Reel seat slipping, repair?

[murv]

Morning all.

I guess whats happened is that the glue which holds my reel seat to the blank has given up so that the reel seat now rotates around the rod.
The rod is a TF Gear avon style, with a plastic screw down reel fitting, with cork above and below it.

I can't see any way of reattaching it though, any idea? the only thought I had would be to drill through the plastic to inject some superglue under the seat but I honestly don't think that would be possible without hitting the rod blank.

 

[Steve Ruff]

When the reel seat is originally fitted the gap between the rod blank and reel seat is normally padded out by masking tape to make it a tight fit - see item three in weblink below ...

Beginner Rod Building Tutorial | mudhole.com

Then expoxy resin is applied and this fills the voids and thats what actually holds the reel seat solid.

I would doubt if superglue would be a long term fix.

I would guess that the best way to sort this would be to really carefully drill two small holes (maybe heat up a sewing needle and start the holes off first to see how much of a gap there is underneath ?) either side of the middle of the reel seat and then get some epoxy resin squeezed into the two holes

With epoxy you may have to work quickly and this could be a bit messy so its probably a rubber gloves job and you would probably also need to get some disposable syringes (normally pretty cheap from a chemist) : If you make the drill holes the same sort of size as the tip of the syringe that should help in pushing the epoxy in under a bit of pressure so that it spreads out properly.

Probably worth having a go otherwise its a trip to a rod builder who would strip the cork off and do it 100% properly but that would obviously add to the costs.

Best of luck.


Steve

 

[chub_on_the_block]

Whipping into position (+ glue under reel seat) could be a possibility, depending on if theres any places you can put some.

 

[chavender]

i'd probably remove a cork ring or three ,then reglue seat ,then replace the rings i'd removed ,probably moving the position down a little too give more of a fore grip .

 

[murv]

Thanks for the replies, that's extremely helpful

I will have a go with the epoxy, the hot needle is a good idea as it'll stop me damaging the blank until I can see what's what under there.
I don't think whipping will be an option although if the epoxy doesn't work, I may be able to get a few turns each side to help hold it in position.
Even if that didn't hold it rigidly it would probably be good enough as I've been using it as it is for a while now.

I'd be a little reluctant to remove some cork as the reel seat sits just perfectly for me, but it's another option I hadn't considered and would effect a permanent repair if I can't solve it by doing the above.

Thanks again for the help,

Chris

 

[S-Kippy]

i'd probably remove a cork ring or three ,then reglue seat ,then replace the rings i'd removed ,probably moving the position down a little too give more of a fore grip .

Only realistic option in my view. I've done this few times in order to change the reel fitting and its not that difficult to do. Biggest pain is having to take the rings off and re-whip them.

 

[Steve Ruff]

More info ...

Loose Reel Seat

 

[chavender]

i have a simular problem ,i have a 15ft gti harrison float rod ,the previous owner had lashed on a fugi clamp plate reel fitting ,they'd obviously broken the graphite reel bands ,but instead of doing a proper job and maybe fitted a new fixed reel seat or new bands .for reasons best beknown too themselfs and their god .they lashed on the clamp plate ,and in so doing ,compressed the cork rings benieth it .and totally ruining the handle

and the Philistines even varnished the cork around the clamp plate & still left the plastic on the bottom half of the handle ??????

now i've two problems 1.) remove the varnish 2.) remove the clamp and refit sliding winch fittings

or go for a new fixed real seat arrangement , either way i have too sort out the damaged cork

i could remove the rod rings then cut off the front cork rings and replace the damaged area through too the front flare & fit new reel bands or i could cut out the damaged cork rings by removing the alternate rings first ,then fit new rings ,then do the interveining rings then sand it all level .then emoving the rear flare ,pop on the new sliding reel band ,then fit a new rear flare (cork or duplon) for a nice neat job without the need too re-whip the eyes .

or i could cut the handle in half (just past the damage) then remove the damaged area and fit a new fixed reel seat or sliding reel bands and new cork rings ,then join the two halfs of the handle back together using a internal spigot /sleaved to get a nice invisible join and neat out come ,again avoiding re-whipping the rod rings .

now i have the reel bands (as above) ,and i've already brought two different fixed reel fittings ,from two opersite sides of the world

a comfort seat (from the USA) ,based on the abu comfort reel seat ,which will fit

and i brought one of these (from korea) ,not a perfect fit as i'd have to bore it out a bit

but i'm not 100% happy with either ,and thinking of getting one of these (again) used this style before

i used one here fitted in reverse to above for a fixed fore grip and to facilitate a abbreviated handle design on my other custom built 15ft float rod

i'm tempted to go for this and fit a cork fore grip as above

i'm just in the procrastinating stage of the project ,i will hopefully have this done before the new season

 

[chavender]

i'll probably go with the cut and shunt method ,as this give me the most scope i'll cut the handle a little below the reel position .then refit the reel seat and glue it back together with a longish inner sleave to re-inforce the handle .

 

[mick b]

Contact the seller or the maker and ask them to repair it.

Masking tape is not used by mass rod makers, the gap between the inside of the reel seat is usually packed out with a specialist bonding glue, but many reel seats are not completely filled nor is the blank centred to the reel seat.

Best solution is to measure the blank and the exterior of the reel seat to (try) and determine the gap between the two, if its 1mm or so melt a series of small holes and use Super Glue (not epoxy) to flood the gap inside, a couple of medium sized tubes should do it.

 

[murv]

Thanks for all the replies, I forgot that I rudely hadn't updated this thread when I finally got round to sorting the reel seat.

Anyway, I melted two small holes through the plastic and ascertained that the seat was pretty much tight to the blank, or whatever was underneath it.
In fact, it was so tight to it that there wasn't a hope in hell of getting any Araldite under there.
So, I rotated the seat about 90 degrees, put a drop of superglue over the holes I'd melted and rotated it back.
This was sufficient to draw a small amount of glue under the seat and to pin it in place.

I doubt it will last too long, although to be fair it's held well over a fair few sessions now and I've been lucky enough to have some large fish put a serious strain on it.
It's also such a quick and easy fix that if it does let go again, I'll probably do the same again.

Cheers,

Chris

 

[chubb man]

a piece of old bike innertube each side should hold it in place if you fit it right up to the reel just roll it back to fit a reel