# Cleaning old reels



## NoMoSurf (Oct 2, 2007)

Recently I've gotten my hands on some old Penn Senator reels. I have disassembled them and am cleaning them. The cleanest of them went well, but I noticed a little "stickiness" after cleaning. I rubbed it down with t-shirt cotton and it worked out fine. Now I am on the second and cannot get rid of the "stickiness". Then tonight, my buddy brought his old 3/0 over to clean up as well. His is even worse. I can clean the grease and dirt off, but this is a waxy like coat that I cant seem to get off. I assume it is the remnants of the old grease.

I used dawn to clean the parts up and have tried alcohol on the metal parts but it did not work. I dont want anything that will be too harsh on the plastic side plates. Any ideas what will work on this? I have heard of some people using an untrasonic cleaner, but I dont have one. I do have a vibratory tumbler that uses corn cob media.


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## Don'sBayou (Aug 26, 2009)

Plain old mineral spirits/paint thinner. It won't hurt the plastic and it will get it all clean, grease and all.


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## NoMoSurf (Oct 2, 2007)

Well, I couldn't sleep last night, so I was up very late. I found that boiling the parts in a pot of water with a drop of dawn will get it off too. I would boil for about 5 mins and change the water. I boiled for a total of 4 cycles. After every cycle there was a bunch of cruddy looking stuff floating on top of the foam. After cooling and drying a light buff with a cotton cloth is all that is needed...

PS, dont use one of your wife's good pots. It come out of this ordeal pretty nasty.


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