When building fly rods, do you guys add glue to your cork recess before you slide your reel seat into it? I always have done this and hated the clean up afterwards. Glue usually gets pushed out and the reel seats I use have little groves designed into the lip that covers the recess hole so glue will find its way in between the tiny groves. It seems no matter how much cleaning with alcohol, I cant get the trapped glue out and blah blah blah, you get the point.

I did some deconstruction on two big name fly rods I have that I don’t use too often. I wanted to learn how they liked to assemble grip sections and the first thing I noticed was both rods had no glue between the cork recess and the reel seat hood. I am in the process of building an 8wt with a carbon fiber grip and figured for this build I’m going to not glue that recess as any epoxy that may seep out and get on the fibers of the grip would be messy and annoying to deal with. Am I wrong for doing this? Any future issues you guys see with this?

No rod company would take the time to clean up aftdr themselves like you have done, one reason you saw no glue. It's your rod to do as you please, I have always done as you have.
I like the assurance that I have made everything a unified structure with the best chance to last.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/2022 02:28AM by Spencer Phipps.

Thanks Spencer! Just to clarify, you use no glue for hood to recess contact?

I glue everything, but I also cut to fit each seat so there is no need for a lot of glue to clean up afterwards.