Christmas, and surprise tasks

[steelfish]

You could try a fade wrap.  Here's 3 colors, would look pretty good in rainbow colors

amigo, you're an artist, everytime you show us a bit of your work is just amazing !!

[JasonGotaProblem]

I've begun going through the reels. I gotta say, relative to the price, I'm actually quite impressed with the little sienna 1000. Minus the single stack drag, that is. The level of interior lubrication from factory... Less so. But I polished the spool shaft, inside of pinion, and drag washer. I hit the bearings and line roller with TSI and superlube grease on the gears and inside of gearbox (it ain't a metal body, but force of habit says smear it. Plus the grease dam may help keep water out). I gotta say this was likely the easiest reel to work on that I've tried yet. Easier than old penn SS reels IMO

I replaced the bushing below the pinion with a 5x8x2.5 bearing i had on hand. Schematics suggest the 2 2500s have the same size bushing, so I'm ordering 2 more of that bearing.

I stripped down the $9 Zebco rod and have redone grip and reel seat. I'm making decent pace to finish all 3 by Christmas. Ive sidelined any personal projects til after the holidays. 

Cant post pics. But you can use your imagination.

[boon]

I've begun going through the reels. I gotta say, relative to the price, I'm actually quite impressed with the little sienna 1000.

The Sienna kinda blows my mind. You can occasionally pick them up for around $35. If we assume everyone down the chain is making 100%, the retailer is buying them for $17.50, the wholesaler is buying them from Shimano for $8.75, so they're costing Shimano about $4.40 to make (made up numbers but I would wager they're not far off the mark). And I dare say more than 50% of that price would be labour, equipment, and amortised design cost - probably less than $2 in material cost in one, and yet you get a perfectly serviceable little reel.

[JasonGotaProblem]

I've begun going through the reels. I gotta say, relative to the price, I'm actually quite impressed with the little sienna 1000.

The Sienna kinda blows my mind. You can occasionally pick them up for around $35. If we assume everyone down the chain is making 100%, the retailer is buying them for $17.50, the wholesaler is buying them from Shimano for $8.75, so they're costing Shimano about $4.40 to make (made up numbers but I would wager they're not far off the mark). And I dare say more than 50% of that price would be labour, equipment, and amortised design cost - probably less than $2 in material cost in one, and yet you get a perfectly serviceable little reel.

I don't think walmart gets quite that good of a margin, it's likely closer to 25-33%, which adds a bit to the equation, but the point is valid. But really that's the importance of owning the factory. If you're not also paying some other company to make it, there's more for you. Its less drastic of a difference above like $100 but at the low end you see it.

[JasonGotaProblem]

Thanks to the wonderful management team here I can finally post some pics that make me quite proud. Starting with this one. My kid has finally caught his own fish, start to finish. By that I mean he cast out unassisted and landed it unassisted. And did so on the rod I built for him.

He was so excited I could hardly get a pic. He was running in circles jumping up and down yelling like a rookie wide receiver who just scored their first touchdown. He's hooked.

[steelfish]

awesome, congrats.

great times and great smile

[Swami805]

Awesome!!!

[oldmanjoe]

    That big smile says it all .................

[Midway Tommy]

That's pretty cool 😎.  He'll have those memories forever.