I'm working on my first rod. It's a casting rod kit I picked up from Mud Hole. The reel seat is a Fuji ECSM graphite blank exposed reel seat. Here's a photo link:
[www.mudhole.com]

The question I have is when I slide the reel seat into place the bottom end is nice and snug but the top end is a little loose. I can't build up the top end with an arbor because within the reel seat on the bottom half, there are raised ridges that come about halfway up the seat. They look to be about 1mm thick. I'm concerned that when I glue this up it will ultimately fail since the entire length of the seat is not supported. Also, I can't slide the reel seat from the butt end since the butt end is a little too wide.

I was thinking for trying to wedge the top end during the glue up or I could ream out the ridges but I'm not sure if that will effect the way the blank sits in the reel seat for the exposed part.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

The front part of the ECSM reel seat will accept a size 16 arbor. The back part of the reel seat is sized to fit the blank. I epoxy a polyurethane arbor in the front half of the reel seat, when cured ream the arbor to fit the blank and then epoxy in place on the blank.
Norm

Genius! Thanks for the advice.

An easy, much used, reliable way to handle it is to tightly wrap the butt in the area with masking tape to get the diameter you want. When you glue it up be sure you totally encapsulate the tape so it won't deteriorate if water gets in. Don't think that this is not reliable-it is bullet-proof.

I have no problem with Norm's solution - it is also bullet-proof and a little (very little) lighter. But if you don't have the arbor on hand.. . .

The trouble with a masking tape arbor with an ECSM reel seat is that the ID of the back part of the reel seat is smaller than the front ID which is 16mm. So if you make a tape arbor to fit the front part of the reel seat you can not pass the back part over it. So the only options are to glue an arbor in the front part and the ream to fit, or ream an arbor to fit the blank and side it into place when seat is being glued in place, or fill the void in the front of the seat with epoxy when gluing in place. The first option is the easiest being much less sloppy.
Norm

Sorry Norm, didn't realize that. Thanks for your expertise. I guess I'm missing something as I have used that seat a number of times with no complications. Must have lucked out.