I bought a Fladen Chieftain DST 5/0 multiplier reel in unused condition and immediately I spotted several areas of concern: the handle shaft had no proper support, plastic yoke posts and poorly designed jack plate guides. The first improvement was to make a support bushing for the handle shaft so it can relieve strain on the plate mounts, then I took advantage of the yoke posts being hollow and used them with a pointer to mark the locations of the holes for the new mtallic ones. I had laying around some laptop hinge parts and they made great yoke posts and then I drilled the holes and mounted the new metallic yoke posts. The original ones were trimmed to about 3mm height. The original jack plate guides were also trimmed and I designed and 3D printed a new jack guide in PETG plastic and this is affixed to the yoke posts.
This reel has some good things going for it: good solid frame, stainless steel pinion gear and also a brass main gear. Also the original drag washers were replaced with Carbontex ones.
Nice improvements! 8)
Cool!
A "Fladen Chieftain". Where and who makes this one? Want to hear how your tests go...
I have a strong suspicion that this model was made by Omoto as I saw identical reels listed for sale in Australia. These upgrades were made to improve this reel's longevity.