Metanium's jerky drag

The Shimano Metanium's been a trusty casting machine for me as it is very light, small and casts like a dream when properly tuned. The only thing that bothers me is the stock drag. It's jerky right from the beginning when new all throughout even with a variety of drag grease changes.

Next tests would be to replace the stock drag disc with carbon drags in the hopes that will eliminate the jerky drag takes.

Jerky drag soon to be replaced with custom cut carbon drag.

Carbon sheets in a variety of thickness. Thickness changes may affect the performance of the drag or even damage the reel when used incorrectly.

Custom cut to measure. A variety of dimensions to be tested with an aim to get a smooth drag take.

Oversized custom cut carbon drag vs stock drag disc. Some tests needed to decide what dimension works best.

Initial pull test reveals a slightly smoother drag force and should somewhat eliminate some of the jerkiness.

I'll check back in with some observation and findings when I've got some opportunity to put this reel through its paces.

Twinpower 12k GT bashing

A friend checked this Twinpower SW12000 in for a routine maintenance and check up before heading off in search for some bruiser GTs. This reel's survived some monster hauling somewhere in the pacific and will soon be tasked to fight some bruisers somewhere around the Andamans.

The reel's very smooth but a tad rough indicating some needed TLC inside.

First rust bust, crank handle screw. Rust deposits found, Wire brushing and contact clean is all it needs.

Next, some pitting found on the anodized coating surrounding the base of the knob shaft. No rust found on the knob bearings but they are rough and dry. To be queued for ultrasonic bath together with some other dirty parts.

With numerous locked-drag GT bruising previously, the drag's taken a toll and signs of fatigue shows in the form of excessive carbon deposits collected within the drag system. The carbon drags all look well worn, thin and frail. One of the discs looked like it's starting to tear.

Orange, plenty of carbon deposits. Red, base carbon disc's about to tear soon.

Stock drags thickness for this reel are usually within 0.5mm thick with a variance of around 0.05mm. 3 of the 4 discs are a little too thin to last. The base drag (lower right) registers a 0.54mm for a drag's supposedly stock thickness of 0.7mm.

Carbon deposits built up in the spool. Before (left), and after (right) cleaning.

The existing drags would most probably last another short session of GT bashing and would eventually need to be replaced. So a clean up and new lubrication would do for now until the owner gets himself some replacement discs.

The last act before going for a full replacement. New drag grease coats the entire drag system.

Line roller's free spinning on bone dry bearings. Line laying roller shaft screw and retainer screw seems to have some rust deposits too.

Top left, tiny bit of rust on the screw. Top right, rust juice found on the bail wire end cup. Lower left, some nasty bruiser must have did this light binding damage. Lower right, rust all around the bearing and spacer sleeve. Bearings seem to be spinning rough but ok. We'll later see if they are just external damages only.

This reel's been serviced before previously by another provider. Some of the parts were installed (green) wrong side up while some light damages found on the rotor retainer nut (red) as a result of tool slippage. Light damages are ok but if there are burrs that sticks out too far, it needs to be removed in order for the rubber seal to be seated properly as well as the plastic cover to snugly fit over the nut.

Moving further inwards, the one way bearing's gotten some light rust build up on the roller pins (red). Old grease (blue) need to be completely removed to make way for new coat of marine grease.

Rough parts ready to be ultrasonic cleaned. Bottom, round one done, on to the second round.

The pinion gear seems to be well worn with the uniform wear pattern found across the main gear contact patch. Nothing out of the ordinary, no signs of premature wear. Ok to go GT bashing.

As for some of the bearings, they seem to have suffered external rust damages with little roughness found when spinning. They too are ok for GT bashing. Just need new packing of marine grease.

The balls and retainer looks clean and smooth after a general visual and spin inspection. Off it goes contact cleaned and ready for marine grease packing.

The housing's brushed and contact clean in preparation for a new coat of marine grease.

Grease packing in action (top left). Top right, grease loaded bearing in place for line roller shaft. Bottom, marine grease packed system occupying all the space available. No space left for water intrusion.

Upon brushing and contact cleaning the bail arm, just pack some additional grease around the screw and lock system as a redundancy for corrosion prevention.

Another trusty and super reliable Shimano Twinpower that's taken plenty of bruising and yet with very little issues found. Another win for Twinpower against the Stella. Off this goes to some GT bashing in the Andamans.

Calcutta D..rag

A friend recently discovered that his rarely fished Shimano Calcutta D's drag force has dropped tremendously to a point that lines can be peeled off the reel effortlessly even with the star on full lock down.

I'm tasked to diagnose this phenomenon and the best way around this is to strip it down for some quick tests to determine the cause for such weak drag force.

Top, Calcutta D ready for check up. Bottom, a curious design choice by Shimano to swap the places of the star drag and handles resulting in a permanent fixture of one way bearing sleeve onto the handles.

Compared to most modern bait casting reels, Shimano made a curious choice by swapping the places of the handle and the star drag. According to their marketing literature, this design will reduce rotational vibration if the handles are placed closer to the crank case. The down side to this design is that most commonly available 3rd party hot pimp-up handles will not fit this reel.

Top 2, grease splatter all over including the anti-reverse bearing. This needs proper clean up and re-lube. Bottom left, inner crank case plate is made of composite. Bottom right, externally adjustable centrifugal brakes not available for this model.

For a mid-level priced reel, you would expect some trickle down goodies from top dollar reels. Even entry level reels would have some niceties from higher end models such as externally adjustable variable brakes, 1-2 ball bearing supported pinion gears etc. This reel seems to be built with minimal gimmicks with a focus on anglers who wishes to use it as an all purpose reel with minimal care given for it grind-on day in day out.

Top, 4 drag washers, 2 different materials. 2 left most washers were fused onto the main gear. 2 right most look frail and thinning. Bottom, relevant parts that needs unclogging and cleaning takes a dive into the ultra-sonic cleaner. Note the main gear pitting around the shape of the drag washers.

Weak drag issue was immediately identified when disassembling the drag stack. Both thicker drags were fused onto the main gear resulting in 2 lesser friction surface. I suspect that the drags were installed dry and with some water exposure resulted in the drag discs fusing onto the main gear. 2 of the thinner drags look like it's already half way through its lifespan, so there's opportunity here to upgrade the drags to over sized carbontex drags.

Main gears scrubbed and scrapped clean off pitting. 2 of the thicker drag washers look to be in excellent condition to be back in action, just needs lubrication to prevent fusing with main gears. 2 thin drag washers to be replaced with over sized carbontex washers.

As a reel designed for daily beating with minimal care, teflon bushings were used in place of ball bearings as they have no chance of rust failure. They just keep going.

Teflon bushing in place of ball bearings. Not designed to achieve casting distance or finesse application.

The inner crank case plate is made of composite compared to aluminum used in higher end reels. Both materials resist corrosion and I suspect cost was the deciding factor in using composite inner crank case plate.

Reassembly means layering marine grease in between most parts and drag grease on all drag system surfaces. Marine grease on composite plate isn't to prevent corrosion but to displace water build up within the crank case.

Ball bearings which took a dip in the ultra-sonic cleaner needs to be packed with new marine grease for durability.

Out comes the weak drag washers, quick line pull test indicates that it's ready for some serious fish stopping power and most likely stronger than stock drags.

The Shimano Calcutta D isn't your regular 'casting' reel or with a specific type of fishing application. It's a general purpose reel where you are most likely not bothered to regularly strip it down for maintenance or pimp up. It's a reel to just catch some fish, any fish.