Greasing new reels

[Yaffle]

Is it just me or does it seem that many new reels have very little grease around gears and bearings? I have pruchased a few reels over the past year and have greased all of them straight out of the box. It seemed to me that they needed it. Of coarse I may be wrong and maybe a little grease does go a long way.
On the other hand I have purchase Pflueger reels that were packed with grease right out of the box.
I imagine it is better to be safe than sorry, and can't see how it is possible to have too much grease as long it is within reason.

Does anyone else gease your reels right after buying them? Even before first time using them?


-Grant

[tailingloop]

Any quality reel that I have purchased has been properly lubricated out of the box. Too much grease can be a problem for some reels since it can collect grit that can be hard to remove in the field. Some manufacturers recommend against lubricants (i.e. Ross) since they use materials that don't need lubes or are impregnated with them. I have reels from Scientific Anglers, G Loomis, Redington, Abel, Teton, Orvis, Ross, Cortland, Pflueger, and Daiwa and have never added grease or oil to a new reel and on the Pflueger I actually removed some.

[Normand]

Does anyone else gease your reels right after buying them? Even before first time using them?

in 28 years of fly fishing i have never had to grease any reels that i own. never needed to. ross, lamson, orvis, bauer, okuma still as good as new.

[jeffnles1]

Is it just me or does it seem that many new reels have very little grease around gears and bearings? I have pruchased a few reels over the past year and have greased all of them straight out of the box. It seemed to me that they needed it. Of coarse I may be wrong and maybe a little grease does go a long way.
On the other hand I have purchase Pflueger reels that were packed with grease right out of the box.
I imagine it is better to be safe than sorry, and can't see how it is possible to have too much grease as long it is within reason.

Does anyone else gease your reels right after buying them? Even before first time using them?


-Grant

Check the manufacturer's website or contact them. Some say to NOT grease or lubricate their reels. Several Ross models come to mind.
Jeff

[Bamboozle]

This may be a rare exception but a few years ago, I got my hands on one of the Hardy reissue St George Jr. reels. I didn't buy it to look at, I bought it to fish.

Good thing I popped off the spool to tie the Arbor Knot because that puppy was dry as a bone. I had to assume the reason was it was sold that way was because most folks bought them as collectables with a few enlightened souls buying them to fish. In any case I added some Hot Sauce and started the devaluation process.

So now as a rule, if I buy any new reels I always remove the spool first, just to make sure.

[Jeremy]

Yaff,

I work in the tooling trades and I'm around lubed up stuff a lot. Being of somewhat sound mind I always figured from childhood that if a little is good then a lot must ....you know.

It took me a long time and more than a handful of toolmakers to convince me that most everything is over-lubed. All you need is a "film" on the surface to do the job. All the rest is wasted!

Trouble is we have this "need" to make sure that film gets "all over" so we goop it on. I STILL have the temptation to do so.

A couple of posters here said it rightly...some makers even say not to grease.

Given that I'm with you and a few others, I like to provide a lick of lubrication to bearing/rubbing surfaces unless the makers (Ross in my case, maybe Bauer, I can't recall) says not to.

It's kinda neurotic I guess......but I feel better. But that goop you see that's pushed aside on the spindle...it's access!

I gave up changing my own oil in my cars/truck a decade ago and I still feel guilty about that!

Bamboozle, good on ya! Reels like those Hardy's need the lubing.

I still have the tin of red molybdenum (sp??) grease that I bought in 1966 from Montgomery Wards to lube my Garcia-Mitchell 300 (that I still have, after 2, now-adult fisher-boys used the "H" out of as kids!).

And mine was the ONLY weapon out of 4 M-60 machine guns in our squad that never locked or jammed in a series of firefights... yup, neurotic luberrrrr....I felt better for it!

Sorry for this mornings coffee-promted rant.

Oil 'em, but sparingly.

Jeremy.

[Big Bad Wulff]

Just bought a new lawn tractor and it actually has grease fittings. However they must have lost their grease gun at the factory.............

[Bob Widmaier]

I had a Redington reel a few years ago that was new and the first time I used fishing it worked fine for about 2 hours then started feeling a little tight. I removed the spool and notice no lube on the clicker mechanism. I added a little of the oil based fly floated and it worked fine ever since. That was 3 years ago. So this was one case where manufacturer omitted that slight film of lube.

Dr Bob

[Yaffle]

Well, there was grease (very little as mentioned) to start with, so the question still remains was there enough grease? Not whether there should be any.

I really don't know how much is or isn't enough all I'm trying to say is if there is any doubt, I feel comfortable adding more. And if the amount of grease on my Pfleuger reels are any indication then all other makes I have purchased new are badly under greased. I have a feeling that the Pfleugers may be an exception.

Jeramy, thanks for the insite, I'm just a cautious person.

Bob, a prime example of my concern, thanks for that!!