I'm building my first rod, and am having considerable difficulty getting the reel seat to adhere properly. I tried Pliobond, and it ate up my graphite arbors. On the second try it won't adhere to my masking tape arbors. I did clean the blank and the inside of the reel seart with acetone prior to the second try. What else can I try? Can anyone reccomend an epoxy? Thanks.

Pliobond is not going to be the adhesive of choice here. Use a good two-part slow cure epoxy. Good bets are any of the liquid types such as Devcon (your local hardware store has it) or Flex Coat rod builder's epoxy (not wrap finish) or similar. Rod Bond by U-40 is a non-flowing epoxy that many prefer as it stays where you put it.

5-minute epoxy can be used, but it is tricky due to the short working life. I'd stay away from it personally and choose one of those listed above.

Most any of the sponsors to the left will carry one or more of these.

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I just use an off the shelf 2-part epoxy. I don't use the 5-minute epoxy much, because it does seem to weaken with exposure to heat. Try that. I also use both graphite and tape arbors with no problems.

Dave

I agree about pliobond probably not being the best glue for the job, never tried to use it with something like graphite, but the main problem with it is it seems to have a fairly short storage life. It's an excellent glue, but I've found after time it will not stir up well after it's settled out, all I have ever used is the type that comes in a bottle, I know it can be found in tubes though and don't know if it's the same formulation.

I feel sure it contains some type of solvent and that is why the arbors melted. It may react with other materials as well.

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I've had good success with Loc-Tite 90-minute epoxy. Strong and waterproof.