Metal polish

[BigT]

just a quick observation from a rebuild I just did on an Abu 5600EXT...

In the course of the rebuild the right spool bearing had rusted and stuck to the spool shaft. The spool shaft had also stuck to the pinion gear. After freeing & cleaning everything up, and replacing the bearing the freespool was OK.

There was no obvious damage to the pinion gear or spool shaft but I thought just in case I'd give them a bit of work. I polished the spool shaft and the inside of the pinion gear with AutoSol metal polish (a Q-Tip with most of the cotton stripped off worked great in the pinion). Both parts came up to an almost mirror finish.

Now the happy surprise I got... I didn't time the freespool but after polishing in increased.... a lot!

I'm going to experiment with the metal polish some more but is this something everyone else already does and I'm a slow learner? Is it for real and a happy accident or just a figment of my imagination? Would it have any application in bigger reels or just small casting reels?


Cheers, Big T

[alantani]

tony, jim and i are doing the same thing here, playing with different ideas for the star drag reels.  post as you go.  we'll do the same.  alan

[BigT]

Will do Alan. I'm pulling down an ABU 7000C Synchro once some drag washers and bearings arrive from Dawn and I was going to photograph it and do a post... I'll time the freespool before and after polishing the shaft and pinion and add it to the post too.


Cheers, Big T

[Pro Reel]

This is and has been very popular in casting reels for quite some time. We refer to it as a super tune. There are several articles about super tuning a casting reel on the net. Most of them sand the parts with micro fine sandpaper on a spinning shaft. I finish sand the spool shaft and sometimes the inside of the pinion gear with 2000 grit sand paper, then use various polishes to get the mirror finish. Couple this treatment with a bearing clean and a performance lube for drastic improvments in casting distance and ease.

[BigT]

Thanks for the tip ProReel.

I've got some funky sanding and polishing products I picked up from a hobby shop... some buffing cloths that go out to like 12,000 grit!! Various polishing compounds & stuff... I'll start experimenting.

I imagine that sanding would have to be done quite carefully so as not to damage the fine tolerances between pinion and shaft which I would guess would allow spool oscillation??


Cheers, BigT

[Pro Reel]

It's very easy to ruin a pinion or a spool if it's not done correctly. I have read several tutorials and posts about it. I don't agree with a lot of them and only partly agree with others. Many sugest to start with 600 or 800 grit sand paper. That will remove quite a bit of metal fast. If you could make a reel work better by just increasing the gap between the pinion and the shaft, manufactureres would do that. the tolerances are correct from the factory. What they could do better is make the surface of the metal smoother. But that would be expensive in the process. What I do is to try to smooth the surface by only removing a microscopic amount of metal. I use a dremmel tool. I cut wood dowles that are 1/8 round. I use a razor blade to cut a slit in the top. I start with 2000 grit on newer reels or 1200 grit on reels that have some corrosion, then finish it with 2000 grit. I cut the paper into small strips about 1/4 by 3/4. Insert the strip into the slit and wrap it around the dowel. It makes a spinning flag and you rotate the dremmel around the spool shaft and across the ends. You are only trying to get a smooth surface, not make it smaller. Then polish it to a mirror finish. You can use wood shaft Q tips to get a dowel that fits inside the pinion. Use a very small strip of fine paper. I only sand the inside of a pinion if it's older and has some corrosion. I use the wood Q tips as buffing tips in the dremmel. snap them in half for to buffs. Semi Chrome is a great polish for stainless. Brasso works as well. You can do the same thing to brake drums to get a new smooth surface there. Don't practice this on a new reel, it's easy to do once you get the hang of it, but I have seen the after effects of some tunes that ruined the spool shaft. I have seen some where they actually ground the running surface bumps completly off the shaft and it was so sloppy that it bound up.

[BigT]

Great info ProReel... thanks for the replies and tips. I think I'll stick with polish unless I have a pinion with problems. 


Cheers, BigT

[publius]

something i did on a couple of reels the other day was to clamp a .22 cal. cotton bore swab in a drill and smear Flitz on it. Run it in the hole for maybe 30 seconds and you should have a mirror finish.

[Russ57]

In the good old days....back when dinosaurs roamed and such.....we cleaned the lubrication out of new reels and filled them with toothpaste.  It was a mild abrasive and it would polish up the surfaces.  It did slick up the reels.  Do make sure to clean well to remove all traces of it.  Not something you want inside bearings or left on gear teeth.