Hi Guys, just looking for a little confirmation that I am on the right path.

Reel seat was slipping on this ultra light rod (split grip) I built a couple years ago. I first tried the drilling small hole in reel seat method, but it slipped again. So I want to do it right. I am going to remove the butt grip, back grip and reel seat and redo. I didnt have winding checks on the orig build near the threading so I think I will be able to remove everything without issue.

My plan of attack is to cut off most of the cork that i can, and then heat it up to remove epoxy. Am I on track or is there something else I should be looking for? First time doing this, so thanks in advance!

Scott

Pic:

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"My biggest fear in life is that when I die, my wife will sell my fishing gear for what I said I paid for it."

I wouldn't use heat to soften the epoxy, particularly on an ultra light (thin walled) blank, You might be better off manually sanding down the high spots and go from there. Your reel seat is plenty big enough to go over any epoxy buildup on the blank and you won't be able to use foam arbors coming up from the butt regardless of epoxy left on the blank.

I wouldn't use heat to soften the epoxy, particularly on an ultra light (thin walled) blank, You might be better off manually sanding down the high spots and go from there. Your reel seat is plenty big enough to go over any epoxy buildup on the blank and you won't be able to use foam arbors coming up from the butt regardless of epoxy left on the blank.

Good call, thanks so much!

Yes Scott,you are on a good path with your thinking.
I am not sure of the method you intend to soften the epoxy to remove it. Just use caution when doing so. Gently warming it with a cigarette lighter would probably suffice,as would hot,not necessarily boiling water poured briefly over the old epoxy. Another option for the cork is sanding it down far enough so the reel seat simply slips over both rear grips. Of course the butt grip could be removed as a new one could be simply slid on from the butt. Slide it off,do the prep work and then epoxy the seat back in place. Then, ream a new back grip to fit over what is left of the old one and glue it in place with Titebond3 or epoxy. Then add a new butt grip. This will save you from redoing your thread work in between the rear grips.

I havent removed grips and a seat but I have removed guides. For that, I put a little candle undearneath the rod on my rod dryer. This gives it enough heat to soften it up. Just be careful if you use this approach to not let it get to hot otherwise the rod blank will get compromised.

Excellent advice, thank you both!

You most likely will not need to remove ALL the cork. Bits and pieces of remaining cork will provide additional surface area for the glue and new rings.

Good point Ken, thank you. Good thing too because it would not be easy to get it that smooth I am learning!

Scott,
To remove a cork grip, just use a slip joint pair of pliers opened up to their widest size. Hold the pliers around the cork grip in the belly of the pliers where you have maximum teeth. Gently squeeze and rotate, and you will be able to shred and tear off 90% of the cork very quickly.

Then, I use a heat gun or an alcohol burner to heat the remaining epoxy as needed and scrape it all off using a sharp razor blade held at right angles to the blank as you scrape. You can generally tear off a cork grip and clean up the epoxy in just a few minutes using this method. Even an ultra light blank has thicker walls near the butt of the rod and you have little to worry about with heat on the old epoxy glue.

Then, to remove the reel seat, just take a dremel tool with an abrasive cut off wheel and make about three cuts in the reel seat running the full length of the reel seat at 60 degree angle around the rod blank. i.e. three straight butt to tip cuts through the reel seat only. Then, insert a flat bladed screwdriver into the cut on the reel seat and give it a twist. This will pop off at least one of the 3 cut sections of reel seat.
Then, go to another cut on the reel seat, insert the screw driver and twist again. Then, if necessary, just grab the remaining reel seat portion with the teeth of a slip joint plier and pull it off of the blank.

Then, repeat the heat and scrape process to remove any arbor material or glue from under the reel seat.

It is doubtful that will have to spend more than about 15 minutes to remove grip, reel seat, and all remaining glue residue and have the blank ready for the new parts.

With the heat and razor blade scraper the surface of the blank will be as clean and as smooth as a brand new blank in just a very few minutes.

Yes, I do remove ALL of the glue, cork and reel seat parts before beginning with the new parts addition. I like a clean slate so to speak. So, I will scrape the blank until I have everything scraped off of the surface of the blank.

Take care



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/09/2017 04:39PM by roger wilson.

Great info! Thank you so much I really appreciate it.

Just got done removing cork from a factory built rod using pliers and then a little sand paper easy. Dremel to the reel seat next

Thanks Jay!

Wish I had done this last season!

A word of caution about using slip joint pliers to remove cork. It works nicely, but, it also fairly easy to crush the blank. Been there, done that. When gripping the cork, and rotating the blank, slip joint pliers can easily become over-tightened when rotating in one direction.

The easy solution is round jawed vise grips. Get them just tight enough to start removing cork chunks. They will not over-tighten, no matter how hard you grip the pliers. Works a lot better.

Mines ready for a new grip and reel seat, dremel and sand paper done in 30 minutes

Anyone who is not experienced in using heat on a blank is better off to continue that in-experience. It doesn't take much of an error to ruin a blank. And as stated above, there are many ways to avoid heat and get the job done. "Experience" like this may be restated as "I learned the hard way."

Michael raises a good point.

But, it is easy to get experience. Go to a sporting goods store and ask for a few of the cast off rods in the contribute bin.

Then, you can chop it, heat it, burn it, do test wraps and or also use the blank material for repair stock on a broken or damaged rod. Also, the good will is a good source of practice stock or a pawn shop as well.

Take care

Ok..first time I am hearing of 'contribute bin'. Are you talking about major chain stores that might have breakage and they are just going to toss em out?

Yes.I have learned the hard way and heated up a tip top too much and blank just fell apart...wont do that again.

Good advice, I have my own bin from mistakes I made along the way, especially in the beginning!