Morning lads,
As you may recall, I recently picked up a Shimano BeastMaster 4/0.
Unfortunately, being from the 1980s and pushing past 30 years of age, it wasn't quite complete.
Doug Landau at www.jdltreasures.com (http://www.jdltreasures.com) is my 'go to' for BeastMaster parts, and I quickly sorted the 'easy' issues with his help.
The biggest problem was that it was missing the left side-plate badge.
(https://alantani.com/gallery/29/3590_30_09_19_12_11_46_294521400.jpeg)
Because the badge is integral to the side-plate, these aren't available separately.
This meant that I'd have to buy a whole new frame to fix the issue - and they're definitely not cheap, despite their age.
So, I started considering other options...
This reel's going to be my deep-drop workhorse, so whatever solution I applied was going to have to be robust, remain corrosion-free and look 'proper'.
The easiest solution would've been to just cut some 1.2mm aluminium plate, paint it black and call it 'job done'.
You probably already know that I'm a huge BeastMaster fan, so that was never going to fly.
The first step was to cut an accurate template...
(https://alantani.com/gallery/29/3590_30_09_19_12_11_46_294521283.jpeg)
This gave me measurements of 52mm x 26mm x ~1mm.
I wanted the end result to look like it was 'always there', so I took a photo of the badge on one of my other BeastMasters and resized it to these exact parameters.
I found a photo company that did alloy prints and researched their process to see if it might meet my needs.
As it turns out, it involves 'sublimation', which means the design is printed onto sublimation transfer sheets, then placed on a heat press with the 'substrate' to be sublimated.
Through a combination of time, temperature and pressure, the design becomes effectively 'embedded' into the alloy.
The smallest print I could get was 20cm x 30cm, but that meant I could get 18 badges onto one print - and this was the result:
(https://alantani.com/gallery/29/3590_30_09_19_12_11_47_29513653.jpeg)
I then set about cutting a tester out with a rotary tool:
(https://alantani.com/gallery/29/3590_30_09_19_12_11_47_29515324.jpeg)
After some very judicious clean-up on a bench-grinder, I got such a nice result that my tester ended up becoming the finished product!
(https://alantani.com/gallery/29/3590_30_09_19_12_11_47_29513515.jpeg)
The fit is so nice that it was quite an exercise to get the badge back out after the first test fit.
It's now epoxied in place and looks pretty good I reckon.
Most importantly, it's robust, will never scratch off, will remain corrosion-free and looks 'proper' - like it's always been there.
I've now got 17 extra badges, some of which I'm going to give to a local reel master and mate Jeff Murray for any 4/0s he comes across.
If anyone needs one, flick me a PM and I'll pop one in the post.
Righto, hope that was of some interest.
All the best, Justin
wow!!!!!
Awesome! Great problem solving and beautiful outcome Justin!
Great job, and good thinking !
Wow , great job !! I could use those for the TLD line .................. I get a bunch with the plate gone. I just glue in a rubber piece usually.Those are sweet.
Cheers:
Todd
Cheers lads - much appreciated.
It's not perfect, but it does the trick ;)
Heck it looks perfect to me. Good job Justin. Dominick
Thanks Dominick - hope all's well with you and yours!
Cheers mate, Justin
Excellent work, Justin!!
This certainly opens up a lot of possibilities and applications.
Thanks!
Best,
Fred
Great idea Justin - sublime! :D
Mike
Holy crap, Justin, nice work! And even better to see you back up and it! It's like I say about my boats- if you are too good to sit on that cooler and criticize my gear while I taxi you to the Gulf Stream, you are free to enjoy golf :)
Quote... sublime!
:D ;D
Cheers lads.
All the best
Great save, and fitting repair, that's probably better than original. I imagine a fair bit of time went into researching how and where to get this done. Worth the effort!
Thanks Chris.
You're spot on - the rumination and research took much longer than the actual work.
I like to think anticipation is four-fifths of satisfaction ;) ;D
Cheers mate
I agree with the others.... Wow. What sort of machine do you need to print on sublimation transfer paper?
-steve
Good work Justin, I see a lot of reels with the badge missing, you should send that to Shimano & Diawa, tell them the story, then suggest they lift there game, they charge enough for there reels,, I brought a Diawa spinner with the badge missing, all that was left was two very small dried up, blobs of glue, very poor work, cheers Don.
Great idea Justin and the endresult is perfect.
Fantastic work Justin...bravo! 8)
Thanks lads
Nice way for the getting badge done. Slick !!
Justin I have ? will the badge fit all Beast Master side plates ? If so I would purchases a couple.
I know some reels need the right look.
I see that to with badge gone on TLD"s .
Todd on the TLD's I cut a out piece of pop can and place with epoxy. And on the programed dial I use a Dime or any coin that fits..
Hi twotone,
Unfortunately, the badges are slightly different sizes on each of the BeastMasters - 4/0, 30/50, 50/80 and 80/130.
Let me know if you'd like a 4/0 version - happy to trim one up and post it out, no charge.
Cheers, Justin
Yeah I do the pop/beer can trick also with some black plastic or thin rubber on top so it looks OK, but it would be nice to be able to get these for the TLD's as they look so good.
Cheers:
Todd
That would be awesome Justin. I'll send you a new TLD 30/20 badge in return. If possible could you trim it a little bit bigger? Just in in case it would work for 30/50.
Todd if you have a personal TLD that needs it. I could part with one more.