would get rod bound all over the carbon fiber insert. I'm sure there is probably an easy way to do it, I just haven't figured it out. Any suggestions?

I'm no expert on this seat, never seen one. But from what I've read, I think the method is to glue the insert and seat together first, then glue the assembly onto the blank. Make sense?

[rodbuilding.org]

Makes sense, just means I'll have to figure out what to use as additional arbors at each end of the reel seat since I won't be able to use tape. Thanks for the info.

have not tried one yet
But
What if you get the arbors to fit from each end This way they can be glued to the seat in from each end then reamed to fit the blank -- easy on the rod bond
With the insert in the seat the ends would hold it in place ???

Dry fit first to get it all to fit

Bill - willierods.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/2015 09:28AM by bill boettcher.

Michael is right, the best method seems to be gluing up the insert in the seat first. Use an epoxy of choice, center the sleeve and clean the "windows" with DNA. Be careful the sleeve doesn't move in the seat or you will create a new bead of epoxy to deal with along one edge of the windows. This can at times be a tedious project but hang with it and you'll get a clean flush finish that looks great. After that I have found tape arbors to work well. Test fit and mark the final position of the seat. Locate the areas for tape and build up the area to fit. Butter up the blank and tape and slide the seat into place. No window cleaning since it was done before.

We are working on arbors for the sleeves now, hope to have them in the early spring.

Our custom inserts are due in December and should make the project easier (and really nice looking). The one caution I would mention is to make sure your blank diameter does not exceed the sleeve insert ID. For example, the sleeve for the TVSM16 seat is 13.45mm ID...don't order parts thinking you can slip it into place on a 13.75 diameter blank.

Get yourself some Q-Tips they are good for cleaning small areas

Bill - willierods.com

TThanks for all the info. I think I have it figured out. Going to dry fit everything then bound everything to the reel seat then when set bound to rod.