Reel Repair by Alan Tani

a few people have asked about the tools i use for working on fishing reels.  i shot a few photos a while back and thought i'd post them.  if you like to tinker with reels, you might find something here that might help you out.  

first the lubes.  i use shimano drag grease on all the carbon fiber drag washers.  i'm finally running out and may switch over to cal's grease.  it's half the price.  corrosion x is the lube i use on all the bearings, level wind assemblies and reel handles.  and lastly, there's yamaha engine grease.  that goes into all the screw holes and all the other non-exposed metal surfaces.  it stays blue forever.  i can open up a reel and know immediately if i've worked on it before or not.  





here's my tool rack.  i found some hard blue styrofoam at work, don't remember where the box came from, drew a 1 inch grid and started punching holes.  it forces me to be neat.



flat,  phillips and allen heads.



deep standard and metric sockets, precision screw drivers.



my little handy dandy bearing puller.



6 inch calipers.  i use this alot!!!!!!



specialty shimano and penn spool wrenches.



a working inventory of all the penn ht-100 drag washers made.  i order all my penn stuff from mysticparts.com.  i'm their biggest non-business account!



bearings from bocabearings.com.  they like me alot as well.  



boxes of screws.  mostly stuff that i've accumulated over the years.



this little dremmel comes in handy!  seems that i'm always grinding away at something.



more boxes of stuff.  





i'd have carpal tunnel syndrome without this little baby!  it's a little electric screwdriver from milwaulke.  they're about $100, i have two, finally busted one and i need to replace it.  



now for the grease gun.  this is another little item that i could not do with out.  here's the grease.



here's the gun.  home depot has these.  note the position of the nozzle.



home depot has these as well.  it's a blowgun kit.



take the inflator needle and cut off the tip with the cutting wheel of the dremmel, the screw it into the adaptor.





screw in the adaptor, load up a grease cartridge and you're all set.  this is another "must have" item.





and lastly, my favorite.  7-8 years ago i found this wrench in a tackle shop for $20.  i put it next to a standard penn wrench so you could see the difference.  i bought two, lost one, and just had a machine shop buddy make a bunch more.  



i also have a small compressor, a bench grinder, a drill press and a half gallon ultrasonic cleaner loaded with green soap.  the only thing i still need is a small bench lathe.  i want to start cutting sleeves to blueprint lever drag reels.  yes, it's taken over my garage....



"Edited as per Moderators to correct Scott's Bait & Tackle over to their new store name Mystic Reel Parts / www.mysticparts.com"

here's a link for the 3 ounce grease cartridge.....

http://www.usboatsupplies.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=USBS&Product_Code=ACC-GREAS-RE-FL&Category_Code=AYOM

and a link for the blow gun kit......

http://www.chpower.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/chPrd5_10051_10001_87385_-1_search

Alan, are you still looking for a bench lathe?

not really.  i would like to start cutting bearing sleeves, but i just don't have the room.  bryan can vouch for that!  do you have access to one?

Hey Alan, this is the one I have: http://www.grizzly.com/products/10-x-22-Bench-Top-Metal-Lathe/G0602  Pretty nice compact setup.  My issue is that my main fishing partner owns a machine shop right next door to my shop and then two doors down from him I have a guy that does all the cnc stuff.. So when I start to think about making something, I just end up talking to one of them.  That is why I was probably going to sell mine.  Or barter...

How much?  And what do you need?  I have a 60 gal. aux fuel tank with storage http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200370678_200370678 that was for my truck before it got totalled.  Never used.  Wanna trade?

so that is 10 inches by 22 inches at the base? 

Hey Alan, the 10 refers to the swing in the bed and the 22 refers to the distance between centers.. so really, the usable machining area.  I have the stand for the lathe as you can see in the pictures.  You would need total of a 2'x4' space to hold the lathe, whether on the stand or on a bench...  Here are the pictures:

yeah, i would have absolutely no place to put that!  alan

How much?  I may find a place in my garage so that I can start cutting them sleeves.  Barter in mind?  What are you looking for?

tom says he may have a lathe for me.  but we still do not have room!!!!!!   

Hey Bryan, Probably gonna ask for around $750 with the stand.  I don't need a tool/fuel tank for my truck.. I guess for trade it would mainly be fishing stuff..decent reels. Pretty set rod wise.. Maybe do a trade + cash or something if you are interested.. Anyway, let me know.

Hey Alan, if you want, I would be happy to cut you up some precision bearing sleeves.  Just let me know what you want and the dimensions and we can work something out.  If you want to do this, maybe you could buy the material from somewhere that has a local distribution to me and I can pick it up, cut the sleeves and ship them to you.  Let me know.

score!!!!!!

just spoke to tom.  he has a small belt driven hobby lathe with an 18" by 24" footprint.  he promises that i can throw an old towel over it any my wife will never know.  this will beat using my drill press!

Oooh, that's nice.  I gotta sell my tank first.