Studio Ocean Mark Drag System Rebuild - Better than Shimano Stella drag system

[Enoch Li]

Studio Ocean Mark has an interesting drag system.  There might be an advantage for single stack drag performance over the original stock Shimano drag system.

Anyhow, I have taken the time to clean and re-lube the spool and its clicker system.
I found that the spool indeed does have some impressive re-engineering to it.  Also there exist 2 ball bearings in the drag stack.  One is in the bottom of the stack (fit into the body of the spool) and the other sits atop a metal drag washer that is milled out to reduce weight and functions as a stabilizer so the spool and drag spin smoothly in-line on the reel's main shaft.

Lube: Cal's Drag Grease (metal and carbon weaved drag washers) and Reel-X (bearings).



Here is the drag stack layout.  Studio Ocean Mark uses Carbon fiber  weave drag washers.  The weaves are small and tight.  The fiber washers  and stack comes un-lubed.


Notice there is another metal (thinner than the rest) drag washer  still in the spool bottom.   I didn't discover it was still stuck down  there until later.  Anyhow, notice the bearing on the left and an  embedded bearing on the third washer from the right.


The last  "washer" is metal with a rubber ring sandwiched between a top and bottom  layout.  This is another way to waterproof the drag stack. Nice to have  since there is already a rubber ring on the drag knob.



A close up of the 2nd bearing located 3rd "washer" from the top of  the stack.  Notice the embedded bearing as I have flipped the washer  upside down and it reveals the milled out metal washer with the bearing  in it.
Very nice design.




On to the 2nd half of the drag stack system of Studio Ocean Mark. There  is 3 phillips head screws that mount the aluminum heat dispenser ring  that is in contact with the spools main body.


Taken apart and cleaned, this is a nice piece of hardware I've never  seen before on a fishing reel.  Kind of reminds me of the metal piece on  a northbridge chip located on your computers motherboard.  Made to  attach to the main source of heat.  Made to dispense heat through the  bottom of the spool.
Original, and genius.


Located in the bottom stack is another metal washer and a hidden drag  clicker. This system reminds me of the Shimano Stella FA system or the  Daiwa Dogfight clicker.


Notice the milled section of the spool where the "northbridge" ring  attaches to. There is gap and metal contact to take the heat away from  the spool.  The underside of the northbridge ring is  shown to have the ridged clicker system. This piece is quite well made.


Anyhow, remember how I noted earlier that I missed that last (thinner)  metal washer in the bottom of the stack?  Here it is on as the 1st  washer from the left of the stack.


Northbridge ring back in place, screws with (red) locktite back in, and  the spool is ready to go.




Presto! Clean, lubed, and back to action!

[Andy Rowe]

Enoch,

Very nice work, thanks for posting this information.

Did you service the spool just to have a look inside, or have you already done some serious fishing with it and decided it was time to service it?

If the later how do you find the SOM spool vs the shimano original? I like the click in the drag mechanism, how does it cast with the ovoid scandium spool ring?

Thanks
Andy

[Enoch Li]

Andy,

Thanks for the kind words. 
I actually serviced the spool for both reasons.  Initially I've fought about 15 fish up to 15 kilos and after listening to the drag I wondered if the guys at SOM actually greased their drags.  They were smooth out the box but I was just curious.

I did get some drag dust on my fingers and while putting the Cal's grease on some of it turned black.  You can see it in one of the pictures the grease isn't so clean.  I was impressed by the design of the stack and clicker.  I prefer this type clicker as the sound is quite "manly"

Anyhow, to answer your question, the SOM spool performed great and although I haven't yet to have a screamer on it I feel very confident casting it.  I need to do some actual testing of the same line class to conclude the distance advantage (if there is one). . .Is it actually better than the stock Stella?  ...well, I believe the design is better, the drag feel I prefer,  but I just don't have enough experience at this time to say it's the winner quite yet.

[Andy Rowe]

Thanks again Enoch,

Are you indicating the stock SOM spool has no drag grease on it??

Thanks

[Marc Ong]

I've opened up my no limits and normal SOM spool.

The no limits has no drag grease, all dry.

the normal SOM spool with teflon drag is greased up.

[Enoch Li]

Roger that Andy,

The SOM No limits was bone dry.  Now it's coated with Cal's grease from California

Marc, what kind of performance difference with the teflon only drag? 

[Brandon Khoo]

Enoch, thanks a heap for taking all the effort for this post. It's very useful for anyone with SOM spools. I've changed all my spools across to the No Limits now so very grateful for this post.

Do you think I should apply a thin film of Cal's onto my washer or leave it bone dry as it is out of the box?

Btw, the normal SOM spool is not comparable to the No Limits in drag capability.

[Enoch Li]

Brandon, Thanks for the kind words.  I'm glad to hear I can be a resource for the handfull of anglers here that have SOM no limits spools.  I really believe that there is an advantage for smooth drag in their design.

I've heated up the spool from drag runs and I believe that the layer of Cal's grease does indeed help move the heat away from the stack and keep it smoothly working.  Instead of just being a lubricator for friction caused by the washers the grease acts as a distributor of heat. 

Remember how heat sinks work in your CPU motherboard?  There exist a thin layer of grease between the actual chip and it's heat sink.  This grease conducts the heat to the metal "northbridge" ring we have on the bottom of the spool.
Same type of actions going on here.

I advise a thin layer on the carbon fibres.  Say enough to "soak" the fibres and saturate the washer.  The top half of the drag stack gets more pressure as the cap is directly pressing down on it from the top.  Those will wear quicker than the bottom ones.

Brandon, do you have the 20k NL SOM spool as well as the 16000 NL SOM spools?

[Brandon Khoo]

No, I haven't bothered with the other SOM spools. I only use the 16000 No Limits as the standard 10000 spool isn't quite big enough for PE8 and I feel the No Limits has a better drag on it. That is not the case with the 18000 or 20000 spools which are fine to me.

[Dave Chan]

how's normal (non no limit) som spool like? is that still better than standard stella spool? anyone knows?

[Enoch Li]

Dave,

I'd say that the standard Shimano Stella spool is superior to the SOM NON-no limits spool according to Brandon's note:

"Btw, the normal SOM spool is not comparable to the No Limits in drag capability."


Also, no limits means more capacity and that's why the No Limits 16000sw spool is such an advantage over the regular 8000/10000 class spool sizes.  There is also a Yumeya 12000 size spool that fits the 8000/10000 size Stella body but again, not in the same class as the SOM 16000sw spool when it comes to capacity or drag features.


Enoch

[Samuel Chieng]

Hi Enoch. I'm thinking of getting the SOM NL 16k for my 10kSW as a popping reel. Has there been any tests to show whether the SOM casts better then the stock Stella spool given the odd oval shape of the SOM?

[Marc Vandaele]

hi
i suspect my som no limits 18000 spool soon and like to know how much PE8 or PE10 i can put on it
also for the standard spool from stella sw 18000 and 20000,that should be greathfull
there is only indication in mm or lbs on the spool
i gone use varivas avani GTmax(that should be good for my first GT trip...)
thanks to all,marc

[Mark Harris]

Thanks to Andy's recommendation a month or so back (cheers mate!), I have put a SOM No Limits 16K on a Twinpower SWA 10000 and am very impressed. The reel now performs quite beautifully loaded with PE8. Have not got into a monster with it yet, but the drag performed very smoothly with a couple of 15 kg fish.

On the casting questions, I think this is the best casting spool I have ever used.

[Andy Rowe]

Mark,

These spools are the ultimate after market add on to the Shimano 10k series of reels. For the drag system and extra line capacity (the latter IMO on the standard reel  was woefully inadequate) SOM should have won an award for this product. They certainly make the 10K SW a bigger and more formidable reel.

I will be following Enochs instructions and greasing the drags on mine before the next outing.

Marc, on the standard 18k spool you will get PE8=325m, PE10=250m, for the SOM 18k i believe a small improvement on line cap to PE8=340m for the varivas line you mention.

Cheers
A