Avet Raptor JX 6/3 CAM post disintegrated by corrosion

[steelfish]

well this reel spent an average of 200-250 days per year in the water in a charter boat in Baja, thats more than what a regular weekend warrior will put in 5 years or more, so, a regular fisherman that use his Avet Raptor 20 days per year and service his reel at least annually it will probably never have this problem on his reel, that said I've been servicing this reel for this captain since 2021 and the reel already had signs of corrosion under the CAM assembly but it was still in good shape, so it went to work for another year, in 2022 I got the reel back for the annual service and the same zone was worst than the 1st time, the aluminum became "all dusty" like if it was made in grains or something, anyway, I cleaned the zone really good with a firm teethbrush which showed how pitted the zone was I tried to contact AVET by email or phone but no avail, so I told the captain that the post for the CAM which is part of the handle sideplate was still offering good support for the CAM and lever and the drag of the reel seemed to be working good, so the reel was sent back to work for another season, well it was just starting the 2023 season when the reel had to be put aside because there was not drag at all.

after checking the reel the culprit was what I was expecting to find, the CAM post was completely disintegrated, no mas, no go, nada. 

not blaming AVET but its hard to see the dusty aluminum particles disintegrate the reel as cancer, I havent tried to contact Avet again but pretty sure a new handle sideplate would be a kind of expensive fix for this reel. 

the pics with no year written down are the ones for oct 2023


 

[MarkT]

Have you ever seen pictures of a '52 Ford parked in the woods for 30 years? Yeah, it's like that!

[steelfish]

Have you ever seen pictures of a '52 Ford parked in the woods for 30 years? Yeah, it's like that!

the problem is that '52 ford was parked for 30 years, this reel was used non-stop the whole year with a daily dose of saltwater splash and breeze, probably the captain didnt hosed their reels daily but he said he or his deckhand normally cleaned the rods and reels with fresh water from the hose when cleaning the boat for the next day, another thing into consideration is in winter some places in Baja can be kind of humid and that dont work too well with saltwater and aluminum reels used as tools.

[steelfish]

I recalled seeing something similar with an accurate reel and found the thread.
while the post in the sideplate didnt disintegrate as this one on the Avet, it was made also by the same aluminum of the sideplate and got rounded off, the problem was the same, no drag at all.

https://alantani.com/index.php/topic,26480.0.html