Saltist LW30LCHA drag problem

[retiredandfishing]

Worked on this reel for a while. I cannot get a decent drag on it.  Going to replace the bellville washers in it.  Put in a new set of carbon fiber drags but it did not change anything.  The old set were also carbon fiber.  Wondering if anyone has any suggestions on improving the drag on this reel.

Thanks, Steve

[Wompus Cat]

Don't know if you are greasing them or not but I Don't. I don't Grease my Brake Shoes on my Cars or Trucks, nor the Clutches on Standard Transmissions either . Is the Star Bottoming out ? If so a couple of extra shims might help .
How much drag are you trying to get ?
Here is the specs on the Reel and it Ain't much  from Factory...

Another spec sheet on it says  Max of 15.4 POUNDS
Daiwa Saltist Level Wind Casting Reel

SPECIFICATIONS:  Retrieve: Right | Gear Ratio: 6.1:1 | Capacity YD/LB: Mono: 14/490, 20/295, 25/235; Braid: 40/380, 50/280 | LPT: 352" | Max Drag: 15.4  lb. | Bearings: 4CRBB | MPN: STTLW30LCHA

[retiredandfishing]

Yes tried shimming. Slight improvement. No did not grease the drags. Customer has a lot of line on the spool so that will affect some but not to this extent I think. Thanks for the info. 

[oldmanjoe]

How are the metal drag washers , what are they made of ,  brass or stainless steel ?     Do they have a gloss polish to then , like hard chrome ?

[retiredandfishing]

Thank you.  You gave me an idea. Inspected the drag washers and they are hard chrome.  So I removed the sheen from them and that worked very well.  Still going to put new bellville washers in but the drag is much improved and is at least acceptable now.

Steve

[oldmanjoe]

 Yep we like shinny things ,but drag washers should be flat with a crisscross scratched surface !

[Fish-aholic]

I've found with saltist series with poor drag performance can be related to the last top hatted metal drag washer being installed upsidedown.
 
Said washer has two faces, one side is indented and the other bulbous. If the bulbous side faces the CF drag washer below it, it will minimise the contact area between the two parts and therefore minimises the drags output when star is buttoned down.

Have a check of that last top hat drag washer again it's easy to overlook.   

[jurelometer]

Yep we like shinny things ,but drag washers should be flat with a crisscross scratched surface !

Sliding friction load = coefficient of friction * clamping load.  You can go for a higher coefficient of friction by roughing up the metal washers and not greasing.
 
The downside of this approach is that it tends to increase the difference between static (from a dead stop) and dynamic (once the slipping starts) coefficients of friction, giving you more drag from stop than  once things start roLling.

If the carbon fiber washers are lubed with drag grease, and the metal washers are flat and scratch free , static and dynamic friction  will tend to be much closer, but you will need a bit more clamping load for the same amount of drag.  A worthwhile tradeoff for most of us, but your reel, so you get to decide.

To get  the most possible drag, you need to keep the star from bottoming out so you can maximize the clamping load.  You could do that with flat washers or some sort of spacer.  but there is a limit for the other parts of the reel, so you usually want to stay under the spec.

Belleville's are essentially springs in the form of washers.  Putting bellevill's into the mix gives you less clamping load per degree of star revolution, but that also gives you a bit more granularity for fine tuning the drag, and some amount of spring tension helps keep the setting from changing, especially at low drag.

I like to set up my drags so that I go from min to max drag in one full star revolution or less, but most folks opt for more granularity.

 There is another recent thread where we discuss stacking bellevilles:  https://alantani.com/index.php?topic=35497.msg420225#msg420225

-J