Can i change my reel seat ?

[JanBoy 0]

As the topic says I am wondering if I can change my reel seat section, I know all rods will be different but I am interested in the Shakespeare Agility to be exact, id love to know how or if you can change them as I prefer different reel seat. Anyone have any knowledge or know how with these rods?.

 

Thanks.

[heavynets 0]

I am not familiar with the Shakespeare Agility.

 

In general, I would first try boiling water to loosen the adhesive that hold the reel seat and butt cap on. If that didn't work I would try a propane torch turned down low. Of course the more heat, the more chance of damaging the old seat, cork and possibly the rod. An abrasive cutoff wheel on a Dremel can be used to cut the seat off too. It's difficult to do without damaging the cork grip, butt cap or the blank.

 

What you find under the seat will determine the next step. You may get lucky and the new seat will fit right where the old one was. More an likely the spacing material will have to be removed and redone or added to. I use layers masking tape to fill the gap between the rod bland and seat. I then completely cover the tape with a liberal amount of epoxy and then install the seat.

[Bryon Anderson 0]

It can be done, but unless you've had some experience with rod building, I would advise getting someone who has to help you, or, at the very least, consulting a good rod building book or online forum for advice on how to do it correctly. Even when everything goes right, it's not the easiest thing to do. You can do a lot of damage to your rod if you do it incorrectly.

 

www.rodbuilding.org is an excellent forum. Search "removing reel seat" or similar terms and you should find a lot of information on different ways of going about this procedure.

[troutguy 0]

Boiling water or heat gun and friend who has done this before. Torch works but too easy to have a problem if you never did this. Heat gun can be tragic too.

[Dave G. 0]

To answer your question, yes you can. How easy is another matter. You might want to talk to someone in one of the rod building forums as has been mentioned. www.rodbuilding.com was not mentioned though. A few of us in this forum belong there as well. Actually getting an old reel seat off of a rod was a recent topic there.

[williamhj 0]

Does the reel seat recess into the grip? If so it can be more complicated to remove the seat without damaging the cork grip. If it doesn't then put the seat in a plastic bag and into boiling water until the epoxy loosens. If you haven't done it I'd hesitate on a valuable rod, but if it isn't valuable then go for it. Fun to learn.

[Hatchet Jack 0]

After looking at a video of a Shakespeare Agility flyrod, I see that you're dealing with a recessed reel seat hood,

and a fighting butt permanently (???) attached to rod butt. Assuming you've no experience with rod building, I'd let

someone accomplished with this do the alteration.

 

Seems a very long row to hoe and a fair amount of cost........

[Bryon Anderson 0]

Just to give you a little additional perspective on this, I've been building fly rods for about 15 years now, sold rods and got very positive feedback on them, etc. etc. I'm not a professional, but I know what I'm doing.

 

One of my very first fly rods that I ever bought--before I started building--has a cheap, ugly graphite reel seat on it. I love that rod and would love to dress it up a little, but I leave that ugly seat on there because I've done 4 or 5 reel seat removal/replacements over the years, and I've decided that the probability of a good outcome is far too low to be worth the risk of damaging a good rod.

 

Just my two cents -- I'll shut up now.

[flytire 0]

what is so magical about that particular reel seat that would make you want to change?

[JanBoy 0]

All Information taking onboard frankly I don't care much about the rod they are cheap so im not worried but I wasn't sure how it was joined I still will probably mess around with it as im getting a new rod anyway, Flytire I really dislike the locking system on the agility lol Thanks guys.

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

Yes, you can change out any reelseat (fly seats are actually the easiest) but every time it's a PITA from start to finish. Before I go into exactly how to change out a reelseat I really need to point out that you never use heat on any graphite or fiberglass rod except as a very last resort. For those that buy the fanciest rods "carbon fiber" is just the European term for what we call graphite.... You can use heat on split bamboo (and if you read Carmichael on bamboo, heat is a one of their primary tools for straightening out sets in rod sections (but I digress....). Here's exactly why heat is a very bad idea on glass or graphite - every rod starts out life as a few layers of special cloth impregnated with various resins and it's all wrapped around a specifically shaped steel mandrel under serious tension. Each is then hung from a chain and slowly pulled through a vertical oven and baked until cured... That's why you should avoid heat on a finished rod since it will seriously weaken the blank where it was heated. For those that have gotten away with it -lucky you. I've seen many rods fail after a torch or some other heat source was used to soften finish or epoxy while stripping down a rod for re-wrapping or completed re-build....

 

Here's how to remove an old reelseat properly. Take a Dremel tool and using a cut-off wheel make a cut down one complete side of the old reelseat until you cut through the barrel and hoods.... Take care not to cut down into the blank if at all possible. Once you've made that first cut all that's needed to remove the old seat is a pair of flat bladed screwdrivers inserted and pried in opposite directions to open up the seat like you'd open up a clam or oyster (this isn't easy, takes a bit of patience and if a tool slips you're going to need a band-aid or two -another of those "ask me how I know" propositions...). Once you loosen the seat you can open it enough to remove it, leaving tape bands or other arbors still glued to the blank (did I mention that this whole process is a pain?). Once the seat is removed you'll need a craft knife or other sturdy cutting tool to remove each arbor or tape band, then scrape and/or chip away all the old epoxy down to the blank -- again patience and care with sharp tools or you'll end up with a cut or two.... Once the entire seat is removed, all tape, arbors, and glue have been removed you're ready to install a new reelseat. Build up either tape, cork or synthetic arbors until the reelseat fits -but not tightly so that glue can be between the arbors and the reelseat, mix up some relatively slow curing epoxy (no five minute epoxy -it's just not strong enough....). Tape each end of the new reelseat, glue into position taking care not to leave any voids -you want solid epoxy glue.... Once everything is in position clean up any excess glue (ordinary rubbing alcohol on a cloth or paper towel works great), then remove any masking tape for a clean finish.... Before you set the repair away for 24 hours to cure out properly make sure you rotate the seat until it aligns properly with the existing guides. While it's curing out resist the temptation to move that seat at all while the glue is still setting up... You won't like the results at all...

 

A few additional thoughts about reelseat replacing... On spinning, plug, or conventional rods before you can remove that old seat you'll need to completely remove any grip material (and the process to replace it is even worse than that darned reelseat....). Like I said, fly rods are relatively easy since there's nothing below the fly seat (except a fighting butt or grip extension -those are fairly easy to replace - but won't be addressed here...... If you have a reelseat imbedded in your cork handle you can actually buy a single cork ring that's already set up for the reelseat hood to fit into it - so you're going to replace that last ring as part of the reelseat replacement (and of course then turn it down to fit after the repair is complete). This sort of stuff quickly gets beyond a novice rodbuilder - something else to consider -before you start the project at all....

 

When I was building lots of rods some years ago I was lucky enough to have a local blank supplier that built all of their blanks in house and they were nice enough to walk me through every part of building a variety of blanks, then showing me their oven, etc. It was a real education for a guy just starting out. That outfit was Gator Glass and it was long before the first "graphite" blanks were ever built...

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

Re-read what I wrote a day later and realized that a few pics might be helpful... These pics are from a short sample stick I made up years ago to show prospective rod customers different thread wraps, handles, and reelseats that we could choose from (I pretty much quit building fly rods about twenty years ago and only build spin, plug, coventional rods these days). The best part of this is that the reelseat was never glued up but the tape arbors are in place so you can see what's involved once you've removed the old seat and are ready to install the new one. Advanced rodbuilders use cork or synthetic arbors when they're trying to keep weight to a minimum. For my purposes where absolute strength is the requirement it's tough to beat tape arbors and every void filled with epoxy... I'll let the pics tell the story....

[JanBoy 0]

cheers capt bob that's actually very helpful and cheers for taking the time to write that it does seem complicated but atleast I like a challenge haha

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

As some might have guessed, I used to enjoy writing the occasional article for a few different magazines (all fishing related topics of course..). These days magazines are disappearing and many won't be out sourcing any articles.... I was lucky enough to have lots of help learning these things and try to pass them along.