reel cleaning

[leftone]

do you use an aerisol cleaner (WD40?) to remove old grease and oil before reassembling with new grease and oil?

[coastalobsession]

I use a few different things...Simple green....alcohol.... carb cleaner.

[akfish]

My only use for WD-40 is to clean my greasy toothbrushes I use for painting grease on internal metal parts. It might be OK to spray lightly on reels after they have been rinsed in freshwater but because it cuts grease I don't use it for anything else.

[Bryan Young]

Rag and toothbrush and another rag to clean the toothbrush.

[kamuwela]

i wipe the grease off with rag's then spray wd40 for final cleaning before re oiling and lubing. after fishing i wash with soap and water then spray with wd40 till the next trip. for long term storage i would use corrosion x

[Ken_D]

do you use an aerosol cleaner (WD40?) to remove old grease and oil before reassembling with new grease and oil?

Hi. Prepping for re-build can be done a zillion ways, all depending on your facilities, and setup. Apartment dwellers need a different game plan than a guy with a shop.

A small paint brush, an ice cream pail with 2" odorless solvent in it, and some newspapers on the dining room table works.    So does a scalding hot fill in the kitchen sink, with enough Tide laundry detergent,
as though it was a full load in the machine. Scrub-a-dub-dub. One reel in the tub. rinse, and place on a paper towel. Or the oven on foil, set at 150-200 warm.

Aerosols are best used in a shop work space, or outside somewhere.  WD-40 is spendier than detergents, carb cleaner, brake-kleen product, etc. I use a Canadian counterpart to WD, called ReleaseAll, as a penetrating oil, for some of the salt work comes by. I use Boeshield T-9 when the reel's ready to fish.

Gowge (RIP, George Pope) of the Florida Surf Fishers Message Board put me on to this product, a few years before he crossed over. It's available, and really good stuff.   http://www.boeshieldcanada.com
/PR10.php

From the USA's home page:  We began by successfully introducing Boeshield T-9® to the tough saltwater marine market for lubricating and protecting all metals. It works well on engines and deck hardware as well as electronics, batteries and wiring connections. It is non-conductive and will not cause short circuits.     ......Trademark and Technology owned and licensed by
The Boeing Company.

[floating doc]

Have you tried Boesheild T9 in bearings, like the way Alan uses the Corrosion X?

[0119]

Gowge was a great guy, he helped me beyond measure.  I dont believe Boeshield would help bearing performance.  It was developed strictly as a protective coating against corrosion.

[reelynuts]

I've found that using WD-40 works very well at breaking down old, dirty, dried up grease in fishing reels. I do not rely on it for lubrication or protection though. I usually completely dis-assemble a reel, set ball bearings and roller bearings aside remove whatever dirt/grease I can with a paper towel, etc., then go to the kitchen sink armed with my trusty toothbrush. A few drops of WD-40 is all it really takes to loosen the dirty grease, thoroughly scrubbing every little corner, nook and cranny. Then (as mentioned in another post above), the scalding hot water rinses everything away leaving a nice clean looking-shiny part with a micro film of some form of petroleum. Since the water is so hot, it makes the part warm which enables the part to dry quickly. If you can shake off any excess water, I've found that the first piece will be dry before you clean the last piece. Now, like I said, the WD-40 works well for "Cutting" old grease deposits. On hard or hardened metal parts (steel, stainless steel, hard chromed brass/bronze, etc. such as gears, screws, bridges, shafts, etc.) that are NOT coated by anodizing, paint, electroplating, etc. you can use carb. cleaner, brake cleaner, acetone, etc., but I feel that for plastics and those aluminum anodized, electroplated, (whatever) parts that these chemicals are way too harsh. Basically if there is any coating on a part-no harsh sprays, acetone, wire brushes, or metal scrapers. For my reels, especially if its a reel that I really like or really want to do a good job on, and take good care of, I will do the WD-40 and hot water treatment, then scrub again with dish soap (Dawn is best) and hot water to really clean and prep a part. I feel that if you dont remove that micro film of WD-40/grease left behind (although it may/will offer some protection from saltwater), the new grease doesn't adhere to where you applied it as well. I also am never really sure if there might be some residual salt or minerals, left suspended in that film. If so, you would need only minute moisture to start the whole electrolytic/corrosive environment to start to damage your reels.  I feel that the combination of the WD-40/ hot water, then soap/hot water if done properly and thoroughly, provides a surface to a part as close to when it left the factory. Then its up to you to re-apply (what we all seem to do) a new light coating of grease/oil/whatever to seal the pours of the material, and provide a barrier that will continue to protect the parts from future saltwater intrusion/ contamination. I will admit that I'm a little obsessive/compulsive in my own practices due to what I have experienced with other peoples reels, outboard motors, boats, etc.over the years. I see beauty in a well designed, well made object that lasts, and the more I see how other people have "let things go", the more I look to find ways to NOT let mine go. I think that is why most of us are here on this website. We are all looking to learn what we don't know, and offer what we do know or at least explain our experiences. For me the WD-40 works. I buy gallons at Home Depot, then fill the little WD-40 spray bottle that they also sell. Sometimes I put small amounts (like 1/2 teaspoon) in little tiny jars, cups, empty pill jars, etc. (to soak a bearing in, etc.), then use that dirty, contaminated WD-40 with the toothbrush to dissolve old grease somewhere else on the reel. By not using the aerosol cans there are less (no) micro particles flying around the air, stinkin up the joint, landing all over the place, making a mess and going in your lungs. Its cheap, not harsh on anything that I've come across, convenient, effective, and as I said-I don't "rely" on it for protection, but I feel it can do little harm, and may provide some benefit. On a last note, when it comes to ball and roller (IAR) bearings, I do these all differently. I personally feel that a sealed/non-serviceable ball bearing should remain sealed. In new reels that I pre-service, I usually remove the bearing from the reel, paint grease (glob it on) where the bearing goes on the reel, glob grease all over the bearing itself, re-install the bearing into the reel, them pile some more grease on top. When I'm done you cant see the bearing. It is literally submerged in grease. I prefer protection over performance, and feel that the bearing is shielded from saltwater. If I can open the bearing and it is new, I may add grease, replace grease, etc. as needed. If its not new, but still good, I may open up both sides and clean with WD-40 and a toothbrush in my little jar or whatever. Simply lay the bearing on its side in a shot glass sized jar, put a small clean phillips screwdriver in the hole in the middle of the bearing, gently press the bearing against the side of the cup and roll it around the bottom edge of the cup while submerged in WD-40 to loosen the grease/dirt. Then I may do the hot water/soap treatment. Hold the bearing in your fingers, and with mostly/just dish soap- spin it a while. When It feels nice and smooth, continue to spin it and rinse under the hottest water that your fingers can handle. Take your time. Be thorough. Work it.(Through all steps) When satisfied, it should look/feel like brand new, but might not feel new until new grease is applied. NOW, VERY IMPORTANT! Before greasing/re-assembling, the bearing must be BONE DRY. Use compressed air (but don"t spin it), or blow it with your mouth, dry it with a paper towel on the outside and set it aside on a warm toaster, heater whatever to evaporate any moisture! I usually do bearings first so they can dry atop my little space heater while I tend to other areas of the reel. When its dry, dry, dry, pack it with grease and re-assemble. I recently bought Alan's bearing packer {nice-recommended}and will probably use that for all non-serviceable bearings in the future. These non-serviceable bearings rarely/never get rinsed in water unless I suspect there may be a tiny grain of sand that I may get lucky with, or its already shot and curiosity may lead me to try to clean it or see if it works, but they never do. Shot is shot.On a good bearing, I find that grease penetrates the seals over time as used, and if good fresh grease fills the voids and surrounds the bearing (unless submerged in saltwater) my bearings go for at least 2-3 years without service with normal use and careful rinsing. Anyway, Back to the WD-40. I personally find it invaluable for maintaining reels, and I feel that its versatility to price ratio when compared to other solvents/lubricants, etc. cant be beat. Just remember that it- like other spray canned/liquid lubricants, is not a substitute for nice thick marine grease. Just my $.02. Sorry for the long wind-again! I could go on for days. Its 34 degrees outside, my back is killing me and this seems like a great way to kill time til fishin' season. Tell me to shut up if you want! Just tryin' to help! Nuts

[Nuvole]

I soak all the greasy parts overnight with kerosene. WD40 works fine, but I'm trying to go cheap.

[wallacewt]

hi nuvole
you might like to try white spirits instead of kero

[redsetta]

you might like to try white spirits instead of kero

x2

[floating doc]

reelynuts: your posts are good, and show a lot of thought. This is a great discussion and particularly valuable to me.

I enjoy reading them, and would like to offer a comment on the format: I find that it's difficult to get through a large solid block of text without a paragraph break once in a while.

I've been active in many internet forums, including a closed professional forum for veterinarians (with over 44,000 members just in North America), and have found that sometimes people won't even try to get through a post that doesn't have some paragraph breaks. For some people, it's just too hard to read.

It's obvious that you work hard on your posts, and that you have a lot to offer on this forum. I would hate to think that someone might lose the benefit of reading your comments because of a formatting issue.

[reelynuts]

Floating doc, Thank you, I'm glad that you pointed this out. I have difficulty reading them myself sometimes. This site is the first that I have ever been active in because I love fishing and all aspects of fishing equipment, particularly reels . It is as if I have 30(ish)years worth of experiences that I want to share with the world-all in one post, and even I can see that I get a little carried away at times. I hope that I have not over-stepped my bounds with some of my comments. My passion may be a bit hard to take at times ( ).

I appreciate you pointing this out to me. Now I know that I'm not the only one practically holding a piece of paper on the screen to underline where I'm reading something that I wrote . I never even thought to break up the formatting, and just recently learned that these smiley faces can help too .                                                                                                                                                                Thanks again! Be Well, Reelynuts   

[dogdad1]

An excellent thread.  Just the info I'm needing right now.


The posts that really get me are those that are written without any periods in the entire response.  Makes me wonder if the dot on the person's keyboard fell off or if they actually talk continuously like that without any pauses in between.

(Yeah, I was going to try and type this without any periods myself, but I kept getting out of breath.)