Sand...

[Slazmo]

Well I got two reels from a good friend from work, he said that his mother used the reels and dropped them in sand. A Shimano Stradic 5000FJ and a Symetre 4000FL...

Now what was found inside was a veritable sand pit of.... sand....

So instead of using a brush which in my eyes pushes sand inward initially I used a shop vac (vacuum cleaner) with a brush head.

What I did is I got a piece of stocking (woman's pantihose) and placed that over the nozzle and then pressed it down into the tube a little and then put the brush head over that - this to catch any parts which are larger than sand (fine quartz sand what we have here on the Gold Coast).

I found that if you remove the critical parts that can be sucked out you are left with a safe platform to remove sand from rather than trying to flick it out with a brush...

Anyhow onto the sandy pictures

[Slazmo]

One more pic.

[Bryan Young]

That's a great idea. I normally place mine in a ultrasonic cleaner...all of the parts...the problem is draining the ultrasonic cleaner because you don't want to put sand in your drain pipes.

[steelfish]

so, with that vacumm job, you didnt have to dismantle all the parts of the reel?

Im really paranoic about the sand on my reel, normally I open the reel and degreased all and lubed it all again for a peace of mind. 

[Slazmo]

Sand in ones pipes is a concern lol... The trap should catch most of it otherwise filling the sink with hot soapy water and pulling the plug should flush most of it through.

The vacuum technique was to get sand off the reel before disassembly, thus as to not introduce sand into other areas of the reel. Brushing I feared would push it further into the minute crevices and cause issues further into the rebuild.

Depending on what type of sand quartz or silica or coarse sand, I guess it all depends on how far it gets into the reel. Any sand for me is a killer as the sand around my home is Quartz and that stuff is tough and it destroys everything mechanical.