Gears over the years

[Slazmo]

Newer baitcast reels from the Shimano stable such as this SLX (left) have twin concentric circles around the middle mounting hole and the older Curado E (right) are just plain ground polished flat.

Anyone have any reasonings? I've thought water trapping / wicking like building overhanging drip tips.

Any ideas?

[LowRange]

Is left and right same in upsidedown land or is that really an SLX gear in the 1st pic? How did it get to look like that?

[Slazmo]

Also the misconception of swirling water from Northern and Southern hemispheres - they all go the same way.

Yep that's a SLX gear which isn't any older than the year is young. We have this thing down here called Saltwater and owners which are 100% committed to fishing it. Near 99% of saltwater reels have the same issue with the brass going that mottled verigated look of dissimilar alloyed brass.

SLX Main & is Pinion

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You got to cover the open to air parts of the brass main gear to stop that corrosion - non of which is from factory - hence what you see.

[ss30378]

Maybe the grooves are for reducing weight? Or maybe it’s part of the manufacturing process and a way to index in the cutter?

Man that first pic looked like a botched attempt at case hardening the gears.

Have you tried coating the gears with something like eezox to prevent corrosion?

[Slazmo]

I've seen pictures of how these brass baitcaster gears are cut, I doubt indexing. Weight reduction would be so minimal for the job of realignment to do those two concentric circles too.

Still hunting around for answers.

I clean them as best as they can get without removing too much meat from the face and clean again to rid of corrosive dust, then I paint a fine layer or lanolin as it won't affect much around it. Lanolin has a good ability to permiate metallic surfaces - hence why I use so much of it for its anti corrosive / galvanic abilities.

It doesn't look pretty but it's the least aggressive - the teeth are the worrying factor as long as they're not corroded - but these are fine - reel is still smooth as for a cheapie!

[mark poulson]

Maybe it's just to center the drag stack.

[Slazmo]

Similar state MM gear out of a Curado DC - which has been wet lapped on Wet & and Dry paper...

1

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2

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About as far as I would want to go as it'll take more and more meat off the bone. You can see the spots where the corrosion has eaten into the metal...

[BRONZEBACK32]

I wonder if forcing a patina on the brass would help prevent corrosion before letting the elements get to it.

I've been doing it to high carbon steel on knives for years.

[hoohoorjoo]

Sidenote: Here in the States, we have a product called Brass-o. Its removes corrosion from brass very well. I use it regularly on oxidized gears to bring the shine back. It doesn't remove the metal, just the corrosion, even in the pitted areas. I use a cheap toothbrush with it. It also leaves a corosion-resistant coating that doesn't interact with any other lubricants.

[Slazmo]

The brasso we have, the formulation has changed and it didn't even touch brass oxidising at all...

The old brasso was a totally different animal.

[BARRAMANIAC]

The brasso we have, the formulation has changed and it didn't even touch brass oxidising at all...

The old brasso was a totally different animal.

Just a thought, do you think tarn-off might work. The stuff used for cleaning jewelry.

[Slazmo]

There's every concoction and potion out there, but short of trying each and every one available I keep going back to Citric Acid solution and mechanically agitating / ultrasonics, lapping with 400+ grit wet and dry and mechanically polishing for the last step.

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I mean I was so desperate I tried a old wives tale and soaked brass in Coke Cola... The outcome wasn't great but at least I got my dose of multi vitimins.