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Hi Corlay,
Wow you sure know how to open a can of worms with just three questions.
First off their are two opinions on where to locate your guides vs the Spline. Alot of thinking says the Spline is the backbone of the rod, thus offers the greatest resistance to bending. With the Spline oriented as the backbone and the guides 180 oposite you will get the most sensitive full flexing rod. On the other hand if you locate your guides on the Spline you will end up with a slightly stiffer faster rod.
I know for heavy saltwater rods I locate the guides on the Spline, and for fly rods Ive always located them 180 from the Spline, but I know you will get as many different answers as their are members who will try and answer this question.

I like to use 30 minute working time Epoxy for my rod work. So saying exactly how you assemble your wood insert depends alot on the type of seat your making. Uplocking, downlocking, hidden hood in the grip, two ring type, fixed hood with single ring, so many different combinations. Of importance I think if your using a style with a fixed butt seat, is that its going to have to secured so as not to work itself off at the wrong time. For me that means Im going to both glue it and Pin it on before the seat is installed on the rod. Thus I very carefully drill a very small hole through the fixed hood first, line it up and lightly glue it to the wood insert (make sure any other parts that have to be there before you glue it are there and tapped off securely and out of the way. Once the hood is glued I use the holes from each side of the hood to drill out the wood insert for a pin. Now the trick, you need to have a soft metal pin to use just the right diameter to your hole. I have mine made by my local jeweler, he makes custom jewelery here, so makes alot of his own piece and orders parts to make them from somewhere else. I get soft sterling silver pinstock, he cuts it for custom earrings and such, I just buy a foot now and then and cut it to length. It just fits the hood with a tiny bit extended out of the install. I then install the seat with the pin in onto the rod butt, getting it oriented to the Spline, the idea being that most if not all of the void in the seat will be filled with Liquid Epoxy, including the entire space occupied by the pin. Once its all dried I very carefully pean the two sides of the pin flat with the hood. That secures it from the inside and outside.
I then install the finished grip. Note I have alot of cuttoff pieces of rod blanks, so I always have a piece around of the same diameter as the target rod Im making a seat for, so I glue up my loose cork to the material and turn it down to my tastes on the pilot mandrel (rod cuttoff piece), then remove it finished and glue it up on the rod being built after I have tested the fit.
Thats the way I do it anyway if its a wood insert with a fixed hood on the butt and one sliding ring.

I do not use packaged heat and serve tip top adhesives, I use the same 30 minute work time two part Epoxy for my tip tops. The tip top adhesive is pretty much the same as any of your hot glue sticks, why heat the fine small tip of a rod tip to a get good glue joint if you dont have some dying need to, just use a toothpick end to fill the tip and as you work the tip on the excess will run out and you can wipe it off and let it dry.

Richard

Tom is right about the pinning I was referring to silver plated NS fixed hood and single sliding ring type seats, I like to pin them, on aluminum its just scuff and glue.