Shimano Reel Cleaning Seminar

[NCLaker]

I stopped in on Saturday at Thorne Bros Spring sale to checkout the Shimano Reel cleaning workshop. They had you clean your own real while the Shimano guys gave instruction & supervised. Great stuff! I didn't bring my reels, but watched a number of them being done, and now have more confidence to try doing my own. Not terribly difficult, but seeing how it is suppose to be done, and getting Q/A from the experts makes all the difference.

I was amazed how brutal the condition of some of the reels were in. After a good cleaning the owners had them working like new. Bearings rusted so bad they had to pound it out with a screw driver & hammer (many reels were at the reciving end of some serious pounding by the shimano guys to get them apart).

Some key notes that I took away for those trying to give it a try:

- They Did all their work on top of a shop paper towel

- Use normal rubbing alcohol to clean all the parts

- Soft fine bristle toothe brush to clean/scrub the pieces, Dip in cup of alcohol, scrub, rub brush on clean area of the shop rag to get dirt of brush, and repeat

- Wipe tight areas clean with a Qtip (after cleaning with alcohol)

- When cleaning the Dartanium (sp?) drag disks, they are very fragile, cleaning you just lay flat on the shop towel and drag it with your finger on towel to rub clean - repeat on other side

- When greasing gears (used a small brush), only need a small amount - recommended only doing half the gears - rest will get the grease when you crank the reel. Also grease the spool release guide inside the reel. Dab of greese on the holes for the screws.

- Spots that get oil (1-2 drops) on spindles for gears, spool bearings, crank handles, level wind worm gear (1 drop on each end). Note, they recommend hiting these spots roughly 1/month.

- For putting small screws in tight places - dab some grease on the tip of your screw driver, and put screw on the end of it. It stays in place for placing the screw in the hole (HOT TIP!). Some of those spots are so tight, I don't know how else you would get it in.

- on Curado 300DSV's they have a small piece that goes over a big toothed gear (not sure of the names), but critical tip was to pinch the two flaps of metal together on this small piece before placing on the big gear. If it is left open it will not work correctly.

- Recommend doing full cleaning at least 1/year

That is all I can remember ... These tips were based on watching them doing work on Calcutta's 400/400B & Curado 300DSV. Unfortunately did not see them work on a TE or Spinning reels.

According to the Shimano guy (Glen) - Larry Dahlberg arranged to have them at this even. Big thanks to Larry, Shimano, and TB's for putting on this great seminar.

Almost forgot ... funniest moment was watching this young women do the whole process on a Calcutta 700. After she was done it was working like new. Trying not be be chauvenistic, I assumed it was hers. Then was shocked to see her hand it to the actual owner - her boyfriend. Now I've heard many male anglers envious of girl friends/wives that like to Musky hunt with them, but ones that are willing to maintain their gear for them raises the bar to a new level

[Quackaddict9]

Quote:

According to the Shimano guy (Glen) - Larry Dahlberg arranged to have them at this even. Big thanks to Larry, Shimano, and TB's for putting on this great seminar.

I believe that is the same guy that helped out me and Ole Matty on his shimano 400 reel. I never got his name but maybe it was Glen, he was a nice dude helping us out on the reel and replacing the rust parts that were no good. He said that Larry had taken him and one other on the river fishing for white bass and had a great time. He was glad to be there yesterday. It was great to have the shimano guys there helping out cleaning reels.

[NCLaker]

Quack, I think that was you and Matty that I saw at the Shimano table - He was pounding on your reel pretty good. After the cleaning, I would guess it performs a lot better

I'll be taking what I learned from the seminar to service my Stradic spinning reels ... kinda scary since I didn't see it demo'd, I'll be going off his verbal description of the proceedure. He did say if I have any problems that I can call them and they will talk you through it. It's great knowing they are willing to provide this type of assistance

[Quackaddict9]

Quack, I think that was you and Matty that I saw at the Shimano table - He was pounding on your reel pretty good. After the cleaning, I would guess it performs a lot better

Glad it was not my reel! but it makes me wonder about mine