Worm Burn?

[J Francho]

Just got off the phone with ghoti, and he gave some VERY good ideas of what to look for that might do this. Thanks man!

I didn't send the reel to anyone, I gave it back to its owner, along with the pics I took. The rest is up to him. I assume he's sending the pics to Quantum. I've sent reels in to other companies where the damage was obviously self inflicted, along with a note explaining what happened, and they've fixed the reel for no charge. Pinnacle recently provided me with parts free of charge without me even asking for it. Technically, the reel isn't broken, and in fact works just fine. If they don't fix it, so what. I'll clean it for him,and we'll still try and figure out what did this.

[LilJakeC1]

I wonder if he had something on his hands when he went to use it. It seems like it is all on that one side where he would palm it and it got onto the reel. That is my best guess to what happened.

[bilgerat]

Send it to the crew from CSI. Those guys are great. They solve crimes in under an hour, this should be cake for them.....

[BassThumb]

Send it to the crew from CSI. Those guys are great. They solve crimes in under an hour, this should be cake for them.....

;D LOL

Forget all that BS... Back to the topic.

I wish we could definitively figure out what happened. What did ghoti suggest, Francho? I don't want to be the next guy...

[ToledoEF]

JF, my friend has similar stuff happen to him. Although non -fishing related. He has a problem with his hands where he sweats more than normal and its slightly more corrosive. We do sheetmetal/hvac and you should see his tools. I replace my stuff every couple of years and his tools are corroded/rusted in 6 months if he doesnt wear gloves. It is one of the craziest things ive seen.

[BassThumb]

JF, my friend has similar stuff happen to him. Although non -fishing related. He has a problem with his hands where he sweats more than normal and its slightly more corrosive. We do sheetmetal/hvac and you should see his tools. I replace my stuff every couple of years and his tools are corroded/rusted in 6 months if he doesnt wear gloves. It is one of the craziest things ive seen.

That wouldn't explain the severe damage to the spool. Furthermore, it's just one spot on the spool.

[ToledoEF]

Ya, just throwing out ideas. It also looks like drain-o could have touched it. Possibly muriatic acid.

[RedhookRR]

What metal is the spool made of?

[Catt]

It appears to be a combination of Intergranular corrosion (side plate) and Galvanic corrosion (spool).

Intergranular corrosion: This situation can happen in otherwise corrosion-resistant alloys, when the grain boundaries are depleted of the corrosion-inhibiting compound by some mechanism

Galvanic corrosion: When two or more different sorts of metal come into contact in the presence of an electrolyte a galvanic couple is set up as different metals have different electrode potentials.

[J Francho]

Looking back, the reel was last fished mid December, and came back out about three weeks ago, so it had to be pretty fast acting. Been racking my brain thinking of what would commonly be found around the back door.

I have another theory, and this one makes more sense. Ice melter. Not rock salt, but the nasty stuff that melts ice in sub 20° temps. One little chip in the paint, mixed with a clump of snow from your boots, splashes on the reel... Anyone think that stuff could be caustic enough to do this?

I know it could easily happen in my mud room. Rods are on racks along the back wall, waders, rain gear on hooks next to them. It could easily happen to me, though I have neoprene covers on my reels.

Anyway, I am still looking at what could have happened. obviously, it was an accident. When I ran my custom aquarium business, I ate customer mistakes occasionally, and I still do this with my reel maintenance business. The good faith is sometimes worth more than any advertising you can buy.

No one is looking for handouts, but if it turned out to be a flaw, then the manufacturer should know. Heck, I complain when I get a poor meal, or shoddy service at my family's restaurant, and its FREE! Management needs to know.

Maybe its not a flaw, maybe it isn't anyone's fault. Like I said, despite the missing metal on the spool, the reels works fine. i simply decided not to do anything to it, get some pics, and leave it to the owner to figure out what to do.

[J Francho]

It appears to be a combination of Intergranular corrosion (side plate) and Galvanic corrosion (spool).

Intergranular corrosion: This situation can happen in otherwise corrosion-resistant alloys, when the grain boundaries are depleted of the corrosion-inhibiting compound by some mechanism

Galvanic corrosion: When two or more different sorts of metal come into contact in the presence of an electrolyte a galvanic couple is set up as different metals have different electrode potentials.

Well, the side plate is graphite. The spool is aluminum, but who knows what, if any, alloy it is. Galvaninc corrosion makes sense...deposition finish and base material. Still doesn't answer the question of what caused this. in your location, I bet you don't have any clue what "ice melter" is, LOL.  Thanks for the info.

[roadwarrior]

Whiskey?

:-?

[Catt]

Corrosion is the disintegration of an engineered material into its constituent atoms due to chemical reactions with its surroundings.

Corrosion can also refer to other materials than metals, such as ceramics or polymers, although in this context, the term degradation is more common.

In other words, corrosion is the wearing away of materials due to a chemical reaction.

[ksbasser]

J, I have not been cleaning reels as a side business as long as you have. But during the time that I have, I've seen a lot of corroded reels. I've seen some that looked fine on the outside and was full of corrosion on the inside, and I've also seen some that had just a random spot like this reel. In one of my background professions, I ran an auto paint /resto shop. I'm also a certified welder, machinist. My day job is now a materials inspection engineer. I have seen and dealt with a lot of corrosion in my time. Most reel manufacturers have tried to make their reels resistant to corrosion, but all aluminum alloys are very susceptible to corrosion. All it takes is a small break in the plating to allow any corrosive material to attack the base. If that starts, it can crawl under and though the surrounding areas. You have suggested several possibilities. Unless you set up a test situation where you scratch and expose similar reels to each possibility, you will never know for sure what caused this. I think your first guess may have been very close. Not so much from worm burn but maybe from heavy salt content in a plastic bait. Salt is still one of the most corrosive elements there is. If there was a scratch trough the protective plating, and it was stored with a salted bait hooked to the reel, then that could have easily started the corrosion. It could also be several other common household items that got splashed on to the reel in storage. Ice melt could do it, so could a splash of lemon juice or even catsup. Anything with a pH level above zero is capable of causing it to start. I understand the frustration that some have shown about sending the reel in under warranty. If it's the owners fault, then the owner should suck it up. But, how could any of us know that it's the owners fault. Shouldn't a new reel be able to resist corrosion from such simple possibilities? I see no problem with sending it in. If they say they are not responsible and it's not covered, then suck it up. It could also be that they would like to look at it to try and learn how to improve the corrosion protection. It could also be that they will see that their plating failed somehow and was the path that allowed this to start. Unprotected aluminum alloys can have serious corrosion from almost anything. If the plating failed then that did in fact allow it to start, then the corrosion itself becomes the caustic agent that will eat at surrounding coatings.

[247bassin]

Sorry...I guess brake cleaner and carburetor cleaner was a stupid idea.  I was just hoping I could be helpful, guess not

I hope you find out what it was so it don't happen again to anything else he owns. 

The ice melter is a good idea...like ammonia nitrate?  I have a friend that uses that on his driveway.  Is that stuff corrosive?

Hope that isn't another stupid idea guys, I swear I am just trying to be helpful!

[Raul]

Whiskey?

:-?

I hope NOT !   

In my experience in multpile encounters with the spiritous beverage whiskey don 't corrode nuthin in my entrails, mushes my brains but that 's about it.  ;D

[Catt]

With 15 yrs experence with dealing with all types of corrosion on all type of materials my accesament is that of a weak protective coating as being the why and what appears to be where somethng lay against the reel.

With "Dissimilar Materials" Galvanic corrosion is caused by the presence of an electrolyte (a nonmetallic electric conductor in which current is carried by the movement of ions), the graphite making the aluminum corrode faster by being cathodic to it. If the protective coatings were  weak this allowed the Galvanic corrosion.

[roadwarrior]

Ice melter...

8-)

[Raul]

Ice melter...

8-)

Whiskey on the rocks.

A chair

A good cuban cigar

and let them reels corrode, who cares ?

[KSRonH]

A good way to end, sip, a corrosive, puff, thread. Puff, sip, ahhh!!!!

[NewAngler]

That's not worm burn. Neither is it the idea that Quantums suck.

That is acid or caustic damage.

How the hell is that Quantum's fault.

Agreed.

[0119]

A friend of mine had the same thing happen to an Ardent C400.  Looked exactly like that to both graphite plate, aluminum frame, and a portion of the spool.  It was from his overly liberal use of sun screen lotion.  He thought he cleaned his hands well enough just wiping them dry, but that isnt good enough.  By the way, Ardent replaced the entire reel no charge.

[Boogey Man]

Was line still on the reel when he brought it to you? The reason I'm asking is because whatever damaged the spool would have to have damaged his line first. Which to me rules out "worm burn" (which I think has already been ruled out), unless he was fishing with only about half a spool of line and then hooked his lure on his reel.

[J Francho]

Good point about the line - hadn't thought about it, but it might help.  The line was on it, and no, it didn't damage the line, other than some powdery substance probably left behind from the corrosion.  When I transferred the line to another reel, the stuff just came off, leaving behind unharmed line.

[cart7t]

I have seen almost identical blistering of the finish on a Quantum reel, but the spool thing has me scratching my head too.

Also had a similar but not identical issue with Quantum finishes.  The spool thing has me puzzled.  Seems as though something got on that reel to cause that damage