You will find under this section the technical reviews of the reels I own or have received to test.
On this page, I will write some useful informations about the general design of a draw bar reel. I will also give you some details about the various bearing, bushing, stainless steel and aluminum grades that manufacturers use. It can be indeed quite misleading... and I think that the buyer should be aware of what he is buying.
I will be implementing that section soon, but I want you to remember some general rules (just common sense actually):
1- If the manufacturer or I do not mention something in a review, it means that there is nothing much to say about it.
2- The differences in price to making a product oversea and a product in the US is not that different as long as the reel manufacturing process is CNC enhanced. CNC lathes and mills help to bring the price down, wherever you are. What makes the difference in price is the reel assembly (which can not be that much), sanding (quite extensive if done manually), type of anodizing, and most of all bearing and raw material quality.
3- Generally, you get what you pay for it... Though there are a few exceptions.
The most commonly aluminum grade used to building reels is marine grade 6061-T6 (destressed or not, destressing the aluminum allows the alloy to be less brittle when machined). You should at least look for that grade in the reel description. Lower grade aluminum will be too soft and some bad things can happen: bend spool, bend frame etc. You can have a lower grade aluminum, but then the walls of the reel must be thick to compensate the lack of structural strength... which is always not the case. The real aerospace aluminum grade is 7075 (e.g. McSteen fly reels in Sweeden).