gluing on a drag washer

[alantani]

Hey sorry to bother you, but i figured id get the best answer from you. I accidently busted off the drag washer that was glued on the spool. I poped off the first washer then then second broke off(i didn't know it was glued). My question is can i get a replacement washer(if i can find one) and epoxy it back on or do i have to send back to avet. I got a trip monday and everybodys telling i gotta send it to avet. Any info will help,thanks

naw, these are easy!!!!!!  first, clean up the drag washer a little.  take the blade of a very sharp knive and scrape at a 90 degree angle and remove any caked on salt.  get both sides.  now clean all the crud off the side of the spool where the drag washer goes.  you can roughen it up a little with no problem.  just make sure you get all the crud off the metal, then clean it with a little rubbing alcohol only.  don't use any oil or solvent based products.  

now for the fun part.  prepare this ahead of time.  you need a flat surface where the spool can sit for a day.  you need some sort of donut or ring that can sit directly on top of the drag washer and act as a spacer that will come in contact with the bulk of the surface of the drag washer but will not come in contact with the edges.  the more drag surface that this spacer touches, the better.  and the contact surface has to be perfectly flat and true.  and lastly, you need 5-10 pound of weight to put on top of the spacer.  a 7 pound gallon jug of water works well here.  

now look at the spool and imagine where the drag washer will sit.  use masking tape to cover the lip of the spool, then use an x-acto knife to cut away the masking tape for an exact fit.  now tape off the top working surface of the drag washer to keep epoxy off of the working surface.  

ok, got it all taped off?  got the donut and the weight prepared?  now mix up your slow cure epoxy.  evenly cover the metal surface and the back of the drag washer.  lay the drag washer onto the spool, set your donut in the middle, put the weight on top and come back at the end of the day.  pull the masking tape off.  you may need the xacto knife.  now grease the drag and you should be good.  alan

[arrowhawk]

Alan,
I never glued on a drag washer, never needed to.
Why would you use epoxy rather that formica glue?

[Nuvole]

Alan,
I never glued on a drag washer, never needed to.
Why would you use epoxy rather that formica glue?

Formica glue will soften under very low heat.

[alantani]

yeah, stick with a slow cure 2-part epoxy. 

[treidm]

I think, I can smell a tutorial in the distance...

[dobrobill]

What a shame to have be even discussing gluing on new drags to the avets.  At my local shop the conclusion is that water gets down into the avet up to LX size and sits. This causes the drag to swell. The drag washer is bigger than the plate thus causing a major problem. Tear it apart and replace. Has anyone else seen this? If this is way off base Alan can delete...

[alantani]

naw, you're fine.  in avet's defense, alot of companies glue their drag washers.  it is usually onto a disposable pressure plate, not the spool itself, though.  this is where a thick coat of grease would really save the day. you could slather on the grease around the edges to prevent water intrusion and it would never be a problem.  

[wallacewt]

a couple of years back i glued 3 different types of reels.tld,abu and 1 other,super glue straight onto the spool,as an experiment,all are still working fine.i cannot find a problem with them.cheers

[OShaughnessy]

How do you replace a worn drag washer when it's glued on?  Or will greasing the drag cut down on the wear and tear so the original washer will outlive the spool?

[wallacewt]

I use acetone
it destroys the washers
if you are going to replace it doesn't matter if they are glued or not
does it?

[ijlal]

Hi Alan,

I have a question. Why glue washers in the first place? A friend bought an Avet SX 5.3 just yesterday and I found the washer is eared, and yet glued! Why glue an eared washer? The don't need to be glued in the two-speed Penn and Okuma I have with much higher drag ratings!

Thanks.

[alantani]

the original configuration was a drag washer without glue and retaining ring.  they had a problem with salt that accumulated under the drag washer.  to get around that, they decided to glue the drag washer and leave no room for the retaining ring.  that mostly eliminated the salt problem under the main gear.  it's ok because lots of manufacturers use glue.  it still did not address the stickiness that developed from oil, water or salt on the working surface of the drag.  as with so many companies, i would love to be president for just a day. 

[ijlal]

Thanks Alan!

That's okay! They can glue their washers, but my question remains. I wanted to know why can we not add a new washer without gluing it? Why can't we just grease the drag washer and the spool and leave it without a retaining ring? The metal drag plate is always there to keep the carbon drag washer from coming off and it is eared so it always revolves perfectly with the spool.

[alantani]

you can, but if you do it's probably going to bounce out of place.  there is just not enough lip there for me to recommend just "tacking" it on with grease. 

[ijlal]

Okay!!! So that is the main reason! Thanks Alan!