redmeansdistortion

New toys, Ambassadeur frame jigs. With Svangsta being closed, OEM frames will be in short supply in the coming years. Now I can re-align and re-crimp the frame pillars. An out of square frame is the biggest performance robber of the Ambassadeur. [ [

Ultragreen here too, been using it for as long as I can remember.

Contact Dawn at Smooth Drag. You may need to measure what's already in there since she usually makes them for Abu, Daiwa, Penn, and Shimano, but she will most definitely have what you need. Give them a very light coat of grease and you are good to go. Being that Lew's reels are made by Doyo like Abu low profiles, chances are she already has what you need, just provide the measurements.

YGK x8 Upgrade in 0.8-1.5 diameters.

Former repo man here. Repossessed vehicles can be a double-edged sword. If you are interested in buying one, contact the credit unions in your area and ask if they have any repossessed vehicles for sale. Most of them will try to sell them to their membership or the public before they send them to an auction. Auctions are usually where the neglected vehicles find themselves since they are a harder sell to the general public, and the financial institution needs to recover something. Repossessed vehicles in possession of the lender are priced at the residual balance. The institution by law can't profit from the sale of the vehicle, they can only recover the balance of the loan and fulfill the contract. There is still room to negotiate as the debtor is still on the hook for any unpaid balance, repo fee, and storage fees.

The domestic market really doesn't have much to offer compared to Japan. I think it's just our fishing culture in general. Here your average fisherman is completely fine with big box store combos or Ugly Stiks and blister pack reels. In Japan, the focus is on quality. Look at the offerings of Japan versus the USA, here we have a multitude of budget models with a few middle of the pack and higher end offerings. In Japan, it's the complete opposite. Many middle and higher end models and just a handful of budget models. We used to have a fishing culture similar to Japan, but most of the companies here were eventually bought by venture capitalists who decided to sell brand recognition instead of quality gear. We started on this path in the 1980s and it gradually turned into what it is now. Take Shakespeare for instance. The Sigma 2200CK lineup was every bit as good as anything else in its day, made by Omori in Japan. After they were bought and started moving operations elsewhere, quality plummeted and they've forever cemented their reputation as a throwaway budget brand. Then there's Heddon, Pflueger, etc, etc.

Honestly, the issue here is under pricing services. Most places are charging $20-$25, which seems to be a uniquely American thing. When I looked around at shops in places like Japan, UK, Australia, and Singapore, most of those places charge in the range of what amounts to $50-$100 USD. I adjusted my pricing to reflect that a few years back, and I see no shortage of business. As a matter of fact, I've seen an increase. Having solid branding and carving out a niche in the market is the way to do it. I only do vintage, antique, and higher end reels for what it's worth. I leave the $25 oil changes up to the others. I've also done a lot, and I mean a lot of corrective work first done by the oil change pits. I actually just finished some up recently that were done by a guy that was sponsored by Dobyns before he sold his operation.

Exactly as I stated, nothing to do with internal tolerances, purely dimensional. ABEC guide Remember, stainless bearings are dirt cheap in the grand scheme of things. Ceramic hybrids and full ceramics are not, assuming you're getting them from a reputed manufacturer like GRW of Germany or SKF of Sweden and not a fly-by-night brand. Wholesale on hybrids is in the neighborhood of $20-$25 each buying in quantities over 100, retail is at least double. The big takeaway with truly good ceramic hybrids, they're just as noisy as good stainless. This is because they follow the ISO clearance classes

This is the thing that gets me about US-based bearing resellers, especially those who target the fisherman. The ABEC scale only deals in dimensional tolerances. ABEC doesn't account for Rockwell hardness, ball quality, raceway finish, or internal tolerances. The bearing resellers use ABEC as a marketing point, which comes across as intentionally misleading customers in order to generate sales. I think the biggest flaw with bearings in general; nobody has tested them in a controlled environment. Once all potential for human error is removed from the equation, hard data can be obtained and analyzed. Nobody casts exactly the same, plus there is wind to contend with which is also variable. On top of that, the bearing peddlers sell clean bearings, while the actual big players sell them greased. This is where the end user sees an "upgrade". The NMB bearings that come in Daiwa, Shimano, Isuzu, Lew's, and Abu models are some of the best out there, they just need to be degreased. If Isuzu didn't think they were high quality, they wouldn't put them in $1000 reels.

Graphite powder will chunk up if it comes into contact with moisture. What you want to use is a thin film lubricant that fills in the microscopic pores in the metal. TSI 321 is the best currently available for this. This is what you will want to use in your bearings and level wind. Excess can be removed with compressed air. It's important to remove the excess for maximum performance potential. Since yours are catfish reels, I would start with a good cleaning before anything. My guess is that you are throwing heavier bait and fishing on the bottom, so in that regard there isn't going to be much incentive to upgrade parts. A deep cleaning, lube, and some brake tweaking on your part will open it up considerably.

Just waiting on the handle. The NS Craft was cancelled on me as they no longer manufacture the one I wanted, the 45Air. I found a small shop in Japan on Instagram that makes a lot of Cardinal parts, so I ordered a handle from them. They are built to order so I probably won't have it for another month or so. Here is the handle I have coming, but with gold hardware in 45mm. Here is where we are now. Avail CDC33R spool Avail champagne gold bail screws and drag screw IOS Factory line roller. This one has a pair of delrin bushings that make it turn much better than OEM, which had a single hard rubber bushing. It's going on a Major Craft Finetail Glass 63L+ 2-14g 2-8lb. Target species will be larger migratory trout and river smallmouth. I'm going to spool up 100m of YGK 1.0 and run with a 6-8lb leader, or 10lb if warranted by the amount of fallen trees and rocks in the river. The guides are larger on this rod so I can exceed the rating of the rod a little if I have to. This rod has a lot of backbone, with the blank measuring 12.4mm at the butt and 2mm at the tip. Many ML and M bass rods have similar dimensions in those areas, but are mostly para taper and not progressive taper.

It seems to me that your drag is working correctly. As was said above, drag tension is produced when the nut causes the crescent washers to bind. Drag tension is not linear with crescent washers because there is no way to account for the increase in tension as the washers begin to flatten out. By using a helical spring, a drag stack can be designed to provide a more linear pressure across its operating range, expressed in lb/in or kg/mm at various states of compression. Lastly, have you measured the drag tension with a scale? Going by feel is woefully inaccurate and isn't going to be telling of actual drag pressure. Remember, the purpose of drag is to slip in order to tire fish out, not stop it in its tracks.

Find an old Daiwa 1000C or 1300C. You can find them for $20-$30 easily, they're indestructible. While they're old, they're all metal and made in Japan, super easy to service, and really stand out for what they are. At that price point, there are a lot of trade-offs to be had. You can get something that's smooth and questionable, or something that's a little rough around the edges and will do what you want.

My latest pickup, Avail parts incoming and a NS Craft handle. Couldn't say no for what I paid for it.

Carolina rig with a 1/16 tungsten weight, 12-24" of 2-4lb Maxima leader, 1" Powerbait minnow on a #8 mosquito hook. It will hook whatever may be present. Fun and versatile little rig. The same bait also works great on a 1-1.5g cheb weight.