Just wondering how often I should clean and lube my reel, and is it easy to do by myself or should I pay someone. A guy here in Kelso will clean and lube for $15 a reel I thought that seemed a little high.

The difficulty of cleaning and lubing depends on how mechanically inclined you are and how far you want to break it down. I take a couple of blue shop towels, put them on a table, and lay the parts out in the order they came off Pretty much like a parts explosion you would find in the manufactures parts manual. I then clean them one by one setting them back down right where I first placed them. Some reels have pretty tricky insides and you may just want to stop at taking off the cover wiping the old lube and muck off on the parts you can see and easily get to then relubing and reassembling. Pipe cleaners and a toothbrush along with a shop towel work pretty well.

This web site will help so you can do it yourself! Check out the articles section of the website. I "HIGHLY" recommend the yellow rocket fuel lube. It s Awesome stuff!
http://www.heartlandtackleservice.com

Ditto what MR said above. I have been cleaning my reels like that once a year with quick cleans in between and have reels that are 20 years old and still work like new. The real key I believe is keeping them oiled and lubed and I never spray them with water as that will force salts and sand into the reel. Wipe them down with a nice cloth if needed. It generally takes me about an hour to clean 4 to 5 reels as noted above.

I've paid $20/reel here in Seattle. $15 seems like a pretty reasonable price.

If you get a center pin, it only takes 5 min and a couple drops of oil.

Only take it apart far enough to gain access to all internal parts. Blast it with WD-40. Let it sit for a few. Blast it again (enough to rinse all contaminents out. Blast it with compressed air (to remove all of the WD-40). Throughly lube it with your product of choice. 10 minutes. Presto. Done.

All good advice above. I use styrofoam egg cartons to put the parts in as I disassemble the reel. 1 part per ea "egg" hole. LPS or WD-40 to loosen the crud. I use canned air to blow out the crud. Wipe it down and lightly lube.

I say take it in... too easy to loose parts. $15 is not unreasonable once or twice a year to keep you reel running good.

Chromeo