A friend brought me an older storebought rod with a loose reel seat to be repaired. The rod is not worth a complete rebuild, my thought was to drill
a hole thru the reel seat and inject rod handle epoxy into the space between the reel seat and the blank. I am fairly new to this craft and would appreciate any help from the other builders on this problem. ( I assume that factory rods use some sort of reel seat bushing as we do for rods we build )

Hi Jeffrey,

This should get some interesting ideas, I am hoping to learn some new techniques myself. So many rods are made using so many different bushing styles it might be hard to hit an open space that would accept glue. What I have done in the past is to drill through and pin the seat with a screw, nail, etc. what ever will work. I'll trim the "pin" to fit and then fill the hole with glue and shove it in flush. Larger or really loose seats might require more then one to hold firm. Good luck and I hope to see other ideas on this one.

Best Regards,

Darrin Heim
American Tackle Company

I take a 3/16 drill bit inmy dremel and put a hole in the keyed section of the threaded barrel and another on the under side of the seat just before the rear grip. I then use an epoxy syringe to inject 20 min epoxy in one hole under pressure until it comes out the other hole, clean up with alcohol and let dry. GO SLOW AS NOT TO MAR THE BLANK (common sense)

Jason Kesckes. Aint no fish'n like bass fish'n

Hi Jason,

Unless the rod blank seems really fragile, I would go all the way through the blank. This insures there won't be future movement. The bushing itself is probably just masking tape or cardboard. On heavy thick walled blank rods I have gone all the way through both sides. And, if you drill in the keyed slot or even the threaded portion, you need to make sure the pin is all the way flush as to not inhibit flow of the nut/hood assembly.


Darrin Heim
American Tackle Company

Jeffery: What do you mean by store bought rod? Is the rod just Wal-Mart cheapie or is it a well known named rod? What type of grips does it have Eva or cork. If the Grips are Eva Hummmm. My I then suggest you drill 4 holes just large enough to a large syringe tip into and force epoxy glue into. You need to drill two holes, one hole at each end of the reel seat, make them each 3/4 of an inch in from the out side, next drill 2 more holes. One hole 1/2 inch out from center and the other hole a 1/2 inch opposite of the center also. (CAUTION TRU NOT TO DRILL THREW THE BLANK) Where your problem is you do not know where the arbors are located and how much inside clearance you have. Now if You have a cork handle. May I suggest you remove 4 cork rings, two rings from each side of the reel seat. Some times you may have to remove 3 corks from each side. After cork is removed clean out all the junk. Make two new arbors, putting one at each end. The new arbors should be about 1/4 inch inside the seat. Next you have to ream out new pieces of cork to replace the the ones you removed earlier. Now put your epoxy on the blank moving the reel seat back an forth working in the epoxy, Next place the cork rings in place. (With the cork you have to have each ring sliced half way so it opens like a hinge) Slow open it up and move it into place on the rod. After the cork is in place Use a zip tie to close the cork. After the epoxy has cured remove zip ties and reshape. Also go to Raymond Adams site and check cork repair

Good Wraps Bob

First idea is what I use....drill just through the seat, inject epoxy into it. Do this on both the top and bottom. Top first, let dry, then do the bottom side and stand it up tip down so the epoxy doesnt leak out.

For this one you need a liquid type epoxy rather than a gel. I use American Tackles 5min epoxy (slightly heated) as generally the seat has just a little wobble and needs a bit of reinforcement help instead of an actual full new glue up. The stuff when dry is more than strong enough to hold a seat in place on an inshore rod. Offshore rods a a little different as they encounter harsher conditions.

If its an offshore style rod (specifically glass, drill through the back of the seat up until you have hit the other end of the seat. Metal rod through it and use rod bond for this one. 1/8 or 3/16" bit will suffice. If using a 1/8" do both the top and bottom of the seat.

The easiest permanent fix to this was proposed on this board several years ago by Jesse Buky a rodbuilder in Virginia Beach. It is a quick fix and allow reuse of the old handle and does not require stripping the rod. It was good to see Jesse at the ICRBE! I have done over 50 of these repairs -

[rodbuilding.org]

I did a repair on an SC2 6' spinning rod last year. The seat was loose and I could rotate it all the way around the blank. I just used the drill press and set the bit to stop at about 1/8" depth. I put two holes in the reel foot section of the seat, then injected epoxy a little at a time and rotated the seat to spread it around.

Interesting to note that the reel seat bushing on the rod appeared to be a paper tube.

Chuck

Chuck some of the less expensive rods used card board for arbors

Good Wraps Bob

I just repaired an older rod with a loose reel seat and good handles by drilling a hole at top and bottom of reel seat. I drilled thru the blank but not thru both side of reel seat. and then injected epoxy using one of the syringe type epoxy's with the premix nozzle. It looks good. drilled one hole at angle under reel hood and the other hole under where the locking hood would normally be when a reel installed.

Both methods work well, it's probably more common to inject epoxy. If your going to inject the epoxy, we offer larger syringes for just this purpose, check out:
[www.mudhole.com]

And extra large ID needles can be found at:
[www.mudhole.com]

Regards.
Team Mud Hole Custom Tackle
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Email: sales@mudhole.com
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The major problem is how much gap do you have between the rod and reel seat. You did not answer if it was foam or cork grip. If it is foam Try pouring Hot water over the foam grip then shove the real seat hard against the foam trying not to rip the foam all you want is enough of a gap to get your bonding in to the reel seat next reverse the operation to the other side .
Now position reel seat to the correct spot, readjust foam. Your email is hidden

Good Wraps Bob