stainless steel gears

[mark poulson]

Why don't reel manufs. use stainless steel for their low profile baitcaster gearing? It is lighter and stronger than brass, and very durable.

[Tony9]

Lack of refinement probably? Some of the bigger low profile reels has SS gears. The older Okuma Komodo 364, Komodo SS, and the Lexa HD come to mind. I have 2 reels with SS gears, Komodo 364 and an Avet MXL. Not the smoothest reels, but again maybe not designed to be. I'm sure there are other reasons.

[Slazmo]

Stainless on stainless galls with enough use and little lubrication.

There are some lubricants that would make stainless on stainless a very favourable option, however for me one with weight issues, and porting of said gears to reduce weight would be another. Production cost is another issue for the manufacturer.

[DirtyD64]

Stainless on stainless galls with enough use and little lubrication.

There are some lubricants that would make stainless on stainless a very favourable option, however for me one with weight issues, and porting of said gears to reduce weight would be another. Production cost is another issue for the manufacturer.

Production cost has to be it. I said this not long ago, the part about a heavily ported stainless gear vs an aluminum gear. I just figured the wear/tear would for sure be better on stainless. Personally I haven't ever used a reel with stainless steel gears.

[mark poulson]

A major salt water reel manuf., Accurate Reels, uses stainless steel gearing for their reels, and those get some heavy action and lots of abuse, but still hold up well.

[spookybaits]

Lack of refinement probably? Some of the bigger low profile reels has SS gears. The older Okuma Komodo 364, Komodo SS, and the Lexa HD come to mind. I have 2 reels with SS gears, Komodo 364 and an Avet MXL. Not the smoothest reels, but again maybe not designed to be. I'm sure there are other reasons.

Interesting, I didn't know those reels had stainless steel gears. I wonder what SS they use, how well they can be polished and to what degree that would help with the smoothness...

There's different types of stainless steel(5 If I remember), and various grades of stainless steel, with various ratios of chromium, nickel, carbon, etc.

A stainless steel like type 304/18-8 might make a good candidate for gears.

[Markanthony404]

Manufactures don't use stainless steel because it's expensive and not as refined as brass. I used to own a Certate hyper custom with a bronze alloy main gear and stainless steel pinion. The gears made a lot of noise and it wasn't nearly as smooth as the regular Certate with the alloy main gear & brass pinion.

Stainless steel also doesn’t fall into the manufactures business plan. SS will last a long time and they don't want customers to keep a reel for 10+ years. They would prefer you be happy with a reel for 2 to 3 years and then buy the latest greatest what ever the marketing team comes up with.

[BARRAMANIAC]

The original daiwa zillion pe special has a stainless pinion gear.

[Slazmo]

I used to own a Certate hyper custom with a bronze alloy main gear and stainless steel pinion. The gears made a lot of noise and it wasn't nearly as smooth as the regular Certate with the alloy main gear & brass pinion.

They were relying on the "hyper" marine bronze to be self lubricating on te stainless pinion - while strong it needs a specialist lubricant to keep it going better than it should on its own.

Once that hyper gear goes to s**t big dollars are needed to replace...

[DirtyD64]

Now that we've been talking about this topic, I wondered... I would rather have a strong brass gear that was skeletal in design over aluminum I think. I guess technically they already are, very flat where the actual teeth aren't touching.

[daiwa lunatic]

Stainless metal itself is more expensive than brass, and they are not self lubricating like brass, brass itself is used on bushing because of its self lubricating feature and thus makes lesser noise when it is used as a gear.

[wirinhar]

The original daiwa zillion pe special has a stainless pinion gear.

indeed and they are the best reel I have had so far.

WW

[Markanthony404]

They were relying on the "hyper" marine bronze to be self lubricating on te stainless pinion - while strong it needs a specialist lubricant to keep it going better than it should on its own.

Once that hyper gear goes to s**t big dollars are needed to replace...

Very true, last time i checked plat.co.jp was charging $175 for a set of hyper digi gears for the certate.

[Slazmo]

Very true, last time i checked plat.co.jp was charging $175 for a set of hyper digi gears for the certate.

Nearly double that for us down under...

[Strewth]

Gasp! That is a rip off.