Well, I managed to get the reel seat and grip put on. Although my eyes must have been tired last night or something, because the seat is just slightly off center from the spine. I swear I checked it half a dozen times as it was drying. Not much I can do about it now. I don't know that it's off enough to make a huge difference, though. At least I hope so.

With the reel seat being off-center, would I be better off putting the guides along the spine and being slightly offset from the seat? Or should I just line them up with the seat and have them be off the spine a bit? I hope I haven't ruined my first project.

And one other question: Do you clean and reuse your brushes, or just toss them after each use? I tried cleaning up the brush after my first batch of epoxy, but it didn't work very well, the bristles still got pretty stiff. The second time around I just tossed the brush afterwards.