Less Than Dramatic Results With Extreme Reel +

[Bucktail]

Hi Alan,

After reading your bearing tutorial and your amazing results with Extreme Reel + I decided to give it a try on my Calcutta 250A.  First I tried cleaning the bearings (shielded) by soaking them in Reel Saver Degreaser by Mill Comm and then adding the Extreme Reel +.  My results were maybe a couple of seconds more free spool. 

I then decided to go the full route.  I pried the shield off of one side of each bearing and then flushed them with carb cleaner and compressed air.  Again I added the Extreme Reel +.  This time I went from a free spool of about 6 seconds to about 12 seconds.  Better, but still not anywhere near the incredible results you achieved with this product. 

What am I doing wrong (if anything)?  Or is this really all I can hope to achieve with this reel?

Thanks,
Bob

[alantani]

i pull both shields and clean both sides with carb cleaner and compressed air.  when a gentle stream of air makes the bearing spin, and then it keeps spinning afterwards, i have a clean bearings.  THEN i lube it with xtreme reel +.  you have three more things that will slow down the spool.  the right side of the spool might have a bearing or a gray bushing.  the pin has to be popped out and the bearing serviced.  if it has a bushing, it should be replaced.  then you have to check to see how much the spool shaft is rubbing against the pinion gear.  sometimes the pinion gear can be cleaned out, and sometimes it has to be drilled out just a little.  and lastly, for other reels, the levelwind assembly has to be cleaned.  your older calcutta 250 levelwind assembly moves when you move the handle, not the spool. 

with good bearings and no shaft rub against the pinion gear, you should be getting 30 to 45 seconds.  because the spool is so light, you will not get 60 seconds or more.  you should, however, see an improvement when you cast.  alan

[Bucktail]

As you recommend, I'll try removing all of the shields and replacing that bushing with a bearing.  I'm a little squeamish about drilling out the pinion gear though.  Would sanding it help at all?

[alantani]

sanding would make the pinion gear worse.  what i've done with some pinion gears that were extra bad was to find a drill bit that was just a hair SMALLER then the hole for the pinion gear, then CAREFULLY hold the pinion gear with my fingers and use the lenth of the drill bit to polish the inside of the pinion gear.  THIS CAN BE DANGEROUS is something gets caught and goes flying.  the purpose is to remove any oxidized metal on the inside of the pinion gear.  if you can polish the drive shaft with a dremmel attachment and some polishing compound, that might help as well, but this step is probably overkill.

what's holding the spool back is friction.  so think about where the spool shaft rubs.  start from the left end of the spool shaft, then the left spool bearing, then the right spool bushing, then the pinion gear, then the right side plate bearing and finally the right side plate spool cap.  those are the areas that you need to work on.  the other thing is to clean out the xtreme reel + and try another lube, then another, and then back to xtreme reel + to see how it compares in the same reel.  i'm betting the other lubes will be even slower.  alan

[Bucktail]

I did as you said and took the shields off both sides of the bearings.  Then I shot more carb cleaner through them (from both sides) and sprayed the compressed air until they spun freely.  I haven't found the replacement bearing for the spool bushing yet, and I'm a bit nervous to try to drill out the pinion gear.  But, I did clean the inside of the pinion gear extremely well with some alcohol on a thinned out Q Tip.  I then re-added the Extreme Reel + to the bearings.

So far, just by doing those things the free spool has increased from the initial 6 seconds to 25 seconds!  All I can say to that is, Wow!  I'm very pleased!

Thanks for your help!

-Bob

[Pro Reel]

I have had great results with polishing spool shafts and the inside of pinion gears. I sand them before polishing, but with a method borrowed from my days as an auto painter. To get incredibly smooth and glossy paint jobs, we would sand the freshly dried paint with ultrafine sand paper and then buff the paint to a mirror finish. You can do the same thing with spool shafts and pinion gears. The key is to use 2000 grit micro fine paper. For shafts, use a small wood dowel that will fit in your dremmel. cut a slit in the end with a razor blade. cut the sand paper into 1/4 wide X 3/4 long strips. Place a strip of 2000 grit paper in the slit at the top of the dowel, in the shape of a flag. Roll the paper around the dowel to shape it and then use the dremmel on low speeds, rotating the spinning flag of paper around the spool shaft. You only need to smooth the raised sections of the shaft and you only want to smooth them, not make them smaller. You can now use metal polish and and q tips as buffers in your dremmel to buff the shaft to a mirror finish. wood stick q tips work best. You can do the same thing to the inside of a pinion but you need to use a very small wood dowel for the sanding stick. The shaft of a wood q tip or swab is a perfect size. use just a long enough strip of paper to make one wrap arond the shaft. Roll it up and slide it in the pinion. turn the dremmel on while the sander is inside and move it back and forth. It only takes a few seconds to foul the paper with oxidized brass. repeat the process a couple of times and then use a q tip with brasso polish to buff the inside of the pinion. you have to tear some of the cotton off of the q tip to get it small enough to slide inside. chage q tip buffs until it stays clean and the inside should be smooth as glass and very shiny. The object is to make the surface as slick as posible without altering the size more than a miniscule amount. the spool shaft holds the pinion against the main gear. If you change the dimensions too much, the gears wont mesh tight and lead to gear wear and noisy reel problems. I want to stress the importance of using very fine grit paper. Many articles about this process say that you can use 800 or even 600 grit paper to start with. Don't try that. The scratches will be so deep that by the time you process up to 2000 grit, to eliminate the 600 grit scratches, you will have reduced the OD of the spool shaft to a point that the gears will be sloopy. 2000 grit will smooth the grain of the steel enough that you can polish it very smooth. You can then coat the shaft and the inside of the pinion with Xtreme reel + to make it even slicker.

[alantani]

guys, the key here is a mirror finish!

[Alto Mare]

Has anyone tried this stuff?



I was cleaning some bearings and run out of carb cleaner, I had some Pasloder cordless tool cleaner so I  decided to give it a shot. Try it, you'll be amazed of the results, no smell, but you should still use it outdoors. I'll bet you can't hold your breath untill the bearing stops spinning.