How to relubricate your Beaver Dam Artic Fisherman Tip ups. The official thread...

if you live in the Seymour/Green Bay/Appleton area i re lube beaver dam tipups for 5$ each much cheaper and i do quality work, if you want yours done just shoot me a PM or text me at 1-920-750-4641 (Adam)

I just had my tip-ups re-lubed by Arctic Fisherman, they are 30+ years old, (The first time) wasn't going to take the chance and try it myself. They no longer use solder, they replaced the the main stem and reels and used a nut to attach them. Three tip-ups cost $35, dropped off and picked up. I feel it was very reasonable. They are very busy.

I'll bump this one back to the top with a quaetion:\

If I have to add new solder, can I use electrical solder, or should it be plumbing solder?

For those having stiffness problems after relubing (OR ANY TIME FOR THAT MATTER)... Try hooking up a high speed drill to the end of the T bar and let her rip for a while... at least a few minutes... holding shaft horizontally... This is best if done in a warm environment. Move it back and forth a bit (the play in the shaft) push and pull a little against the stopps (not really hard just firmly). This will help to reseat everything nicely and warm up the lube. I have done this with tipups that were a bit stiff in the past and it worked well for me (without ever relubing). This works best without line on the spool (tie it off or tape it or use rubber band etc... etc...etc....).

I use a bolt through an old plastic fishing line spool to remove the line before doing this and use the drill to remove the line. I typically do that every season just to make sure the line is good... the knot at the spool is still tight and solid etc...

P.S. if you store them horizontally in the off season and do this every year (or as needed) you may never need to relube (just a thought by my personal experience). I have had all of mine for 15 - 25 years and never had any issues. The first 10 - 15 years of their lives they were used daily as a kid. back then I have even pulled some of them apart just to see how they worked... never relubbed them and they all still work very well... Even the ones that have been run over by the overly friendly sleds and ATV's.

That's my 2 cents worth on this topic

You can take them to Beaver Dam and they will lube them for $8 a pice. If you go you should call ahead and they will tell you the best time to bring them, to save you time.

BugelTrout--- I have not had any resistance after a repacking job. Did you pull rod out of spindle after spool was off Yes. Take steel wool and get with it if you don't have steel wool a SOS pad will work.Polish all rust pits off of 1/8" wire rod. Then the chrome tube with line guide on it. Clamp in vise at slight angle and weave torch on tube hold flame 4-6' away have a old coffee can under down hill end to catch old ugly water, factor grease,and any other big hunks will flow out as heated. NOW the big secret not to burn your fingers take coffee can hold in one hand and the BINFORD 4600 in the other hand and BLOW it out air hose, air nozzle, rubber tip air gun works best do this while still warm/hot flows right out. Add blu lube PLENTY1/4 of bottle. reassemble let me know if you get'er.

Got my first stiffy this Saturday.

I mean grabbed a Beaver Dam outa the bucket and it didn't wanna turn hardly.

Appreciate all these photos and instructions as I'll be ripping some apart and relubing.

I followed the directions on this thread and successfully disassembled my 3 Beaver Dams. I torched the shafts and removed all of the old grease. I re-greased one of them using a 10 mL plastic syringe to pack the shaft full of Blue Lube (works great, you can get these at Fleet Farm in the farm section). I then pushed the spindle rod back through, set the correct spacing and re-attached the spool using the torch.

I’ve noticed that the spool doesn’t spin as effortlessly as my Polar II or Frabill tip ups do after they get a fresh lube job. There isn’t anything binding and they spin uniformly, they just seem to have a little more resistance than I would expect for a Beaver Dam. I have the spacing of the spool on the rod correct as there’s just a slight amount of play when you pull the rod up and down in the shaft. The spacing is similar to what it was when I took them apart.

Anyone have any ideas what’s up? When I grease my other tip ups, I just put a layer on the spindle rod as the shafts don’t hold volume of grease like the Beaver Dams do. Is the slight amount of resistance caused by the volume of grease (Blue Lube is fairly viscous)? The rod did push out the appropriate amount of grease when fed back through the shaft. Will it loosen up once they’ve been put in water a few times? Also, I didn’t keep track of which rod and spool went with what shaft. I assumed that they were interchangeable. Maybe that wasn’t a good assumption.

In the end, they’re probably fine, but there’s no doubt that the one I re-lubed doesn’t spin as freely as some of my other tip ups. These are pretty old BDs that I got off Ebay and are a refinishing project so time isn’t an issue. I’d rather figure out if I’m doing something wrong before I reassemble the other two so any advice would be great.

Caz Trait--- I have taken it into my owen hands re-packed 6 last year. Was at the landing and made the comment: I will go home and repack tip ups guy over heard me say that. He said where you going tomorrow? I replied why? Guy says you said you had to go home and repack tip-ups. Yep I take them apart and clean them , get old NASTY'S out of shaft . Things that don't need to be in their some how get in their. Since then I have serviced 10 - 20 may be more a year just a little more minnow money. Friends and family mostly now its getting out their that i repack tip-ups. A person does not think he has many friends until it come stiff tip-up time.

finish.

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I never quite understood that either? Helpful hints. 1- heat the top of the bottle of blue lube up so you can push it on the bottom of the shaft tube (the top of the blue lube bottle is slightly smaller than the shaft tube heating it allows you to do this). Squeeze the bottle until the lube starts to come out the top of the shaft tube. Push the shaft back into the shaft tube (do not take the bottle off the bottom of the shaft tube yet) the extra lube will go back into the bottle. No mess no wasted lube. I did 9 tip-ups with 1 1/2 bottles. 2- place a coin (dime) between the brass collar and the top of the shaft tube (this gives you the proper spacing) use a rubber band around the tip-up and the brass cross bar to hold it in place. Put the tip-up upside down on a bucket and solder the spool back onto the shaft. Remove the coin after the solder has cooled and you are in business.

Here's a picture of the aluminum tag below the flag spring. Hopefully these pictures help. Any advice is appreciated.

If all else fails. I plan to just torch the bottom of the spool to loosen the solder and go from there. From the directions in the original post, I thought that this particular unit is different. I'm no expert on Beaver Dams so I could be missing something.

Thanks.!

Here's the bottom of the spool.

Here's one with the line guide moved out of the way.