As far as spinning reel seat is concerned, almost identical are available since 2 years (at least) from Aliexpress. I was sceptical at first but a friend of mine is using them successfully for light spinnng rod builds. They are indeed lighter than newes Fuji 'carbon mesh' reel seats although not such sturdy.

Best regards,
Pavel

Thomas, 100%. as Dave says, albeit more politely, a seat with a cutout is useless if the cutout doesn't allow contact with the blank. Except for purely visual reasons.

The industry has been going away from direct contact seats for some time now, got to get that extra $10 out of you, and it's so much easier for them during production.

I just looked at the web site of a major on line tackle retailer. Every Shimano, every Daiwa, every G Loomis, every Megabass, every Fenwick, and practically every St Croix casting rod they offer uses exposed blank reel seats on their casting rods.

Some of these rods retail for as little as $69.99 so it's not like this on line retailer only carry the manufacturer's top of the line rods. They offer an "Ugly Stik Carbon Casting Rod".and even it uses an exposed blank reel seat. If anything, at least in the bass fishing industry, manufacturers have been moving towards direct blank contact reel seats on their casting rods. for some time now.

As far as ease if of production goes. it definitely has to be easier to make a standard reel seat versus one with a cut out and a specific ID, but it's not easier to build a rod using a standard seat.

Aleks Maslov Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> @ David -
>
> We made them to solve an issue that we were having
> with the Edge “Epitome” line - which was
> shaving as much weight as possible
> anywhere/everywhere and still finding that there
> was 1/2oz of dead weight in the reel-seat.
>
> It’s a different strokes for different folks for
> sure - will we use it on every rod in the Epitome
> line, even if we have to use an insert on smaller
> diameter blanks - yep.
>
> Do I think it’s a good option for 15mm-ish sized
> blanks? Sure.
>
> Can’t tell you how many emails we received if
> they are available to the builder - hundreds.
>
> I think you are asking about the glue area, and
> it’s in the barrel and about 1/4 inch at the
> grip.
>
> Best,
> Aleks

Aleks,

Two of these casting seats will be arriving monday. If I wanted the exact hood like in your pictures, what all NFC parts would I need for the full hood replacement, lug, trim pieces? I love the look, but I’ve refrained from trying to order because I don’t know what all to order. Yep, i’m still getting my feet wet to all this.

Jeremy, if you don't get a reply here from Alex, call or email NFC.

From the pictures and what's on the website, it looks like the seat now ships with the Fuji KDPS 16 hidden nut.

The carbon fiber hood cover shown in Alex's picture on page 1 of this post looks like the NFC G623C01 cover with the KDPS hood. I don't know if they shortened the one in the picture or not. The G623C01 comes with the EVA end cap and fits on the KDPS 16 without having to do any cutting to the KDPS hood. All you have to do is open up the hole in the EVA. When I epoxy the cover to the KDPS hood, I put a wrap of tape around the part where the hood turns to keep epoxy out of the joint.

I've used the Fuji perfect fit CR22 cap ring instead of the EVA piece. Fits right in, easy swap.

Voodoo rods have a lot of different options to use with the KDPS hood. Some of those require cutting the KDPS hood. If you want to shorten the hood and reel seat, Angler's Resource has a video on the process on YouTube called, Fuji's KDPS Reel Seat Hood "Deconstructed"

The Hoods that come with the carbon tech reel seats are NOT KDPS16 or compatible with most KDPS Trim pieces. Just fyi.

Kdps hoods have an OD of 20.0mm
Carbon tech hoods OD is 20.7mm

The hood that came on my XO Skelton casting grip also fits on the Carbon Tech reel seats I got. As in it threads on fine and looks good to my naked eye. I won’t be using it on there, just tried it out on there.

The hood that came on my XO Skelton casting grip also fits on the Carbon Tech reel seats I got. As in it threads on fine and looks good to my naked eye. I won’t be using it on there, just tried it out on there.

Ray Morrison Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Jeremy, if you don't get a reply here from Alex,
> call or email NFC.
>
> From the pictures and what's on the website, it
> looks like the seat now ships with the Fuji KDPS
> 16 hidden nut.
>
> The carbon fiber hood cover shown in Alex's
> picture on page 1 of this post looks like the NFC
> G623C01 cover with the KDPS hood. I don't know
> if they shortened the one in the picture or not.
> The G623C01 comes with the EVA end cap and fits on
> the KDPS 16 without having to do any cutting to
> the KDPS hood. All you have to do is open up the
> hole in the EVA. When I epoxy the cover to the
> KDPS hood, I put a wrap of tape around the part
> where the hood turns to keep epoxy out of the
> joint.
>
> I've used the Fuji perfect fit CR22 cap ring
> instead of the EVA piece. Fits right in, easy
> swap.
>
> Voodoo rods have a lot of different options to use
> with the KDPS hood. Some of those require
> cutting the KDPS hood. If you want to shorten
> the hood and reel seat, Angler's Resource has a
> video on the process on YouTube called, Fuji's
> KDPS Reel Seat Hood "Deconstructed"


Thanks. Me trying to get down the sizing on trim pieces, hoods, etc has honestly been the most frustrating for me in regards to learning/picking everything. Everything else I got down pretty quick. Im probably making it more difficult than it really is. I prefer/plan to do epoxy ramps for a lot of my “trim” pieces.

Jeremy

Sorry, Patrick's picture shows it's not a KDPS 16 hood. The OD is bigger and it has threads to the end which the KDPS doesn't.

Contact NFC to see which hood they sent and which carbon cover works.

Or hopefully someone on here has built one and can tell you which hidden nut parts work.

I wanted to give it a shot, but the need of a sleeve and no KDPS16 means I'll pass.

Hard to beat an ECS for $10ish total fit to blank.

Looking at the profile it looks like a very comfortable casting seat. As they say in racing nothing is lighter than a hole.