Theoretically This Could Work

[Csaba]

Hypothetical speaking, if the drag is usually located in the spool, and if you are looking:

1) to improve your drag,

2) water sealed drag,

3) other reason

Why can't you just change a spool from a Stella and put it on a Sustain or Sienna or other Shimano reels? Or other branded reels?

Would it not work?

What are you paying for in the reel? (the main body or mostly spool?)

[Stippy]

Hypothetical speaking, if the drag is usually located in the spool, and if you are looking:

1) to improve your drag,

2) water sealed drag,

3) other reason

Why can't you just change a spool from a Stella and put it on a Sustain or Sienna or other Shimano reels? Or other branded reels?

Would it not work?

What are you paying for in the reel? (the main body or mostly spool?)

Makes more sense to upgrade your drag washers, certainly more cost efficient; if you owned Daiwa's I'm pretty sure the spools are interchangeable amongst the Real Four line. Someone will confirm whether the same holds for high end Shimano's but I have serious doubts that a Stella spool would fit onto a Sienna reel body in any case.

[Jewhunter]

Hypothetical speaking, if the drag is usually located in the spool, and if you are looking:

1) to improve your drag,

2) water sealed drag,

3) other reason

Why can't you just change a spool from a Stella and put it on a Sustain or Sienna or other Shimano reels? Or other branded reels?

Would it not work?

What are you paying for in the reel? (the main body or mostly spool?)

I don't think it would work.

The Stellas' gears are built to handle the drag it would pull.

That much drag on a lesser quality reel would more than likely strip the gears.

Cheers,

Grant.

[SZ1]

Some SW Twin power spools are interchangeable between the SW Stella spools, however to put a Stella spool on a Sienna your better of buying a more expensive reel as Stella spools can cost well over 100bucks for the smaller sizes and up wards of 250bucks for the bigger size.

When buy a quality reel your paying for the quality of the materials through out the whole body.

[slinkymalinky]

G'day BM,

There's no reason it might not work in principle but as Jewhunter said, there are some practical issues... and that's before you even think about the fit.

For a spool to work it has to position properly on the drive shaft and in relation to the rotor. It also needs to match the movement in and out of the shaft. If all those aren't matched properly, the line won't lay properly on the spool.

The drag knob needs to engage properly with the drag washers (as well as fit the shaft) so it's not just a matter of swapping one to another.

Following from JH's comments, even if it did fit, the spool from one reel won't give another the attributes of the original reel. Yes, the spool from a Stella is better than the spool from a lot of other reels but you're also paying a lot more for the rest of the reel and its performance... the gears, materials, precision, durability, bearings, etc etc etc. They all make a big difference to reel performance (and price).

As an example, I could buy bearings for a reel that cost around $3 - $4. They'd be low precision, poor material bearings that wouldn't perform great and wouldn't last. You'll find 1 or 2 them in the cheapest reels with bearings).

When I service my reels though, I usually use ABEC 5 or ABEC 7 (that just means high precision) high quality stainless or Ceramic Hybrid bearings. They cost between $10 - $20 ea in small to medium reels.

If you then realise that in a top end reel there can be 10 or more bearings, you start to see where the $$ go (even allowing for the massive mark up I probably pay for bearings at retail)

Cheers, Slinky