Best 25$ I have ever spent on gear

[Shaun Solomon]

I have been doing last minute pre-season gear cleaning and performing minor upgrades to my reels.

I've upgraded stock drags with Carbontex, done tear-downs and re-lubes, that sort of thing.

I use Shimano reels across the board for all my "gear" fishing, and one thing about Shimano products is they tend to last a long time. So a few of my older reels (Curado 200b's, for example) just don't cast so great any more. Not a huge deal, because I have smaller, newer, nicer reels I use for finesse sized baits and the old 200b's get tasked with bigger baits that will usually fly OK even on the old reels.

Except recently they they have started to really suck. I was debating getting new bearings, but got an ultrasonic cleaner instead. $25 on Amazon, to my door.

Everyone, stop whatever you are doing and go get one. I removed the bearings and de-greased them with a citrus based product, then cycled them a couple times in tap water with a couple drops of dish soap and some isopropyl alcohol. Dried them, re-lubed with stock Shimano oil, and re-installed. WOW!

No, my old reels don't cast like high dollar finesse reels, but they cast as good as they ever did, which was good enough most times.

SS

 

[billfisher]

Nice to know. Do you get the new drags at Amazon also?

 

[Shaun Solomon]

Nope. I found sheets of Carbontex in various thicknesses on eBay and cut out the washers myself. 1mm sheet 4X8" was $20, and can make a fair number of drag washers. Carbontex washers for reel upgrades are usually 5-9$ a set, so this was a good deal. I also polish all steel or brass drag surfaces to a mirror shine, and cut the washers so they cover the entire load bearing surface of the drag stack, unlike factory washers that only cover about 40% of the total area. I run the drag "wet" with a PTFE based mid-weight grease. I could hook some pretty hot fish with four pound test and not bust them off. Sure, they would spool me, but they wouldn't break the line! ha ha

 

[billfisher]

Thanks for the info. Sounds like a great improvement.

 

[bass]

I have been doing last minute pre-season gear cleaning and performing minor upgrades to my reels.

I've upgraded stock drags with Carbontex, done tear-downs and re-lubes, that sort of thing.

I use Shimano reels across the board for all my "gear" fishing, and one thing about Shimano products is they tend to last a long time. So a few of my older reels (Curado 200b's, for example) just don't cast so great any more. Not a huge deal, because I have smaller, newer, nicer reels I use for finesse sized baits and the old 200b's get tasked with bigger baits that will usually fly OK even on the old reels.

Except recently they they have started to really suck. I was debating getting new bearings, but got an ultrasonic cleaner instead. $25 on Amazon, to my door.

Everyone, stop whatever you are doing and go get one. I removed the bearings and de-greased them with a citrus based product, then cycled them a couple times in tap water with a couple drops of dish soap and some isopropyl alcohol. Dried them, re-lubed with stock Shimano oil, and re-installed. WOW!

No, my old reels don't cast like high dollar finesse reels, but they cast as good as they ever did, which was good enough most times.

SS

Thanks for giving me the push that I needed to get one of these. I have thought about it for a long time (more for bike parts than fishing reel parts) and you finally convinced me to take the plunge. The one I got is a bit more since I wanted one big enough to put a bike chain in. I will have to do some reel maintenance. A lot of my older reels could use some TLC.

 

[Shaun Solomon]

If you are talking about a velocipede and not a motorcycle, a bike chain would fit fine into the one I got. The reservoir is about the size of my two fists held side by side.

This is it, hopefully I can post an outside commercial link here without causing problems... Also, I paid a few bucks less, this was the first link I saw.

http://magnasonic.com/products/display.php?id=181

SS

 

[bass]

If you are talking about a velocipede and not a motorcycle, a bike chain would fit fine into the one I got. The reservoir is about the size of my two fists held side by side.

This is it, hopefully I can post an outside commercial link here without causing problems... Also, I paid a few bucks less, this was the first link I saw.

http://magnasonic.com/products/display.php?id=181

SS

I am talking about a bicycle chain. The one I ordered has a tank size of 9.6"x5.9"x3" which should easily accommodate my bicycle chains.

 

[bass]

Well I got my ultrasonic cleaner and tried it out on my bike chain. It was filthy to begin with but I gave it a quick clean to see how much extra the ultrasonic could day. Man, I ended up running it through 4 times because the first three the solution turned completely black. This was from a chain the looked just a little dirty. I am very impressed. I have not done any fishing reel parts yet but I can see how awesome this is going to be.

Thanks again for posting this Shaun!