Struble U20 seat on a Cabelas FT blank

Articles Rod Building & Craft
1

So my FT blank has a stated butt diameter of 0.385 and my U20 seat is 0.420 inner diameter. Why can’t I get my U20 seat over the butt of my FT blank?? Is there a trick I should know?
Thanks.

2

Have you taken actual measurements of the seat and blank with a dial caliper to verify the dimensions? It’s apparent one of them is not to the stated sized, either oversized blank or undersized seat. At the outside, they may both be off.

Joe

3

Thanks Joe,

 Right after I posted I went to hunt down some calipers.  It came out that the blank is right on at about 0.382 inches or nearly that and the reel seat was identical at 0.38 or so instead of 0.42 as is should be.  Maybe use a rat file to ream out the inside slightly? That is what I am thinking about doing as it is about 4 inches from getting down to the butt of the blank.
4

Rat tail file in a variable speed drill would probably work. Or, you could send it back to the manufacturer and get the part you actually ordered.

Regards,
Joe Martin

5

I was checking out my struble catalog and that reel seat is manufactured in .36 and .42 so they probably sent you the wrong one. So send that seat back to where you got it from and request the right size

6

The insert for the Struble U20 has a standard bore of .360. The .420 bore insert for the Struble U20 is optional so unless your dealer had a large stock and had ordered U20’s with the optional .420 bore insert and if you selected it without checking the catalog for the bore I.D (or they did if mail order)you would have received the standard .360 bored insert with your Struble U20 insert.

In less English, you would have had to request the .420 bore option. Also, Struble only sells to dealers. I hope some of this helps even just a little bit.

Cheers,

MontanaMoose

7

I would enlarge the reel seat bore, you only need to increase it a few hundreth’s.

You could enlarge the bore and have the whole thing mounted long before the mail could get a new reel seat delivered.

The rat tail file will work, or you might just wrap some sand paper over the handle area of the blank and use the blank itself as a reaming tool. After all it has the perfect taper.

8

I would certainly rather have to make the seat fit the blank and that way I wouldn’t have to use any types of fillers to get a concentric fit of the seat to the blank. As already stated so well, it won’t take that long and you won’t have to wait for a replacement PLUS you will get a much better fit!!

9

You will have the best result if you drill the seat with a 25/64 drill bit.

Good luck with your project.

fishbum

10

Thanks for all the advice. I think that it may be a blessing in disguise as some of you pointed out above. I can actually make it to fit the blank! It is very close as it is right now. The distributor that I ordered it from only listed specs for the 0.42 size seat so I assumed that was the only size that it came in. You guys are awesome.