Is There A Way to Make A Standard Baitcast Spool To A Shallow Spool?

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Is There A Way to Make A Standard Baitcast Spool To A Shallow Spool?

Post by Ghost » Tue Feb 28, 2023 10:45 pm

I know this is an odd question to ask. I remember many years ago, TT had an article to make a shallow spool from a standard casting spool. I can't find that article now,.

Is there a way to do this or is it even possible without adding too much additional weight to the spool?

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Re: Is There A Way to Make A Standard Baitcast Spool To A Shallow Spool?

Post by John G » Wed Mar 01, 2023 8:34 am

I think it would suck if you started out with for example a Shimano Curado 200E and only put 100ft of line on the spool cause it would look really funny. You could do the same with a 15 Aldebaran and it would look much better and be more BFS'ish.

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Re: Is There A Way to Make A Standard Baitcast Spool To A Shallow Spool?

Post by jvelth74 » Wed Mar 01, 2023 9:06 am

Ghost wrote:
Tue Feb 28, 2023 10:45 pm
I know this is an odd question to ask. I remember many years ago, TT had an article to make a shallow spool from a standard casting spool. I can't find that article now,.

Is there a way to do this or is it even possible without adding too much additional weight to the spool?
I haven't read such article. But for some time ago I was planning to make shallow spool by cork tape:
rsz_cork_tape.jpg
rsz_cork_tape.jpg (62.13 KiB) Viewed 7349 times
Another solution would be same kind of fillers like was provided with old Ambassadeurs:
Fillers.jpg
Fillers.jpg (81.92 KiB) Viewed 7349 times
Sure there are not commonly fillers available, but maybe taking measurements and 3D print of those. And I think in good cork lathe could be done spacers by cork and then splitting it by Japanese Saw.

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Re: Is There A Way to Make A Standard Baitcast Spool To A Shallow Spool?

Post by Hogsticker2 » Wed Mar 01, 2023 11:32 am

Much more feasible to make or or purchase spacers that will accommodate a different, shallow spool.

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Re: Is There A Way to Make A Standard Baitcast Spool To A Shallow Spool?

Post by Slazmo » Wed Mar 01, 2023 11:54 am

There are guys out there both machining and or using that plastic printing hoo haa to make adapters / spool sleeves. The thing is that it adds rotational weight while lessening line capacity, and if not done right they can slip on the spool surface.

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Re: Is There A Way to Make A Standard Baitcast Spool To A Shallow Spool?

Post by jvelth74 » Wed Mar 01, 2023 12:36 pm

Yes. Those Abu spool fillers are stiff rubber or sticky plastic. Those grips goodly to spool. Home made fillers should installed with two sides adhesive tape.

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Re: Is There A Way to Make A Standard Baitcast Spool To A Shallow Spool?

Post by Just_Bass » Wed Mar 01, 2023 6:34 pm

Make me wonder, if those old adapters compare to full braid backing which one is heavier or add more rotational mass to spool? Shallow spool is one thing but BFS spool is supposed to be as light as possible, correct?
Last edited by Just_Bass on Wed Mar 01, 2023 11:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Is There A Way to Make A Standard Baitcast Spool To A Shallow Spool?

Post by Slazmo » Wed Mar 01, 2023 7:17 pm

Some people like myself don't run more than 80m of working line and a handful of backing on their reels for that reason - would be nice to have shallower spools to accommodate that than a spool that can carry a load of 300m of wet braid.

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Re: Is There A Way to Make A Standard Baitcast Spool To A Shallow Spool?

Post by jvelth74 » Thu Mar 02, 2023 12:51 am

Just_Bass wrote:
Wed Mar 01, 2023 6:34 pm
Make me wonder, if those old adapters compare to full braid backing which one is heavier or add more rotational mass to spool? Shallow spool is one thing but BFS spool is supposed to be as light as possible, correct?
Those old fillers are hollow and because of that those are some amount lighter than backing line. Yes, UL baitcastingreels spools are supposed to be as low momentum of inertia as possible. Momentum of inertia is a result from spool Diameter^2 x [spool+line] Weight.
Slazmo wrote:
Wed Mar 01, 2023 7:17 pm
Some people like myself don't run more than 80m of working line and a handful of backing on their reels for that reason - would be nice to have shallower spools to accommodate that than a spool that can carry a load of 300m of wet braid.
100 m casts are really rare in fishing and most common casts in fishing are 10 - 40 m.
In my fishing maximum what fishes has pulled line from my reel is something 20 m...

300 m of braided line in a casting reel is terrible idea in my opinion. It wouldn't take too long before it's spooled un-even and all 300 m must be spooled again. I use monofil backing always after 100 ... 150 m Braided line.

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Re: Is There A Way to Make A Standard Baitcast Spool To A Shallow Spool?

Post by Slazmo » Thu Mar 02, 2023 1:26 am

Most of the creeks I fish locally are at best 10 to 15 meters wide, and a distance cast may be 20m or so.

Saltwater is the same, not and ever casting anywhere near a spool of line ever and if your playing a fish over 70m from shore you've got other play issues. Different from the rocks, jetty or boats etc...

And having deep spooled wet line is just asking for corrosion to grow a ruin the spool.

Would mind having access to a way to manufacture collars for spinning reels - make my life a lot easier!

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Re: Is There A Way to Make A Standard Baitcast Spool To A Shallow Spool?

Post by dragon1 » Sun Mar 05, 2023 3:24 am

Hmmmm... evidently the next "new" aftermarket product is about to be born. FWIW, back in the day there were cork spool adapters for baitcasters provided by manufacturers.

Will HH offer spool arbor adapters in different colors even though it will be buried with line?
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Re: Is There A Way to Make A Standard Baitcast Spool To A Shallow Spool?

Post by jvelth74 » Sun Mar 05, 2023 5:13 am

Cork spool adaptors would be very much wellcomed in my opinion. It would be nice to adjust spool volume. Cork is much lighter than nylon.

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Re: Is There A Way to Make A Standard Baitcast Spool To A Shallow Spool?

Post by dragon1 » Wed Mar 08, 2023 5:47 pm

jvelth74 wrote:
Sun Mar 05, 2023 5:13 am
Cork spool adaptors would be very much wellcomed in my opinion. It would be nice to adjust spool volume. Cork is much lighter than nylon.
Yeppers, agreed.
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Re: Is There A Way to Make A Standard Baitcast Spool To A Shallow Spool?

Post by DirtyD64 » Fri Mar 17, 2023 4:51 am

I do this to most of my spools, to a light extent. I always put some braid backing, then my fluorocarbon. Braid doesn't add much weight and is WAY lighter than a full spool of fluorocarbon. Bad thing is guessing how much you need, and you have like 3 knots laying on the spool (short piece of fluoro/nylon to attach, then attachment to braid backing, then final attachment of mainline). I never see the knots because I get a good 55-80m of fluoro on there, but sometimes I mess up. I wanted to make my Millionaire spool light as possible but put too much backing on it, only got about 50m of 8lb Tatsu on there. Still hasn't been an issue, but when I change the line I will cut some of that filler braid backing off there...

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Re: Is There A Way to Make A Standard Baitcast Spool To A Shallow Spool?

Post by dennis_rf » Fri Mar 17, 2023 6:08 am

DirtyD64 wrote:
Fri Mar 17, 2023 4:51 am
I do this to most of my spools, to a light extent. I always put some braid backing, then my fluorocarbon. Braid doesn't add much weight and is WAY lighter than a full spool of fluorocarbon. Bad thing is guessing how much you need, and you have like 3 knots laying on the spool (short piece of fluoro/nylon to attach, then attachment to braid backing, then final attachment of mainline). I never see the knots because I get a good 55-80m of fluoro on there, but sometimes I mess up. I wanted to make my Millionaire spool light as possible but put too much backing on it, only got about 50m of 8lb Tatsu on there. Still hasn't been an issue, but when I change the line I will cut some of that filler braid backing off there...
If you want to eliminate the guesswork there’s 2 ways:

Maths: If you have a way to measure diameters and how much line you are spooling, the maths to figure out how much you need isn’t that hard and can be automated by excel: line capacity basically is a volume that can be estimated by a the formula of a cylinder. Even braided line, if you don’t think about the surface, is a very long & thin cylinder. For real life application that’s close enough. Simply calculate the spools volume, substract the volume of your desired length of mainline and you are left with how much braid backing you need.

Or you go the hands on approach I do most of the time: put as much main line on the reel as you need, fill up the rest with backing. Use a spare spool the line came on and a hand drill to get the line off and on the spare spool within a minute. Next, take another spare spool, spool the line over there to invert it. Now you can spool up your reel from there the right way around with the backing first

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