Chinese Reel - Kastking Mela 3000

Scraglor
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Re: Chinese Reel - Kastking Mela 3000

Post by Scraglor » Fri Jul 08, 2016 8:04 pm

Boonanza wrote:Ducky hit the nail on the head good=cheap a sienna is the way to go. It may be a good reel at best but you don't want to be thinking I hope it's not a dud when you have a cracking fish on the other end and the drag dosen't do what it's meant to.
I completely agree. I wouldnt for a second recommend anyone buy this reel, until I have thrashed it for at least a year (I fish 1-3 times a week, and dont look after things as well as I should) Im just experimenting a little, and thought I would share it with the forum.

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Re: Chinese Reel - Kastking Mela 3000

Post by Sinsemilla » Sat Jul 09, 2016 1:48 pm

Just a suggestion.. Why don't you pull it apart and inspect the inside of it and its build quality. Take some photos and take note of how everything looks. Then do it again six months later and then a year later to see how its holding up.

I buy a daiwa for lets say 250 odd bucks.. I look after it, make sure I don't get much salt water on it and pull it apart and clean and re grease it after every season. That was 7-8 years ago.. That's 30 bucks a year and I haven't lost any fish due to tackle failure..
In my opinion, sifting through **** is a waste of time. Like Ducky said, Sienna. Chuck in those stainless bearings off ebay which are $15 and if you really want to get fancy buy a couple sheets of carbontex cut up some drag washers for it, use some good drag grease like Cal's and trust me you will have a reel that lasts 10 years no worries.

This is just my opinion! I'm all for experiments and I'm keen to see your findings. Good luck with it.

Cheers, Anth

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mingle
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Re: Chinese Reel - Kastking Mela 3000

Post by mingle » Sat Jul 09, 2016 5:27 pm

A lot of these reels are produced in the same factories as named-brand reels, often sharing components.

An old school-mate of mine is a contract production-engineer and has spent quite a lot of time in China, helping
commission production-lines and other such exciting stuff. One contract was with Globeride (the company that
owns the Daiwa brand). The plant was making lures and rods, but he also got the opportunity to have a look at
a sister-site that was churning out reels. He reckoned there were just as many OEM reels being produced as
the branded ones. external designs differed, but internals were all coming from the same parts-bins.

He reckons the manufacturing standards in China have improved so much in the past 5 years alone. He also
said that any companies that makes sub-standard stuff die-off pretty quickly, since competition is so
fierce.

I'll be interested to hear how the reel goes and would also be interested to see some pics of the internals.

Cheers,

Mike.

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Re: Chinese Reel - Kastking Mela 3000

Post by Scraglor » Sat Jul 09, 2016 7:14 pm

Sinsemilla wrote:Just a suggestion.. Why don't you pull it apart and inspect the inside of it and its build quality. Take some photos and take note of how everything looks. Then do it again six months later and then a year later to see how its holding up.

I buy a daiwa for lets say 250 odd bucks.. I look after it, make sure I don't get much salt water on it and pull it apart and clean and re grease it after every season. That was 7-8 years ago.. That's 30 bucks a year and I haven't lost any fish due to tackle failure..
In my opinion, sifting through sh*t is a waste of time. Like Ducky said, Sienna. Chuck in those stainless bearings off ebay which are $15 and if you really want to get fancy buy a couple sheets of carbontex cut up some drag washers for it, use some good drag grease like Cal's and trust me you will have a reel that lasts 10 years no worries.

This is just my opinion! I'm all for experiments and I'm keen to see your findings. Good luck with it.

Cheers, Anth
I wanted to do that, but I have no confidence in my ability to put it all back together. I agree with what you say, I actually own Stradic Ci4+'s, etc. I love them. This is more a bit of a hobby than anything. I might have a crack at pulling them apart once I find out the flaws.

I didnt turn a reel today, perfect conditions, but no one told the fish, so I am not really any closer to finding out if the reel is any good. The drag felt nice and smoothe reeling in a lump of weed tho haha.

As an aside, my previous job was as a BDM for a chinese production mill, and the quality of stuff coming out of there, was as good, if not better than stuff produced locally.

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Sinsemilla
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Re: Chinese Reel - Kastking Mela 3000

Post by Sinsemilla » Sat Jul 09, 2016 10:56 pm

It's only nuts and bolts. As you take everything apart lay it out in order and just put it back together in reverse order. Most reels come with schematics these days..

I'm not saying that all china made stuff isn't worth touching, what i meant was that i wouldn't bother going through the **** to find a decent one when you can get decent name branded reels for good prices these days.

In china its all about the company and their build standards. If it's a china company copying some stuff and making it in china, its usually rubbish. but if its an overseas company getting their stuff built in china and put the effort into making sure the build standard is up to scratch and overlook everything it usually comes out okay.

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Re: Chinese Reel - Kastking Mela 3000

Post by hornet » Sat Jul 09, 2016 11:24 pm

Spot on Sinsemilla, the manufacturing company I work for has factories all over the world, China is one, we set the quality and material / build standard, we have quality control in place and world wide reporting to Japan head office, if a finished product is reported sub-standard it's nipped in the bud ASAP and investigated why it happened and the problem solved then recalls done if needed, China can produce awesome products it's the manufacturer that states what is required, sadly some prefer a cheaper product and the only way that can be achieved is in materials and components.
He who has the most fishing rods WINS ! :ts:

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Re: Chinese Reel - Kastking Mela 3000

Post by FreeSpool » Mon Jul 11, 2016 11:48 am

Scraglor wrote:Also, it makes a slight whirring noise when reeling at high speed (I think it's the line roller, as it didn't do it when it had no line on it) it's not very loud tho.
Looks good mate for the $ you paid.
I'd suggest you pull it apart and give it a proper grease with some white lithium marine grade grease and see what a difference it will make.
I have bought 3 Chinese reels off flea-bay over the last few years and they all come with barley any grease in them, once properly greased and oiled they will do the job quite well.

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Re: Chinese Reel - Kastking Mela 3000

Post by purple5ive » Mon Jul 11, 2016 12:03 pm

mingle wrote:One contract was with Globeride (the company that
owns the Daiwa brand). The plant was making lures and rods, but he also got the opportunity to have a look at
a sister-site that was churning out reels. He reckoned there were just as many OEM reels being produced as
the branded ones. external designs differed, but internals were all coming from the same parts-bins.

Mike.
Most of the expensive reels (and some rods) daiwa produce are still made in japan.
but the lower end stuff are all chinese, i believe a lot of the newer daiwa lures and budget rods and reels are all chinese made.

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Re: Chinese Reel - Kastking Mela 3000

Post by ingeer » Tue Jul 12, 2016 11:04 am

well, reading the 'about us' on www.kastking.com i guess this is not a chinese found company.. it seemed to be found in US and as most of the manufacturers do, they settled their factory in china...

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Re: Chinese Reel - Kastking Mela 3000

Post by mazman » Tue Jul 12, 2016 2:29 pm

purple5ive wrote:
mingle wrote:One contract was with Globeride (the company that
owns the Daiwa brand). The plant was making lures and rods, but he also got the opportunity to have a look at
a sister-site that was churning out reels. He reckoned there were just as many OEM reels being produced as
the branded ones. external designs differed, but internals were all coming from the same parts-bins.

Mike.
Most of the expensive reels (and some rods) daiwa produce are still made in japan.
but the lower end stuff are all chinese, i believe a lot of the newer daiwa lures and budget rods and reels are all chinese made.
they also have the middle of the line stuff made in thailand I believe. While shimano uses Japan and malaysia, I don't think any shimano reels are made in China currently but I may be wrong.
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