Bass Fishing - UltimateBass.com

"The Shims" - 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! SEE PICTURES