How To Super Tune A Baitcaster....

[Aussie]

SUPER TUNING
Baitcasting reels
by Jeff Nielsen​

What Is "Super Tuning"? How does it improve your Baitcasting reel? Are the results of "Super Tuning" measurable or just a bunch of hype? Can I do it myself? Can I send my reel to you and get it done? These are some of the questions we will address in explaining this subject to you.

I guess a little history is in order so lets start there! I am an associate Engineer by trade and a reel repair Technician working for North Alabama Outdoors as a hobby. I am a life long fisherman, whom like many I suppose grew up using spin casting and spinning gear! I always hated Baitcasters as every time I attempted to throw one it would "Backlash" on me! I wasn't particularly thrilled with Spinning reels either, seems they would always mess up during the most inopportune time with the way they twist the line and produce their own "backlashes". They also seemed uncontrollable, as there was no true mechanical interaction preformed by a spinning reel during outcasting! One day my Dad showed me a couple key actions that one must perform in order to keep a baitcaster from backlashing when you cast it. Much to my surprise I was able to quickly master these fundamental techniques and after that I was "hooked" on baitcasters! They are amazing little machines that are far superior to spinning and spincasting reels! They do however have their limitations, especially when throwing light lures and when one has a need for a high speed line takeup. These limitations, coupled with my growing hatred of spinning reels, is what has prompted me to explore the possibilities of improvement in these little machines known as baitcasting reels.
I purchased four Shimano Curados in the mid 1990's because they were about the only high quality baitcasting reel available in left hand retrieve at that time. I am a bit of a perfectionist (which gets me a lot of eye rolling and ridicule from my fishing friends sometimes) so I began to clean and service these reels myself. I became very familiar with how the internals of these baitcasting reels worked and I noticed that whenever one of my Curados would begin to cast a little "poorly", even after a thorough cleaning and service, that adding a drop of lubricant to the spool shaft around the pinion gear would restore the castability of the reel. This experience is what started me down the road that lead to a process I now call "Super Tuning". Much time as been invested by way of experimentation and comparison to obtain the results you will read about here. In a nutshell, Super Tuning Is a process whereby you do fine sanding and polishing on the vital friction points of a baitcasting reel. This causes the reel to perform to its fullest potential by reducing the resistance it has to work under during typical outcasting. The advantages to this process are many. Here is a quick list of some of the major advantages to"Super tuning"
1) A Super Tuned baitcaster will far out distance a normal "off the shelf" baitcaster in any casting contest or real life fishing situation. A must have advantage if you fish from the back of the boat!
2) A Super Tuned baitcaster is much more controllable than a normal baitcaster as the angler can cast a lure the same distance as a normal baitcaster with much less speed input to the rod, reducing angler fatigue and giving the angler more time to thumb the spool and place the lure right were it needs to be.
3) A Super Tuned baitcaster will give consistant and linear tension adjustment throughout the entire cast control range thus eliminating the "not enough tension" to "too much tension" dilemma inherit in many baitcasting reels.
4) A Super Tuned baitcaster will increase the braking effect of reels centrifugal braking system and cause it to perform in a much more linear, consistent fashion which actually increases long distance casting.
5) A Super Tuned baitcaster will throw much lighter lures than a normal baitcaster as its moment of inertia has been lessened due to reduced friction on the spool shaft. This can possibly eliminate the "need" of using a spinning reel in certain situations thus bringing the baitcasting reels huge advantage of a control and power (torque) into play.
These advantages make this a process worth doing to your reels. Over the last few years I have performed this "SUPER TUNING" process on many of our customers reels and for many Ebayers. I have never received a complaint! In fact all I ever get after "SUPER TUNING" a reel for somebody is more "SUPER TUNE" business from them! Let me give you the results of some testing I have done in order to convince you of the practical reality that "SUPER TUNING" can give to your reels.

SUPER TUNING
Baitcasting reels
by Jeff Nielsen​

By the fall of 2000 I had collected quite a unique inventory of left hand retrieve Shimano Baitcasters, two of which were only available from Japan. The Shimano Scorpion 1001 (which is the Japanese version of the Curado 101) and the other, a Shimano Scorpion Metanium Mg left ( which is the Japanese version of the Chronarch Mg sold in this country). Both of these reels feature a Titanium coated wiffle spool and Shimano's new "SUPER FREE SYSTEM" of spool alignment as well as higher quality bearings than what are found in their American Shimano counterparts. These are fairly pricey reels but I purchased them because I had grown to appreciate quality Baitcasting reels and I wanted to upgrade my fishing gear and get away from my "old" Curado's and these reels were supposedly the best available in the world! By this time I had pretty well perfected my "SUPER TUNING" Process so I was tearing down every new reel I purchased and "SUPER TUNING" them right out of the box! After I completed the "SUPER TUNING" process on the Scorpions I decided to conduct a little casting contest using the following reels: a Shimano SG201, Calcutta 151, Curado 201, Scorpion 1001 and the above mentioned Metanium Mg. All these reels were "SUPER TUNED" prior to contest.

I had already picked the winner in my mind, surely the expensive Metanium would win hands down and I could finally justify getting rid of all those tired old Curado's I had! But things didn't go as I thought they would! Bottom line was the old "SUPER TUNED" Curado blew the competition away, and I mean easily! I was shocked! The expensive Metanium though it cast like a dream in short to mid range distances came in fourth place behind the Calcutta 151, Sg 201 and Curado in distance casting! Theories are great till they are put to the test! Facts can be hard to take! I spent all that money on these new reels and they can't outdistance a common Curado! My mind began to search for an answer. What I found out was that the "SUPER TUNING" process had "leveled the playing field" as it were, i.e. every reel had about the same amount of friction to deal with, and that being the case then the law of physics took over! You see a Curado has more line capacity than all the other reels that it cast against, and more line capacity means more weight. A Curado spool filled with line will weight approximately 34.85 grams, whereas a Metanium Mg spool weights 21.25 grams when full, a scorpion 1001 spool full of line will weight 19.35 grams, a Calcutta 151 weights 30.95 grams. The more it weights, the harder it is to stop. i.e. the laws of mass and inertia with of course the friction factor thrown in, but if friction is equal which reel will throw the furthest? That friction factor is what has been eliminated by "SUPER TUNING".
At the time I performed the above mentioned contest didn't have any concrete distances to give anybody about the effects that "SUPER TUNING" has on a reel so I took a brand new Shimano Curado off the shelf and put it on a Loomis MBR 783C GL3 ( a 6'6" fairly stiff tipped rod for ¼ to ¾ oz. lures) and spooled it with 12 LB Trilene XL then put a 1/4 oz casting plug on it and took it in the lot to test it. Please note that I used the GL3 because its stiff tip is not going to "launch" the casting plug the way a softer tip rod would. I wanted the rod to have minimal impact on the results and a GL3 loaded at its minimum rating wont give the reel a lot of help in casting.
I cast each combination you will read about here over 30 times and then we averaged the distances and recorded the longest cast at each stage. New out of the box the Curado cast an average of 124 ft. With a long cast of 130 ft. Then I tore the reel down and thoroughly cleaned it, flushed the bearings and re-lubed them. (if you haven't noticed Shimano puts a LOT of grease in their reels this is for preservation purposes but it can hinder casting when it gets in the wrong place). After the cleaning we tested the Curado again, the average cast distance went to 135 feet with a long cast of 138 feet, that is an 11 foot difference just from cleaning a brand new reel!! Then I went and "SUPER TUNED" the Curado! The average distance went to 148 feet!! With a long cast of 153 feet! Wow! That's 50 yards + with a 1/4 oz weight! Super Tuning works!
I will give you the results of one more contest I performed on what are now my absolute favorite reels in the world, the Shimano Calcutta 200/250 series baitcasting reels! These are the only reels I know of that will out distance a Curado when "SUPER TUNED". I used a Calcutta 251 for this test spooling it with 12lb Pline Xtra strong and put it on a G.Loomis GL2 MBR783C rod (6'6" even stiffer tipped than a GL3) with the same ¼ oz casting plug. These Calcutta 200 series reels are amazing! Prior to the "SUPER TUNE" new out of the box the Calcutta 251's average cast distance was 128 feet with a long cast of 137 feet. After the "SUPER TUNE" my average cast distance went to 154 feet with a long cast of 163 feet! WOW again! These long casts are due to the inertia factor again as the Calcutta 200 series spools weight 39.05 grams full of line, the heaviest so far of all of the reels I have tested. SEE NOTE in conclusion about ABU GARCIA reels and their spool mass.
I wanted to see how one of these Calcutta's would throw on a rod that did give the reel a little help so I "SUPER TUNED" a Calcutta 250 and put it on a Loomis IM6 722c (6') rod with a ¼ oz casting plug and 12LB Stren. With this moderate action rod I had a long cast that pulled 168 feet of line off the spool. Can you say unbelievable! I almost didn't put that in this write up as I figured many would think I am lying, but its true."SUPER TUNING" works by greatly reducing unwanted friction letting a reel cast to its fullest potential! Let me give you an interesting chart to look at with the data I have collected concerning spool weights, it will help explain some of the long casts we are talking about here!



<CENTER>SPOOL WEIGHTS</CENTER>



<CENTER><TABLE border=1 cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=7 width=748><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width="13%">REEL


</TD><TD vAlign=top width="13%">SCORPION 1001


</TD><TD vAlign=top width="15%">METANIUM Mg left


</TD><TD vAlign=top width="12%">CALCUTTA 151


</TD><TD vAlign=top width="12%">CITICA 201


</TD><TD vAlign=top width="12%">CURADO 201


</TD><TD vAlign=top width="13%">Chronarch 100A


</TD><TD vAlign=top width="12%">CALCUTTA 251


</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width="13%">BARE SPOOL WEIGHT /grams


</TD><TD vAlign=top width="13%">13.61 gr.



</TD><TD vAlign=top width="15%">12.70 gr.


</TD><TD vAlign=top width="12%">19.4 gr.



</TD><TD vAlign=top width="12%">20.35 gr.



</TD><TD vAlign=top width="12%">21.4 gr.



</TD><TD vAlign=top width="13%">20.95 gr.


</TD><TD vAlign=top width="12%">23.86 gr.



</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width="13%">WEIGHT

WITH LINE​

</TD><TD vAlign=top width="13%">19.32 gr.


</TD><TD vAlign=top width="15%">21.25 gr.


</TD><TD vAlign=top width="12%">30.97 gr.


</TD><TD vAlign=top width="12%">33.95 gr.



</TD><TD vAlign=top width="12%">34.84 gr.


</TD><TD vAlign=top width="13%">33.67 gr.


</TD><TD vAlign=top width="12%">39.02 gr.


</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></CENTER>

SUPER TUNING
Part 1
"the shims"
by Jeff Nielsen​

WHAT IS SUPER TUNING? It's a process whereby you do fine sanding and polishing on some of the vital friction points on a baitcasting reel, that the factory doesn't have time to do, and the results are impressive. Primarily the spool shaft and ends, pinion gear, tension control, and backlash control areas are the locations of interest. Reel manufactures have known about these friction points for years but only recently with Shimano's SUPER FREE SYSTEM and Daiwa's SUPER SPEED SHAFT have some of these friction points begun to be reduced in factory reels. In case you don't believe me let me give you a quote from Shimano.

The Shimano "SUPER FREE SYSTEM (SF) SF was designed to eliminate friction on the spool shaft during the cast. In standard baitcasting reels, when the clutch bar is pressed down, the pinion gear is freed and actually can drag on the spool shaft creating friction that can limit the length of a cast. With SF the pinion gear is supported by a ball bearing so that when the clutch is disengaged in preparation for a cast, the pinion gear and spool shaft are kept in perfect alignment. The result is zero friction upon the spool shaft".

And now I'll give you one from Daiwa., Daiwa's "SUPER SPEED SHAFT" design completely disengages the spool from the gear train during outcast. So there's no friction between the pinion gear and spool shaft as with other reels. The result is X-Treme casting ease with even the lightest of lures."
The Big Reel Manufactures know there is friction on the spool shaft during a cast, they freely admit it in these quotes so what can we do about it? Sell all our old reels and buy new ones is one plan, that's the one I tried till I found out these old style reels can throw further and often better than the new ones! So that's the purpose of the following information. I will teach you how to "SUPER TUNE" your old reels. If this process is done correctly these old reels will far outcast the newer designs because of little things called mass and inertia! The new reels might be able to throw ultra small baits better because of their decreased spool mass and moment of inertia. But they absolutely will not out cast these older style reels where distance is concerned using normal size lures.
I will be using the components of a Shimano Curado to illustrate the things we will be talking about. Though I specialize in performing this technique on Shimano reels I have had great success doing Daiwa and Abu Garcia reels this way as well. I just have to modify what is done according to the reel manufacturers design. We will start with the easy stuff then move on to the more difficult areas. So lets go to the tension control knob and what's inside it, namely the brass shims. These little pieces of metal contact the end of the spool shaft and place tension at this point to limit how freely the spool will turn and also prevent over runs at the end of a cast. Did you ever take good look at these shims or the ends of your spool shaft? Sometimes you can see deep scares cut in the shims where there is a rough place on the end of a shaft. You may look and see heavy oxidation on the shims also. When the spool is turning against these metal shims during an outcast these rough areas can cut and grind into the shim causing a "track" marks on them! This reduces their effectiveness and can cause them offer very non-linear control on the spool. What I mean is that they can seem to have "not enough" tension on the spool at one point then with the slightest of turning of the tension knob, they will have gone from that to "too much" tension not permitting the spool to turn as it should. We must eliminate this areas inconsistent friction by sanding and polishing it!
The tools you will need to do this are a Dremel or other rotary tool, some 600 and 1500 grit wet/dry sandpaper and a toothpick or other such small round piece of wood. You will see this in use in the pinion gear pictures. You will also need some scissors some alcohol and q-tips or other cotton swabs and of course paper towels! What you do first is use an exacto blade to cut a centered slit in the end of the toothpick about ¼ inch long, effectively splitting it in two. You will then cut a piece of sandpaper with scissors about ¼ in wide and 2-3 inches long and insert it in the slit you made in the toothpick! Place the toothpick in the Dremel tool and wrap the sandpaper around the stick in the direction that will allow its abrasive surface to be exposed as the rotary tool is turning. Clean the shims with the alcohol and dry them then stick them to the backside of a post-it-note type pad. Place the shims on the sticky note pad glue that hold all those little sheets of paper together. This will hold the shim in place while you sand and polish it! Turn on the rotary tool and lightly rub the sandpaper across the shims surface (don't press too hard or you will break the toothpick!), you will see the shim immediately respond to this sanding! Change to the 1500 grit paper and repeat sanding till the shims surface looks even. Remove shims from the post-it-pad and clean them with the alcohol and Q-tips. Expose a new sheet on the post-it-pad and place the side of the shim you just sanded down on its sticky surface. Now repeat the sanding process on the other side of the shim. Once you have completed sanding the shim remove the it from the pad, expose a new sheet of paper, clean the shim and place it back on the post-it-pad. Then you cut a Q-tip in half and place it in the Dremel tool. It is nice to have some cotton swabs with wooden shafts for this if possible! Now comes the finishing touch! Rub a small amount of polish, (Simichrome polish is by far the best and that is what I recommend but Brasso will work), into the cotton swab then turn on the rotary tool work the polish across the shim till it gleams! Now we have a shim that is smooth as glass and will offer consistent progressive friction throughout its adjustment range!

SUPER TUNING
Part 2
"the pinion gear"
by Jeff Nielsen​

Next we will look at "SUPER TUNING" the Pinion gear. You may have never thought about it, but during an outcast the pinion gear acts like an unsupported brass bushing as far as the spool shaft is concerned. It gets pulled away from its engagement point with the spool by the pinion yoke when you depress the release button to begin casting! It is at this time that the pinion gear is free to ride upon the spool shaft and act as a bushing would making surface to surface contact with the shaft. I quoted earlier from Shimano and Daiwa concerning this action and the friction it places on the spool shaft. We need to smooth this area up and reduce the potential friction it can have in order to maximize casting distances. This is how its done.

Using the afore-mentioned rotary tool and toothpick place a cut to length piece of 600 grit sandpaper in the slit of the toothpick. SEE PICTURE FOR LENGTH. This length might vary slightly depending on the diameter of the toothpick and inside diameter of the pinion gear. You will want the sandpaper to fit snuggly into the pinion gear, don't make it so tight that you have to force it into the pinion. Adjust the length of your sandpaper by cutting it to achieve this type fit. I cut the corners of the sandpaper to make it go into the pinion easier and to prevent these sharp corners of the sandpaper from scarring the inside of the gear. Before you start sanding get a folded up piece of paper towel to place between your fingers and the pinion gear while you are holding it. It will get hot during the sanding process and could become uncomfortable to handle if you dont do this! A WORD TO THE WISE! DO NOT HOLD THE PINION GEAR WITH ANY TOOL!!! If you do and the pinion gear slips and rotates in the jaws of said tool while sanding it you will damage the soft brass edges of the gear. The result of this will become evident when you put the reel back together and it is annoyingly noisy when you are reeling in! Then you will have to spend $8-14 dollars to get a new pinion gear and try this again!
Wrap the piece of sandpaper tightly around the toothpick and work it into the pinion gear by hand. Once inside you can now turn on the rotary tool and work it back and forth to sand the inside of the gear. Remember you are not trying to bore the pinion out! I have never measured it but I would say we are only trying to open the pinion up by about a ½ thousandth, not much at all so we can then polish it and reduce its friction! So you only need to ruff it up a bit with the 600 grit paper, then remove the 600 grit sandpaper from the stick, place a cut to length piece of 1500 grit sandpaper in the sanding stick and work it into the pinion gear as before. Sand with the 1500 grit paper removing it from the pinion gear periodically so you can inspect and evaluate how the inside of the gear is looking ( if the sandpaper gets loaded up with brass place another fresh piece of 1500 grit in the sanding stick or you can flip the piece you are using around in the slit of the stick to expose the unused grit of the sandpaper and keep using it). Once you have a smooth, even looking finish inside the gear, clean it with a cotton swab and alcohol to prepare for the polishing stage. Next place a bare toothpick in the rotary tool. Pull some cotton off a couple swabs to wind around the toothpick as the rotary tool spins. (If you have cotton balls available use them for this instead). The toothpick will wrap the cotton up easily on the stick while the rotary tool is spinning, then just smooth the wrapped up cotton out along the stick with your thumbnail till it fits snugly into the pinion gear. Next place the Simichrome polish on the cotton and insert it inside the pinion gear to polish it. Repeat this step as often as necessary till the inside of the pinion gear looks like a mirror. Hold it up to a light source, much like you would the barrel of gun, to see this mirror finish! When it gleams evenly inside you are done.

SUPER TUNING
Part 3
"the friction ring"
by Jeff Nielsen​

Now we will move on to the brake plate or friction ring as I like to call it! This ring of metal is what keeps those awful backlashes from occurring during a cast. It provides a place for the centrifugal brakes to rub against thereby slowing the spool down and keeping it from over running while outcasting! This is the area of a reel that produced results which surprised me the most after "SUPER TUNING" it! Theory suggested that once I sanded and polished this area that the brakes would now be rubbing against a nearly friction free surface necessitating the use of more brakes during a cast to control the spool. That made sense to me! Once again I was shocked by the results. After "SUPER TUNING" the individual brakes will now provide MORE control on the spool than before. I have verified this on every reel I have "SUPER TUNED" without exception! In retrospect, I think I have two reasons that explain this. "SUPER TUNING" the friction ring makes the surface of that ring flat and even. This then provides the brakes with an area that they can make near 100% surface contact with as they rub along its surface! Thus providing more consistent and even resistance which actually allows for the use of fewer brakes during casting. This correlates directly into longer casts! My other theory about this is that if a friction ring is scratched, dirty, oily, has wear tracks or is oxidized in some way, that the brakes will bounce up and down on their posts as the spool spins effectively turning them on and off throughout the cast. This obviously would cause them to have inconsistent braking and be ineffective in controlling the spool. Now lets talk about how to "SUPER TUNE" a friction ring.
By now you are already familiar with the steps, 1) 600 grit sandpaper 2) 1500 grit sandpaper 3) Simichrome polish on a cotton tipped stick for final polishing. So that is what will be done again, but I had to modify my sanding stick a bit to accomplish this on the friction ring. Hopefully you can see it in the pictures. I used the same old round piece of wood with a ¼ inch slit in it, but I placed a nut with a inside diameter about the outside diameter of my toothpick right below the slit. Then I used Super glue to attach a nylon washer to the top of the nut (end of nut toward slit). The washer needs to be larger than the diameter of the nut to prevent the nut from contacting anything and scratching it while in use! Then I reinforced the stick with some heat shrink tubing and secured the nut to the stick with heat shrink as well. What this homemade tool does is keep the sandpaper from sliding down the toothpick and removing itself from the work area during operation of the rotary tool. Cut your sandpaper and place its end into the slit, then wind it around the stick making sure to keep the sandpapers wound diameter less than that of the nylon washer. Now begin sanding with the rotary tool by rotating it around the friction rings surface. NOTE: this method works best for brass friction rings, if you are doing a reel with a chrome hardened friction ring you may want to skip using the 600 grit sandpaper and just use the 1500 grit followed by the polish. Make sure to remove any nicks, oxidation,track marks, etc. from the friction rings surface with the 600 grit paper then move on to the 1500 grit. As the end of the sandpaper gets loaded up with brass from the friction ring, stop the rotary tool and cut off the used up sandpaper. Then go back to sanding, this way you won't have to keep winding new sandpaper on the stick every time it loads up. You may have to clean the friction ring with alcohol a few times during the sanding process. Definitely do so prior to the polishing stage as we don't want any fine metal dust getting on the polishing stick and scratching the friction ring at that point. Don't stop polishing it till the ring has a mirror like finish. Remember to keep your friction rings clean and free from dirt, oil, etc while casting. This will provide you with excellent, consistent braking and predictable long casts!

SUPER TUNING
Part 4
"the spool"
by Jeff Nielsen​

Now we go to final part of the tuning process, the spool itself. Here we want to concentrate our efforts of the spool shaft ends and on the area along the shaft where the pinion gears rides during casting. This is the area of the reel that tipped me off to the benefits "SUPER TUNING" could have on a reel. I stated earlier that sometimes my Curados would not be casting well, even after I cleaned them, but adding a drop of lubricant to the spool shaft would restore its casting performance instantly! This is because I created a liquid barrier between the pinion gear and spool shaft with the oil. Through "SUPER TUNING" we want to reduce the friction encountered by the spool shaft when it contacts the pinion gear during a cast! The pictures I have taken of the spools for this section do not really reflect well what you will see with your eyes when you do this yourself. I could not take any decent pictures of the spool shafts ends that showed the effect the sanding and polishing produced on them. I guess it is because of the digitizing of the pictures that it doesn't show well. But when you are done with the spool, the shaft ends will be like little convex mirrors showing their smoothness. And the shaft area that contacts the pinion gear will be shinny and smooth as well
This is the only part of the process that you may have difficulty doing at home. I tried using a drill to do this with at first but the chuck jaws of the drill cut into the soft metal of the spool shafts effectivly ruining them! OUCH! There goes $25-35 for a new spool! I have done this by hand with my Dremel tool at home by placing some tape around the shaft end that I was going to insert in the Dremel and softly locking the Dremel collar down on the shaft. Then I had to one hand sand and polish the spool as the Dremel turned it at blinding speeds, (not fun) it turned out great but it was tricky! Then I discovered mini-drill presses, like the kind jewelers and watchmakers use. These work great for sanding and polishing the spool if you have one. Obviously the best choice is a lathe which we have in the shop fortunately! Whatever tool you have at hand use common sense and caution. Spools are expensive and can be damaged easily as they are made of soft metals. Make sure you use tape to wrap up the end of the shaft or the rim of the spool that you plan to insert into the jaws of the tool you are using. Tighten down on them just enough to get a good grip as over tightening will cause damage to the spool!
There are a few things to avoid while sanding and polishing the spool shaft. DO NOT SAND AND POLISH THE AREAS ON THE SHAFTS (COLLARS or SHOULDERS) THAT THE BALL BEARING INNER RACES USE TO CONTACT THE SHAFT. Doing this may permit the spool shaft to spin inside the ball bearing race without driving it making the bearings pretty much useless except for alignment of the spool. Sand and polish the shaft ends and the area where the pinion gear rides only! Do not use any tool to do this (read no files!) just your fingers and the sandpaper or cotton swab. We don't want to re-shape the shaft or cut into it. Your fingers will allow the sandpaper to run over the shaft ends without flattening them out. We want the ends to have the same convex shape they were manufactured with when we are done "SUPER TUNING" them. Start with the 600 grit sandpaper then progress to the 1500 grit paper and finally on to the Simichrome polish. You can use either a paper towel or cotton swab to apply the polish to the spool shaft. USE CAUTION YOU CAN DAMAGE YOUR SPOOL OR YOURSELF WITH THE POWER TOOLS YOU ARE USING! Once again a mirror like finish is the goal.

SUPER TUNING
CONCLUSION AND TIPS​

1. It takes me approximately 3 hours of steady labor to "SUPER TUNE" a reel. This includes a full tear down to the frame,cleaning of the reel and flushing of the ball bearings which is essential for this process to work. It will probably take you longer if you are not experienced in servicing reels so be ready to invest a little time in this, the results are worth the effort though, many satisfied customers have attested to this with what they say and where they put their money (read Super Tuning the rest of their reels!)!

2. One way I get an idea about how smooth a surface has become after I have "SUPER TUNED" it is wet a wood handled cotton swab with alcohol and rub it across the polished surface. This transmits the relative roughness or smoothness of a surface right to you finger tips you should try this on pre and post polished surfaces , this works really well inside the pinion gear after you have "SUPER TUNED" it! You can really get an idea of the effect you are having by checking your surfaces this way.
3. You can expend all your time and labor on doing this process and it all be for naught if you don't service your ball bearings! I clean mine by soaking them in kerosene. I drip them in the kerosene and spin them with my finger letting the kerosene do its stuff inside the bearing. Then I place them on a paper towel to "suck" the kerosene out of the bearing. I may repeat this step several times. Once I am confident that the bearing is as free running as possible I place it in some paint thinner to remove the kerosene residue. Obviously you will need to let the bearing dry for a while after all this before re-lubing it!
4. Don't use too much grease inside of your reel when reassembling it. Grease can get in the wrong spot (usually on the spool shaft) and be a great hindrance to the castability of the reel.
5. Re-lube the little brown spacer that contacts the spool shaft end by the friction ring with grease not oil. Make sure to lube this spacer sparingly with the grease and also make sure that the ball bearing that is placed in the housing with it isn't dripping with oil as it will leak onto the friction ring and cause the centrifugal brakes to lose their control on the spool during casting
6. Note: Many ABU GARCIA baitcasters have more spool mass than the Shimano's I have tested when filled with line, But even with this weight advantage, in distance casting the ABU's just cant keep up! Their control surfaces and tension adjustments are too outdated and course to compete with the present generation Daiwa's and Shimano's as far as the freshwater size baitcasting reels are concerned! ABU's respond to "SUPER TUNING" very well however, and I have many satisfied ABU customers as great improvements can be made to their castability with this process. The best ABU's to have this done too are the older style reels which have spool shafts which rotate inside a pinion gear like these Shimano's, instead of the newer ABU designs which have ball bearings in the spool which rotate on a fixed shaft. So if you have one of these older style ABU'S "SUPER TUNE" it and you will love the results
7. I have been asked about casting distances with heavier plugs and longer rods and why I havent conducted tests with these components. Sure I could put on a 3/4 oz. casting plug and use a 7 ft. rod to "sling to the moon" but using heavier casting weights would mask the results of "SUPER TUNING" a reel. The increased mass of the larger casting plug would tend to overcome any friction in the reel and throw as far as the reel is capable of irregardless if it is "SUPER TUNED" or not (I'll bet casting a 2 oz. plug we can take all the line off a Calcutta 200 spool SUPER TUNED" or not). By using shorter stiffer rods (which dont cast as far as longer rods!) and the 1/4 oz. casting plug, the reduced friction this process creates in a reel becomes evident. This translates into effortless long casts with heavier lures and longer rods as well.
8. You may not feel that you are able to perform a SUPER TUNE on your reels yourself, but would like to have it done. I would be glad to SUPER TUNE your reel for you. I normally charge $40.00 to do this which includes a full tear down to the frame clean and service of the reel (most shops charge at least $20.00 for this type of service alone). A complete bearing flush and relube (a lot of shops dont do this at all, but only add oil to your bearings) plus all the "SUPER TUNING" steps described in these pages. I will also inspect your reel parts for damage and wear and inform you of my findings by e-mail before replacing anything. The cost of replaced parts will be added to your service charge. Worn or damaged parts will be returned with the reel so you know they were replaced. My parts prices for Shimano are less than most shops. Please E-mail me at

9. If you are interested in a Calcutta 200, 250 or 251 6.2 to 1 gear ratio change, which as far as I know I invented and perform exclusively, the cost will be $60.00 which includes everything listed in note #8 plus the new main gear, new modified pinion gear, drag washer, metal pawl cap and exclusive star drag shim washer. I love doing this one! It turns a common Calcutta into a line burnin machine capable of taking up over 28" of line per handle turn. This is a real winner of a reel upgrade, everyone that has had this one done to their Calcutta's loves it! Great for rattle traps and buzz baits! . I have received many inquiries about the 6.2 to 1 conversion. To answer the questions just click on this link to see the detailed changes this will make in your reel . I use the gearing out of a Curado or Chronarch the difference being the Curado pinion has two engagement slots for the spool drive pin and the Chronarch pinion has 4 slots like the Calcutta. This however is not as easy as a drop in replacement! You can place the main gear and pinion from a Curado or Chronarch into a Calcutta and it will fit and work some of the time, but there is a mechanicl problem with doing this. The Curado/Chronarch pinion is taller than the Calcutta pinion so the problem with this is that when you depress the thumbar and pinion yoke pulls the pinion gear away from the spool to its outcast position resting place, that the taller pinion gear now knocks against the ball bearing in the tension control knob housing (go ahead and install this mod in your Calcutta remove the tension control knob with the handleside of the reel facing up then depress the thumbar while watching the bearing, see it move?) and this then can cause the ball bearing inner race to move off the small shoulder it rests upon on the spool shaft which keeps everything aligned properly. Now once the spool is out of alignment because of this and the spool is turning during an outcast the reel makes this terrible squealing noise. The other problem with this is the the top of the pinion gear is always rubbing against the ball bearing inner race during a cast, creating unwanted friction and limiting casting distances! What has to be done to make this mod work is to cut the upper part of the pinion gear down so it is the same size as the Calcutta pinion. I use either a lathe or a belt sander to do this and dremel to remove all the ruff edges after I am done. That fixes the problem and the reel won't squeal or be subject to long term damage anymore. Check out gear and pinion prices for yourself and then compare that to what I am charging to do this correctly and I am sure you will agree that I am more than reasonable in price on this service! E-mail me to get the ball rolling on this!

10. I have a new 3.8 to 1 gear change ratio that is also available for Calcutta 250, 251 or 200 reels. This modification has the same clearance problems stated above in the 6.2 to 1 gear change along with needing several extra parts to make it work! A new key washer, drag washer, and modified pinion yoke are required to do this besides the new main gear and pinion gear! This one will set you back $70 dollars as significant parts cost increases and labor are encountered doing this one, but if you want a power reel that retrieves baits tantalizingly slow this one is for you. Again e-mail me to get the ball rolling here.

11. I also specialize in rebuiding damaged or worn reels. I have to rebuid at least 6 Calcutta's every year that have sustained heavy damage from salt water exposure or being submerged for a period of time in fresh water. The good news is current production Shimano reels are totaly rebuilable, provided that their frames have not been damaged (Calcutta frames are extremely expensive!). Prices for this vary as to the amount of damage but standard labor fee for this is $50.00 plus parts. The labor includes a full "SUPER TUNE" plus some extra sanding and polishing I like to do on rebuilds along the worm gear shaft, main gear,drive shaft,and thumbar which produces a reel that is exeptionally smooth all around. This service is well worth it if you have a reel you want restored to better than ever working condition.

12. You can get the sandpaper you need to SUPER TUNE your reels in the automotive section of Wal-mart. It is 3M brand sandpaper labeled "Imperial Wetordry", and it works great. They stock 800, 1000, 1500, AND 2000 grit paper. I would just use the 800 grit instead of the 600 I talked about in the article, probably a safe move to do this for first time SUPER TUNERS anyway! You can also wet sand with this paper which works great inside the pinion gear! THE SIMICHROME POLISH YOU CAN GET AT MOST ANTIQUE STORES OR MOTORCYCLE SHOPS!