A Most Efficient System for Cleaning Metal Parts -- Quick & Safe

[foakes]

On Quicks with a wrinkle flat paint finish — just (4) minutes in Simple Green 50/50 with water — no more.

For any glossy painted surfaces (Mitchell, Penn, Shakes, and others) — the strongest and safest is Dawn dish soap & hot water — Simple Green will dull the surface of glossy, smooth finish parts — and it will not come back.  Toothbrush & Qtips after crud is softened up.

All badging on Quicks, Penns, Alcedo, etc. — are burnished to a shine with a clean fine wire wheel of brass or steel — safety glasses are a must when using a Dremel and a wire wheel.

No plastics in Simple Green, or anything stronger — they will be visually ruined.

My habit is — when in doubt, just use Dawn HD Dish soap with hot water to start — and soak overnight.  And no Ultrasonic Cleaner.

All I need to do is loosen the greasy, dried on crud — then clean to original by hand.

Sometimes a good soak overnight — then finish up with a fresh batch of hot water and Dawn in the US cleaner.

Ultrasonic cleaners are not Silver Bullets for everything — they are a tool that under experienced conditions will save us a ton of time and tedious effort — and we can work on the rest of the reel, other reels, or have a cup of coffee.

We all will ruin a few parts with US cleaners, initially...

So experiment, be careful and wise with your precious parts, and learn what works safely — and what does not work so well.

Best,

Fred

[joe k]

Got it ..thanks

[Midway Tommy]

I can disassemble a Penn conventional completely in 5 minutes, put the badly greased metal parts into lacquer thinner for 20 minutes, then put the metal parts into SG or Purple in a Mason jar for 8 minutes in the US cleaner, along with the crank and Bakelite plates in a separate jar of SG also in the US cleaner reservoir — rinse, dry — and reassemble, lube, and tune.  Whole process may take 45 minutes for a complete.  And this is more than a clean and relube — it is a full job inside and out.

Best,

Fred

I've got to give you credit, Fred, you are good! I can't put one of these Cardinals, after disassembly & thorough part cleaning, lubed & back together in 45 minutes.    I obviously need to get more efficient.   

[foakes]

I can disassemble a Penn conventional completely in 5 minutes, put the badly greased metal parts into lacquer thinner for 20 minutes, then put the metal parts into SG or Purple in a Mason jar for 8 minutes in the US cleaner, along with the crank and Bakelite plates in a separate jar of SG also in the US cleaner reservoir — rinse, dry — and reassemble, lube, and tune.  Whole process may take 45 minutes for a complete.  And this is more than a clean and relube — it is a full job inside and out.

Best,

Fred

I've got to give you credit, Fred, you are good! I can't put one of these Cardinals, after disassembly & thorough part cleaning, lubed & back together in 45 minutes.   I obviously need to get more efficient.    

That is a beautiful job you did on that "4", Tommy —

I cannot put together a Cardinal that fast either, sometimes a DAM Quick close to that — but with the care I take on restores including examination and fine tuning — it is more like 90 minutes on Quicks.

I was just being foolishly boastful about how rapidly I could do a Penn LB, or similar.  Penn conventionals are easy compared to spinners.  I could likely do one in 30 minutes, if necessary.

Now, fancy Shimano bait-runner, rear drag spinners are better left to guys like philaroman.  They have 3 times the parts for no apparent reason, many are made of Tupperware, and parts are fragile and easily ruined upon disassembly if they were already damaged.

The work you do on the Zebco's, ABU"s, Mitchell's, and other quality golden age spinners is nothing short of inspiring, Sir!

My goal for today is to build (6) DQ Microlite 265's from scratch — shovel a couple tons of snow for 2 hours mid-day, if the sun holds — then start on (3) Penn spinners for a friend that need a full service disassembly, cleaning, new drags maybe, and salt ready

Best,

Fred

[Reel 224]

Slow and steady wins the race, I say that because I slow...

Joe

[thorhammer]

Hey Fred, I switched to dawn, cheaper, and heat, and it worked great to quickly clean the guts of a box of parts reels I bought (then sorted Fred style into plano boxes

when you use thinner in the cleaner, are you capping the jar ?

[foakes]

Hey Fred, I switched to dawn, cheaper, and heat, and it worked great to quickly clean the guts of a box of parts reels I bought (then sorted Fred style into plano boxes

when you use thinner in the cleaner, are you capping the jar ?

I don't think it is a good idea to ever cap a jar, John — especially thinners...

Ran out of Dawn one day last year — borrowed some of the wife's Joy dish soap.

It did half the job and took twice as long.

Dawn actually has double the grease cutting ability of most other dish soaps.

Best,

Fred

[thorhammer]

noted...my fishing partner owns an industrial cleaner business, catering to the metal working industry (that's him with me in avatar). I helped him set up his plant and formulate some really good grease-breaking formulas some years ago targeting my industry, which has a lot of high-set point waxes in formulae like candeililla, carnauba, paraffin, cerasynt, etc., plus high emulsified  / suspended solids. Takes both heat and chemistry to break. I'm going to try some of that too..said box of parts has a few with dreaded black tar yet....

[Chuck750ss]

Have not tried Freds thinner in the jar. ( going to though) I am having good results in my cleaner using simple green at 1 part SG to 8 parts water and using heat. That is on metal parts with no paint.
The ultra sonic cleaner sure saves on the elbow grease. And cleans bearings extremely well.
When I first started using the ultra sonic I used Dawn. The simple green at 1 part sg to 8 parts water works better than the Dawn.

[joe k]

anybody still using napatha in a jar in us...local hardware store has 4 -1gallon cans on clearance for 5.00 a can ...plus paint thinner mineral sprits ..1 gal cans ..5.00..wondering if i should grab a couple..?..what do you think? deal or no deal..

[Christopher M Songer]

Great deal for the $. I have been using naptha after a soak in mineral spirits. I understand naptha dries faster and with no residue. I use break cleaner from an aerosol can to "blow" out the spirits before a soak in naptha. It seems spirits and naptha get milky if I do not rinse out the spirits first.  I do not use this often but primarily use Simple Green cut with water. Most of the time that is all that is needed. Bearing always get the mineral spirits and naptha treatment. I am learning and open to change my methods.

[joe k]

ive just been soaking bearings in napatha in us cleaner....spin drying with little heat from gun ..then drop them in a shot glass filled with tsi 321  for a little bit...remove from 321..let sit couple more minutes after removal on piecce of cardboard and reinstall...seems to work well..any comments if thats not right..should i be doing mineral spirits also?please leave reply..thanks joe

[Fishfull Thinking]

Lots of great info here folks.    I ordered a US machine and will use it next week to do an overhaul of 5 Penn 114H reels that I have.   Question........    are the red side plates ok to put in the US?   I know plastic is not suppose to go in, but I think they are some sort of composite.   

I'm thinking just about everything on those old work horse reels should be able to go in.    Planning to use a Dawn degreaser that I've used for other projects.

Thanks in advance for any input,
John

[foakes]

Those plates are constructed of Bakelite —

If doing production work for charters or skippers — I just put the plates in a baggie, sealed to get the air out, then filled with 50/50 simple green and hot water.  Drop it in the US cleaner — no more than 8-10 minutes — rinse and reassemble.  These plates are generally gouged, chipped, or discolored already, anyway.

If a restore for a client, or myself — I wipe out as much grease as possible with paper towels and Q-Tips — then soak overnight in a mixture of Dawn HD dish soap and hot water — then (5) minutes in the US cleaner with a 50/50 SG to water — rinse and reassemble.

Best,

Fred

[Fishfull Thinking]

Thanks Fred..........    appreciate it!

I'm thinking there is nothing on the 114H that can't go in the US.   Is that correct?   What about the handles?   These reels are early 1980's.

Thanks again,
John