I am assembling a couple fly rods for a niece and nephew. One of them will be with a downlock reel seat. I am trying to think of ways attach the end cap to the wood insert without making an epoxy mess in the space where the reel foot slides into the end cap. Or do you just clean up the space with a alcohol soaked brush after attaching? Also, in a testament to the accuracy of machining, the fitment of these parts is quite tight. Is anyone out there using cyanoacrylate adhesive for these components? Usually I work with pre-assembled up-lock reel seats so this is new territory for me.

John

A few tips:

Dry fit the end cap into position then wrap masking tape on the cap and insert to protect them from adhesive. If the stripping guide is on the same butt section (it might not be for some 4 and 5 piece rods) align the butt cap hood with the guide else align with the inscription as desired and make alignment marks on the insert and cap tape. It's OK to LIGHTLY sand the insert to make the cap easier to slide into place.

Do not put adhesive on the seat insert. Instead, lightly coat the inside of the cap with adhesive avoiding the hood area. Also apply a small amount of adhesive to the butt end of the reel seat insert and fill the butt end of the blank about 1/4" deep.

Then slowly slide the butt cap into place.

To make certain the hood is not filed with adhesive, you can carefully mount a reel foot into the butt cap hood, remove the reel, an inspect for adhesive on the reel's foot. I use an alignment tool available from Tom Morgan Rodsmiths for this purpose instead of a fly reel. Regardless, make certain the butt cap hood is aligned as desired before the adhesive cures.

Finally remove the masking tape and clean up with DNA being careful not to change the butt cap alignment.

I use ProKote epoxy adhesive and have never used anything other than epoxy to attach a butt cap.

Maybe others will advise an easier process for you.

John

I should have added to my post that when done correctly there will be very little if any adhesive pushed into the hood area, and the cap and butt end will be water proof.

I'll second Don's advise. I do mine the same way, just use a different brand of epoxy. The only thing that matters to me about the epoxy to use, is to stay away from the 5 min cure stuff. Longer the cure, better the bond. I would not use cyanoacrylate for this, 2 part epoxy is best. I use Ultimate Epoxy from Rod Dancer. Pro Kote and U-40 also have very good epoxies.

Thank you for the responses. That's a great idea for using a reel foot to check the hood area for epoxy. I should be able to find an old reel for this in my mountain of gear. Now back to the builds.

I put a dry Q tip in first than chase it with a DNA wetted one, seems like the DNA stays put where your cleaning and picks up the trace epoxy better than a brush approach. Just can't use this approach where you can snag cotton off the tip, which isn't a problem so much with a brush.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/2017 03:27PM by Spencer Phipps.