I've got the Excsence 3000 BB (20EXSBB3000MHG), great reel for the price paid, good crossover features from a varied amount of reels.

Mann's Bait Company 'Stretch' from 5 to 30 - excellent casting and trolling lure over here for decades while they were imported.

I've amassed a fair few as a collection, as they're discontinued and not many are left anywhere as NOS.

I bought the last 2 RH and 1 LH gear sets here in Australia...

I'm actually going to sit down and see what's close and what can be modified to work in the Calais in brass.

CRBB has a miniscule amount of surface coating on the bearing race that wears out within the first few uses - the metal is then exposed - stick to routine maintenance than gymic technology. And don't forget that most bearings especially stainless are the bare minimum to maintain hardness and mainta...

CRBB has a miniscule amount of surface coating on the bearing race that wears out within the first few uses - the metal is then exposed - stick to routine maintenance than gymic technology. And don't forget that most bearings especially stainless are the bare minimum to maintain hardness and maintai...

Few decades of non Green too...

I'm honestly surprised Basalt fibre hasn't made its way into a graphite composite yet?

I'm all for the screw down zip tie, or if I could get my hands on the Prox keeper's...

On some of not most Shimano reels now you can find a 'recycle' triangle and a number which indicates the year of production, very handy.

Would be nice to see the year of production to accurately know what your getting.

I bought some vintage rods from the US and had them sent to Australia. Two Shimano Chopsticks - 1980 circa style pistol grip and the rest. One came absolutely flawless and the second well all I can say is - fraudulent reproduction. I paid good money for these and they came smelling like a crusty cig...

That's the nature of plastics these days. Daiwa don't seem to mark what type of plastics they use around a reel either...

But if anyone needs a good glue to put things back together "Plexus MA310".

Same thing happened to my Alphas Type R and a OG Calais I worked on, could've been a hit or a incorrect assembly or even application of the side plate?

Quench in motor oil or quenching oil.

A proper reproduction of an old model wouldn't be that hard, most surfaces inside are flat and external sides are stamped, wouldn't be that hard other than stamping dies and tooling which could be used across multiple platforms (which is already done today). The old Bantam models IMHO were bare bone...

Is anyone actually looking at the lubricants their using and researching the base carrier and the anti wear packages involved? The blue Hiro Seiko is Mineral Oil +Molybdenum Disulfide. The gray is Organic Molybdenum and Synthetic Ester. Research molybdenum disulfide and saltwater before using.