Got Salt?

[Bill B]

Ok, we have all experienced reels packed with axle grease and reels salvaged from the deep with encrustations, today I opened a Penn 49 Deep Sea.  After pulling the OLD line from the spool I got down to the vented arbor found that is found on some of the 49's, but mine looked strange, instead of a vented arbor I found some sort of white stuff inside the arbor    Well I know that stuff shouldn't be in there so I started picking at it and out came this white powdery crud, then the vented arbor started to come a part  ,  Well no turning back now peeled back the rest of the vented arbor and it was SOLID white stuff ?!!?....Anyway continued to pick the white crude out and got down to the inner arbor......Currently soaking in hot water to dissolve the rest of the crud then into the vinegar bath to see what's left....Will post more after the cleaning...Bill

[mo65]

   Yep Bill...that's gonna be a tough save. She's hit pretty hard.

[handi2]

That's amazing..!!

[David Hall]

Yep that's definitely gonna leave a scar.

[conchydong]

Even if a person was not diligent about maintaining a reel, it would seem that they would change the line at least once every few years and recognize something not so good was happening. 

On the bright side, instead of Himalayan pink salt, you could market some green Penn salt as the latest health craze.

[Crow]

   I ran into ....almost... the same thing. I *think* the hub...or arbor, if that's what you want to call it...on those "vented" spools is made from what I call "die cast"...some call it "pot metal". What it really is , is an alloy of brass.....very, very small amount...and zinc. It works very well in casting....the pouring into a mold type of casting ....not the "fishing" type ! When it corrodes, it turns into a white, powdery, residue....that seems to swell quite  a bit. I believe that the "vented arbor"...which is made from brass...and is quite often split or cracked on these spools (and we blame this on the line being wound "too tight") is really broken by the cast , center hub, corroding, enlarging , and applying a lot of pressure to the ends of the arbor (where it meets the spool flanges), while the center of the arbor sleeve in being "squeezed down" by line pressure. Once the salt water gets between the brass sleeve, and the die cast hub....it would take a lot of cleaning / rinsing, to get it all out. I've repaired two of these type spools that had broken / cracked sleeve, by removing the sleeve(they were nearly in two (or more )pieces, so it was fairly easy to break the few small areas that were still holding), cleaning, scraping, and soaking away all the corrosion on the hub, and then straightening the chunks of sleeve, and soldering them together around the hub. I'm sure that they would never stand up to use, but , with a little care, the soldering job is fairly unnoticeable , and works for a "shelf reel".

[Shark Hunter]

Holy Cow Bill.
I would just throw that Disaster in the trash.
Good luck brother.

[oc1]

So the vented arbor is like a false bottom Bill?  I never used Mariners but though the shallow spool was to accommodate wire line.  Wire line coming off a small diameter arbor will be as coiled as a Slinky and prone to throwing a kink and breaking.

I had a similar nightmare under a wood arbor on a Shakespeare 1744 aluminum spool.  There are photos somewhere here on AT.  In this case the false bottom arbor was to reduce spool weight for casting.  Mike (Mo) suggested I just ignore it and going fishing.  I ended up doing just that and have to say that it did not make much difference except for the line capacity.
-steve

[Reel Beaker]

Even if a person was not diligent about maintaining a reel, it would seem that they would change the line at least once every few years and recognize something not so good was happening. 

On the bright side, instead of Himalayan pink salt, you could market some green Penn salt as the latest health craze.

Looks like sea salt ice cream is on its way out

[Bill B]

Steve you are correct.  The small arbor would have wound the wire too tight and tightly coiling the wire which would be no good.  The large diameter vented arbor was about 1 1/4" in diameter and much more wire friendly.  i will be testing the pot metal theory today on the vented arbor.  I figure if I put it in full strength vinegar it should dissolve in no time.  I will post pictures of my progress shortly.  Bill