# Interesting read!



## WILSON (Aug 27, 2002)

Thought this was pretty interesting, especially since not many people are fishing this time of the year!
http://www.adventuretackle.com/reel%20tuning/tuning/abuoverhead/abuoverhead.htm


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## bulldozer (Aug 30, 2006)

that was good, very informative. i had never heard of line lumping before.


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## barty b (Dec 31, 2004)

*This needs to be in the fishing bible board*

>>Abu Overhead Reel Tuning:

Background –‘oils ain’t oils’
One must remember – a smooth casting style must be used with overhead reels. You cannot whip the rod around in a fast sweep, jerking the lure/bait out on a destined overrun. A reel tuned for fishing is one which when you release your thumbs grip on the spool you do not need to touch it again – only for stopping at the end of the cast. It isn’t a known fact but ‘all factory prepared overhead reels are not setup to cast efficently out of the box’ they can be tuned to perform your specific task faultlessly.
The second most important (first being casting technique) aspect deciding the distance you can cast is the oil in the spool bearings. You must choose the correct viscosity oil for your reel, in this article we will be using a (converted) Abu 6500C3 casting reel.
Depending on the spool diameter and width, you can use oil’s that are cheaper and readily available, from the very thin Singer all purpose oil to very thick 80/90W Manual Transmission/Differential oil, but most commonly used is 20/50W Motor Oil. What I and many others casters worlwide use is TG Development’s Rocket Oil – which is specially formulated spool ball bearing rpm in fishing reels which is usually up to 30’000rpm. Rocket oil is designed to thin when spool revolution/rpm is high and thicken down again at low speed. Rocket oil comes in three flavours, the fastest being tournament and slowest being red with the original formula yellow in-between. Tournament lubricant, as cautioned by TG is ULTRA FAST and ‘designed for use with magnetically controlled reels in Grass Court Tournament Casting applications for Ultimate Distance! NOT recommended for normal angling usage’ you’ve been warned . Yellow label is the original formula for Hi-Speed overhead reels, and is for use with small overheads up to 6500 size, designed for use with brake/blocks and/or magnetic controls. Red label is for use in ULTRA FAST, Medium to large shore and boat reels (greater than 6500) with the same formulation but ‘thicker’ viscosity than Yellow, also designed for use with brake blocks and/or magnetic controls.
All of these specialist products are designed to achieve maximum distance, time after time WITHOUT using the Mechanical/end cap in a totally free running reel. Here’s a graph showing the approximate viscosities of oils in relation to spool speed:



Application and Tuning:
Firstly, dismantle the reel to have access to the spool bearings weather they are in/outside the spool, spindle or endplate.
Remove the bearing/s carefully – don’t drop them! Some reels will require c-clips to be removed, (do so inside a plastic bag to prevent loss) and in some cases, mainly Daiwa SpeedShaft reels – the bearing cannot be removed from the spindle/spool, due to manufacturing process.
Place the bearings in a small bottle container (old film canisters are great) with a small amount of cleansing agent such as – Zippo lighter fluid or petrol (do not use soap/soapy-water/water) and gently ‘slosh’ them around, do not rattle them about like a rattlesnake! Ball bearings are made to fine tolerances, dropping one from one metre or so onto a hard surface will reduce its tolerances making it ‘noisy’ and out of balance at high rpm. So slosh the bearings around for 2-5min or so, take one out and inspect it for grease residue, and whilst holding the centre give it a good spin to make sure all the oil/grease has been removed if not ‘Slosh’ some more.
Next you will need some paper towel. Place the bearings on the towel absorb/pull all the cleaning agent from the bearings, turn em over like steaks and give em a poke, a light tap or two with a small screwdriver can help the oil into the paper towel. Leave the bearings for 20min or until ‘completely dry’. Keeping them on the paper towel put two drops of your chosen oil in (the paper towel helps pull it through), you may need to leave them for 5min to let the oil soak through. Place them back into the reel carefully and reassemble the reel. If your reel has centrifugal ‘brake blocks’ or ‘magnetic’ controls, put them on their maximum settings to slow the reel for the next step - testing the new oil.

!!!Very Important Part!!!
Centre the spool using the mechanical brake/end caps. Then adjust so that there is slight lateral movement of the spool – called ‘Spool Knock’ – so that the spool can be moved just slightly side to side. Most if not all reel manufactures state in the manual and have said so since Abu first produced classic baitcasters with 'mechanical' brakes, to adjust the mechanical brake/end cap - so when you hold the rod tip up and release the spool the lure falls to the ground without causing an overrun. Doing so will damage the spool bearings, as you tighten the end caps the bearings are squashed – causing gradual damage to them every cast. It is the equivlent of pulling on your handbrake and driving round, now that can't be good! Your reel should be tuned so no mechanical brake is needed.

Testing:
Take your reel, spooled with your chosen line and use the rod, lure/lead you will be fishing with. Using a smooth non-jerking action, cast towards a target you have chosen – with all brakes on max you should notice some sluggishness, the lure struggling to pull line off the spool (this is normal on this setting). If this is so, lower the mag/brake setting one step (Abu reels are available with three different weight brakes) and cast again – do this until you get a really fast cast or overrun. Then move up one setting and the job is done – you’ll now have a very hard to overrun reel. However if you got the biggest frap/overrun/birds nest/bunch of grapes you’ve ever seen. You either used to ‘Fast’an oil for that size reel – flush bearings and choose a ‘Thicker’ viscosity oil. Otherwise your casting style needs improving – a smooth graduation of power is required not a quick flick or burst, ‘Slow in Fast out’.
And Finally you need to lubricate the spool bearings every 2-3 outings if your casting over 100m, but if your only casting 40m or so you need not do as often but I recommend you still relubricate ever 2-3 outings. If you’re not too keen on dismantling your reel - 4 outings.

Few other things:
If you’re not into tuning your reel and you really couldn’t be bothered after reading this article and you’re not up to removing the bearings cleaning them and then oiling and reassembling. You can just put two drops of oil every 2-3 trips in the spool bearings whilst still in the reel. Most if not all overhead reels only need three thumbscrews to open up access to the spool and bearings can usually be oiled from there.
If your level-wind is synchronised – moves while casting, like nearly all Abu’s you need to keep the worm drive and its bearings lubricated often. Use the same oil as spool bearings.
You can put any number of centrifugal brakes on or off in different weights and it will not put the spool off-balance. Brake weights for Abu reels from lightest to heaviest are: Fibre – Blue – Black – White, these can be purchased separately if you need them.
Always loosen drag after fishing, don’t leave tightened up for a few days/weeks as this damages the drag.
If you are casting more than 100-150m you will need to do an exercise called ‘lumping’. The first 30m of line wound on the spool is the deciding factor of spool balance. The deal is all fishing lines are made within tolerances. A packaged 0.35mm line may well be 0.35mm at the start but 1-2m or so along it can be 0.355mm or 0.345mm and with some poorly manufactured lines even 0.34 and 0.36. As the every changing diameter line is wound onto the spool in cotton bob style i.e. side to side with no gaps – it looks rear neat, but is off balancing the spool. The technique used by many casters worldwide, including record holders is as follows:
1. Fix the line to the spool with your chosen knot.
2. Slide this knot to either left or right-hand sides of the spool, and begin to wind a ‘lump’ of around 4mm in height, 10mm or so in width, then quickly sweep across to the opposite side and do the same. Then fill the centre neatly like a cotton bob. If you have a level-wind reel you can now re-engage it to wind the rest of the line on neatly otherwise lay by hand.
3. Go out and have a few casts, if your still getting excess screaming noise, take the line off again but wind say a 5mm lump on the right and a 3mm on the left then fill. Try various combinations if you still have a loud noise from an unbalanced spool.
The picture below will help you understand the above instructions.

I just cut the text out of the link and pasted it here, The photos really need to go with the text.


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## Tommy (Jan 24, 2001)

A well tuned reel and properly balanced spool make for a better casting set-up. Casting technique is by far most important but a little time spent tuning and balancing will pay dividends.

Tommy


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## Lip Ripper (Dec 8, 2003)

i have delt with the unbalanced spool before, and it took me about 5 trys(stripping line and respooling ) to get it right. what a pain in the ass!!!


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## sandcruiser (Jan 15, 2007)

*spooling lessons*

Okay, I read the article but I still don't get the lumping the line stuff. I've always tried to very carefully spool my reels evenly trying not to make a hump in the middle or on either sides.

The picture was great but there needed to be a sequence of pictures for me any ways.

I am having some backlash issues at the end of the cast. Not full blown blowups at least. Could be the way I put on the line.


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## Mark G (Nov 15, 2004)

*Great Read*

Good info here, one thing I need to work on is the spool balance. I have heard some people say they test the balance after putting line on by putting the reel in free spool and giving it a spin, while placing the reel on a glass table or similar rigid surface, then listen for excess vibration. 

There is probably a little more to it than that. Anyone care to elaborate on this? Tommy or Barty b (hint)

One good point of the article covered the different types of oil. If you really don't want to be bothered with frequent oiling, stick with the red label oil. THe yellow and tournament oil is much thinner and will require much more frequent oiling than the red. IF your just fishing this is probably the way to go- if you are really into getting distance you will need to try the lighter oils to speed up the reel.


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## Mark G (Nov 15, 2004)

sandcruiser said:


> Okay, I read the article but I still don't get the lumping the line stuff. I've always tried to very carefully spool my reels evenly trying not to make a hump in the middle or on either sides.
> 
> The picture was great but there needed to be a sequence of pictures for me any ways.
> 
> I am having some backlash issues at the end of the cast. Not full blown blowups at least. Could be the way I put on the line.


If the back lash is only occuring at the very end of the cast ( as the lure/bait touches down- you need to be prepared to use the thumb to stop the reel a split second before touchdown) I have this issue some times if I am running the reel too fast, particularly night fishing where it is sometimes impossible to see the bait landing.


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## big brother (May 15, 2002)

ok, i'm gonna give this a shot, i actually enjoy sitting down and balancing reels. what has been left out so far is that you need to start with a spool that is close to balanced. with the line removed put the reel in free spool and just spin the spool and notice how it comes to a stop. if it rocks back and forth after stopping you need to balance the spool. the "heavy" side will be on the bottom, just take a SMALL piece of electric tape (i drive an old jeep cherokee, so i always have some electrical tape with me LOL), and put it on the LIGHT side and spin again. this may take several tries until when you spin the spool it stops without rocking back and forth. then you are ready to try to balance the line. i start with a single hump (not lump) in the middle of the spool about 3/16 high and maybe 1/2 wide.
then go to one side and fill until it is level with the center hump, then go to the other side and repeat the process. then put on 4-6 lays of line going all the way across the spool. now cut the line and either tie it or tape it and test the balance if it is not good repeat the process until you are happy with the "balance knot". this stays in place no matter how many times you reline the reel. 
next comes putting on the running line, everyone has there own way-cotton lay-straight, ect. my only advice is to always cross the spool with same number of handle turns, a 5500 series make take 6 turns, a 6500 8 turns, a 7500 10 turns, what ever works for you. if you feel a "surge" (as good a word as i can come up with) in your reel during a cast you probably have 7 turns, 10 turns, 8 turns as you reeled in last time. this happens when you are hooked up and the only thought is getting the fish in, just go up the beach and throw out an unbaited rig and reel up as usual. 
just remember once you have that "balance knot" where you want it, try not to lose it.
thanks to tommy, blaine, tres, cuzn bill and everyone else who ever sat down at a beach house with me and said "i'm gonna tell you one more $&C&*#@ time how to do this."
charlie


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## Mark G (Nov 15, 2004)

big brother said:


> ok, i'm gonna give this a shot, i actually enjoy sitting down and balancing reels. what has been left out so far is that you need to start with a spool that is close to balanced. with the line removed put the reel in free spool and just spin the spool and notice how it comes to a stop. if it rocks back and forth after stopping you need to balance the spool. the "heavy" side will be on the bottom, just take a SMALL piece of electric tape (i drive an old jeep cherokee, so i always have some electrical tape with me LOL), and put it on the LIGHT side and spin again. this may take several tries until when you spin the spool it stops without rocking back and forth. then you are ready to try to balance the line. i start with a single hump (not lump) in the middle of the spool about 3/16 high and maybe 1/2 wide.
> then go to one side and fill until it is level with the center hump, then go to the other side and repeat the process. then put on 4-6 lays of line going all the way across the spool. now cut the line and either tie it or tape it and test the balance if it is not good repeat the process until you are happy with the "balance knot". this stays in place no matter how many times you reline the reel.
> next comes putting on the running line, everyone has there own way-cotton lay-straight, ect. my only advice is to always cross the spool with same number of handle turns, a 5500 series make take 6 turns, a 6500 8 turns, a 7500 10 turns, what ever works for you. if you feel a "surge" (as good a word as i can come up with) in your reel during a cast you probably have 7 turns, 10 turns, 8 turns as you reeled in last time. this happens when you are hooked up and the only thought is getting the fish in, just go up the beach and throw out an unbaited rig and reel up as usual.
> just remember once you have that "balance knot" where you want it, try not to lose it.
> ...



Thanks Charlie, that was what I was looking for. 

I have only begun to play with this and I am sure it will take some experimenting to get right. I suppose it never hurts to check, I am curious how often a spool is OK (balanced) out of the box.


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## Tommy (Jan 24, 2001)

Thanks Brother, you saved me some typing... 

The single center hump method is where I usually start. If after a few times it doesn't smooth out then try the two side hump method, as shown in the link. I've seen 6500's that take 3 humps. Usually the 5500's are easier to balance but it really depends (as charlie said) on what you have to work with. Every now and then you run across a spool that is just right, coming to rest at a different spot as it rolls down. If you are a tourney caster, that one goes on the tricked out casting reel, never to see salt water...lol.

Balance is best checked with the spool full, bearings clean and dry (no lube). Give the handle a quick flip (drag tight) and press the disengage button. An out of balance reel will show its self quick. You can feel it shake. Bad enough and it will literally move across a smooth table. 

My go-to 6500 will spin 6 min+ in this configuration. The 5500 will do over 5 min. DON'T FORGET TO REOIL the bearings at this point. You'll only forget once...  

Next time I balance a reel, I'll video it and post. 

Hope this helps,

Tommy


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## Mark G (Nov 15, 2004)

*Tommy or Charlie ?*

In the method Charlie describes can you give a best guess as to how much line is used for the initial balance- before adding the main running line.

I am just wondering if this cuts down significantly on the amount of line capacity left for the main running line. If so would you recommend using a smaller diameter line for the initial balance (maybe 6lb or so) or do you not bother with this?


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## Tommy (Jan 24, 2001)

SC,

On the initial balance I normally spool completely, without cutting the line. It takes a little more time, winding off and back on sometimes several times. Once the right balance is achieved I never remove the first (bottom) 30 yards or so of line. Like charlie said, get the humps in place, fill in each side of the humps (coarsly), then make enough passes on top to cover all the balance work. Unless you are using a 5500 and cast in excess of 800' with .31 line then you will never get to the balance knot. That is assuming a filled to capacity spool.

Tommy


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## Mark G (Nov 15, 2004)

Tommy said:


> SC,
> 
> On the initial balance I normally spool completely, without cutting the line. It takes a little more time, winding off and back on sometimes several times. Once the right balance is achieved I never remove the first (bottom) 30 yards or so of line. Like charlie said, get the humps in place, fill in each side of the humps (coarsly), then make enough passes on top to cover all the balance work. Unless you are using a 5500 and cast in excess of 800' with .31 line then you will never get to the balance knot. That is assuming a filled to capacity spool.
> 
> Tommy


Tommy No worries about an 800' cast from me LOL 

Guess my concern was more from the point of those fishing and having a sizable fish run on you.

Probably a little overkill too worry about balancing a fishing reel tho , unless it's really poorly balanced, eh?

If people were using heavier line for fishing 14 or maybe even 17lb, even a little line of that diameter starts to eat into spool capacity


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## Tommy (Jan 24, 2001)

I balance all my fishing reels... :fishing: 

Just not quite as anal about getting them perfect. Usually a good single center hump on the 7500 or daiwa 30 and it's good to go.

Tommy


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## big brother (May 15, 2002)

i agree with tommy on balancing all my reels, one thing you will find is that you will never let another tackle shop put line on your reel (dem boys are in the line selling business). you will still have the occasional backlash, but you will know that it is your fault, not the guy who relined your reel at the tackle shop.
charlie


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## AL_N_VB (Apr 3, 2002)

good read!//Thanks Tommy and big brother!

I know my 525 is unbalanced.


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## barty b (Dec 31, 2004)

I strrted doing this a while back, I do it on all my reels now,more so on the tourny reels. I find the 525 REALLY need it more than the Abus
Great thread guys


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## AL_N_VB (Apr 3, 2002)

barty b said:


> I strrted doing this a while back, I do it on all my reels now,more so on the tourny reels. I find the 525 REALLY need it more than the Abus
> Great thread guys


been trying to get my 525mag balance tonight- not as easy as the read....will keep working on it


So do you keep adding the tape until the spool does not roll back to the heavy side?


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## big brother (May 15, 2002)

Nserch4Drum,
keep adding tape. concerning the penn 525, i am afraid i cannot help you. i bought one when they first came out (98-99?) as a replacement for my penn 990 which was starting to show its age. it took me a couple of years to admit to myself that it was a POS reel that i would never be able to use for fishing. i went back to the 990and use mostly abu 6500/7500s for fishing now.
charlie


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## Mark G (Nov 15, 2004)

*the 525mag*

does seem to be inconsistent from reel to reel.

I have 3 currently, one seems absolutely flawless on the balance , one is so so, and one is simply not right.

BTW, special thanks to Tommy and Charlie for taking time to cover this subject somewhat in depth. I reckon 99% of fishermen out there have never bothered with the subject.

Also guess there is another advantage for Sgt Slough and the spinning gurus, no balance worries, eh.


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## CraigG (Sep 25, 2006)

*lead foil*

Has anyone tried using lead foil to balance the spool? Kind of like you balance a tire and wheel?


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## Tommy (Jan 24, 2001)

I used to look at reel balancing as some kind of voodoo ritual. No one could (or for that matter ever has) explained to me, in a manner that I fully understood, why it works. How a "hump" that is mono, surrounded by mono and then covered by mono can so dramatically affect the smooth operation of a reel just evaded me. I finally gave up on the science of "why" and just accepted that it works.

Most reels will eventually respond, some just take more work than others.

Tommy


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## AL_N_VB (Apr 3, 2002)

6 hrs later-the 525 is still unbalance. I plan on taking her apart this weekend and giving the guts a severe look and tweek. May hafta clean out the bearings and add thicker oil.
BTW- the reel has the HO conversion on the mags. Does that matter?


BTW Tommy - does it matter if you balance and spool your reels in a warm climate vs a cold garage? 

Again- thanks to all the expert advice- 
and yes surf cat I am one of those. 


> reckon 99% of fishermen out there have never bothered with the subject.


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## Mark G (Nov 15, 2004)

*A little more detail please*

As far as once you have the balance where you want it, You remove the main line down to 30 or so yds.

Then what, at this point are you tying off or taping the balance line in place. If taping how so (in the middle of the spool , on one side, etc,) as I would hate to have all the work I have done to this point only come undone.

Thanks guys


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## Mark G (Nov 15, 2004)

Nserch4Drum said:


> 6 hrs later-the 525 is still unbalance. I plan on taking her apart this weekend and giving the guts a severe look and tweek. May hafta clean out the bearings and add thicker oil.
> BTW- the reel has the HO conversion on the mags. Does that matter?
> 
> 
> ...


Al, I will let Tommy respond but I believe one of the suggestions was too ensure that the bearings were clean and dry at the start of the procedure.


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## Mark G (Nov 15, 2004)

Nserch4Drum said:


> 6 hrs later-the 525 is still unbalance. I plan on taking her apart this weekend and giving the guts a severe look and tweek. May hafta clean out the bearings and add thicker oil.
> BTW- the reel has the HO conversion on the mags. Does that matter?
> 
> 
> ...


I am wondering about the 525 mag in particular- don't know if anyone has this problem- but could there be the possibility of a bent spindle (spool shaft) from putting pressure on the reel Al. I would think even a slight bend in a shaft would make spool balance all but impossible. (only taking a wild stab here- may be way off course)


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## Tommy (Jan 24, 2001)

Some reels are just more difficult. Would you consider the problem a pure vibration or is more of a noise?? If noise, is it more prevalent on one side or the other?? A bad bearing can make balance difficult. You may have to remove one of the dust shields to really clean the bearing. I have never had much luck getting the shields back on so I just turn the shieldless side in.

Charlie's tip about the tape works well, BUT, if you have to use too much it can be counterproductive. You end up with a raised spot on the shaft due to the tape that gets amplified as you spool the line on. I've used the tape to get an out of balance spool perfect, then spooled it up with line and had it shake across the table. 

The HO upgrade should not affect spool balance. I've never thought about cold vs warm. I always do it inside on the table.

Tommy


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## AL_N_VB (Apr 3, 2002)

Thanks Tommy



> Would you consider the problem a pure vibration or is more of a noise??


The problem is the vibration.The Vibration is not bad but evident. What I'm worried about is the spool rolling over to the heavy side when the spool slows down ( thus the thumbing and eventually blow up). I have very minimal side play on the spool and was hoping to use a higher viscocity oil in the bearings to slem them down.

I will try to re-spool again tonight. I love the 525mag-but may be ready to wheel and deel again for another balanced reel


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## Mark G (Nov 15, 2004)

Nserch4Drum said:


> Thanks Tommy
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Your lucky, one of my 525 vibrates to the point of feeling it all the way thru the butt of the rod :--|


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