Building a Cortez Jigmaster for reasonable upfront cost only requires one ingredient......a good donor reel. With so many jigmasters to choose from on eBay, it pays to be picky, and a person can always find decent shape jiggys for less than $30 including shipping.
Thorhammer has already educated us about the 500s and how most have steel internals, red spool and solid spacer bars. Some standard jiggys also have the steel internals, and some will have newell components. These are things to look for when considering a donor reel
These 2 jiggys cost me less than $50, and one came with new full newell 99 kit that I sold for $50.....so these 2 jigmaster donors actually cost me zero.....and that's how it's done !!
Tru Dat! ;)
Nice work! the red spools alone fetch 25-30 bucks. Those innards look stellar. That was a steal, newell or not in that condition. Can't wait to see the end result.