A piece of the butt section broke off (melted), while I was heating the reel seat (I was in the process of replacing). Am I SOL, or is there a way to recover by somehow attaching another section.

Thank you!

This is the fly rod whose grip you were replacing??

If you can get a piece of carbon whose taper is similar to the damaged tube - and you can clean the cork and epoxy off the grip area - it's doable by inserting the butt section into the replacement section.
Herb

If I'm understanding this correctly, you've essentially shortened (accidentally) the butt section by some number of inches. Probably a little ragged, due to melting of the blank.

I would suggest cutting the blank off cleanly at about the location of the top of the new reel seat you're about to install. I do this on most of the fiberglass rods I build because the butt section can be a good bit broader than the bottom of a graphite blank. The objective of doing this with fiberglass blanks is to reduce the butt diameter so that a reel seat with a wood insert can be installed without excessively increasing the ID of the wood insert.

Once you've cut the butt section blank where the top of the reel seat will be, you bond in a section of rod blank. Generally, I like the insertion depth to be around 3"-4". Once the epoxy cures you then cut the bottom of the extended butt section so that when you rebuild the bottom end of the rod the butt section of the rod ends up being the same length as the other rod sections. Some people call this inserted section a "stent". I call it a butt reduction plug, as I'm intentionally reducing the diameter of the butt section. Maybe not the ideal situation for installing the new reel seat, but not difficult to work this out.

If this explanation isn't clear, feel free to ask for clarification.

Jeff

"The greatest barrier to discovery is not ignorance, it's the illusion of knowledge" - Daniel J. Boorstin

Gentleman, thank you for your quick responses. As you can tell, I am definitely in learning mode. Your suggestions are greatly appreciated. I also read Tom Kirkman’s article in the Library about extending rods. I think with all of this info, I might be able to recover from disaster. Thank you!

Read Jeff Shafer's post and follow his instructions. I do the same thing all the time with Fiberglass blanks. There is no reason that you cannot do this with a Carbon blank to make your repair. There is a company called Goodwinds that sells Carbon and Fiberglass Tubes, both hallow and solid in varying diameters. You can also try to find a scrap section of an old blank and salvage a piece out of that.

Some people do use wooden dowels, while it may work, they really don't have the strength vs deflection in my opinion and could fail on you.

David I feel very bad for what happened and I apologize for suggesting to use boiling water to remove your reel seat. If you wish I will certainly repair the damage for you at no cost, including postage. If interested let me know.
Norm

David, you never mentioned the length of the damage (I’m assuming at the bottom of the blank). If the damage is very short, it’s possible you could get by with an easier fix than bonding in a section of rod blank.

Try this:

[www.proofflyfishing.com]

You need to be very careful when heating carbon fiber or fiberglass. Next time you remove a reel seat, try the boil method, but get your water boiling, then put the real seat into the water for a minute, see if it loosens at all, then dip it in for another minute and check if it loosens. Continue in this mode. In this way you potentially do not overheat and more gradually try to build up to the epoxy bond's lossening point. I make golf clubs and with a metal shaft you can heat the club head with a butane flame and you have no worries twisting it off. With graphite shafts it is an entirely different story. You have to heat things a bit at a time. ALSO, with graphite you can not try and twist the club head or reel seat when pulling it off the shaft or blank. It must be pulled longitudinally off the blank. If you twist it to remove from graphite you greatly increase the chance of damaging the blank. Also, one must realize that any attempt to remove a reel seat from a graphite rod may result in damage. There are no guarantees. And each expoxy seems to work a bit differently.

I have removed many reel seats by heating them in boiling water, never damaged a blank. However, a few reel seats refused to loosen, and I had to carefully cut them off. Since you had problems, I guess that different blanks may react differently to heating. I have bent over a tip section using a heat gun to try to soften finish epoxy after removing the guides. Lesson learned. If you feel uncomfortable trying to repair the damage my offer still stands.
Norm

Norm, with all due respect, you're an animal!

Reel seats with wooden spacers can be the most difficult. As Norman Miller indicated, sometimes a reel seat will just not want to loosen. Cutting them off without cutting into the blank can be tedious, but with patience it works. I've been there.