I installed a reel seat with 20-minute epoxy and it looked fine and was setting up so I put it down. I looked at it the next day and some epoxy ran under the hood where the reel foot goes. It isn’t closed completely but the epoxy has dried in the corners of it. How do I remove the glue from underneath the hood so the reel foot will fit properly? Can I just chip it out with some tool like a dentists pick?
Lastchance,
I thought I was the only one that ever did stuff like this. The same thing happened to me and to make matters worse the reel seat design was marginal in it’s ability to grip the reel. Under optimum conditions it didn’t grip much of the rear foot of the reel - I pay more attention to the reel seat design now.
Anyway, I did exactly what you suggested - I picked away at the epoxy with a dental pick and it took a few hours but eventually I got an opening big enough for my reel’s rear foot to engage solidly. The first couple of times that I thought I’d picked enough epoxy out I found out I was wrong when I went fishing (the reel came free). It wasn’t an easy or fun job but with persistence I succeeded and hopefully you can too.
Greybeard
You can break the bon of quick set epoxy with heat from a hair dryer or heat gun. It workseven better if the epoxy is fairly fresh.
I once attached a handle and ree seat only to find a day later that I had installed it backwards! I heated it up and was able to spin the reel seat 180 degrees.
Thanks. I really don’t have much to remove. Will the hair dryer loosen the entire reel seat or can I concentrate the heat on the hood?
If you’re looking to ONLY remove the small amount of epoxy from the hood where the reel foot goes, I’d concentrate on that particular area of the hood. CAREFULLY apply heat, and GENTLY work at the epoxy with a dental pick. ALTERNATE these two steps till it’s clean. It could take a while.
If your going to use heat wrap a wet cloth around the parts you dont want to heat up if you dont want it wet wrap it in plastic before the cloth
Eric
Be careful mixing water with electricity!! :rolleyes:
no different than blow drying your wet
hair
Eric
Mayhaps! Just don’t do it over a sink full of water!
One thought is to heat the point of the pick itself. This will apply the heat directly to the epoxy you are trying to remove.
That’s brilliant dunfly…would never have
thought of that but then I really enjoy
doing everythin’ the hardest possible way
I can find. Hey, I can even picture something
pointy and small attached to the tip of a
soldering iron. Thanks for the great idea !
Cheers,
MontanaMoose
Thanks for the ideas. I feel better about it now. Like I said it’s not that much–just enough to create a problem.
If you have an iron hot enough, you can do it, I use a 300W soldering gun with a copper wire wrapped around the iron tip section and extended out a couple inches from the iron tip. Works OK, slow, but be careful because you can burn the cork, plastic or reelseat with this type of setup.
The heated pic will work too, just take your time.