I'm trying to find a bigger bearing. The surf rods have big diameter butts and so with a normal one like we saw at the show , you have to stick the tip in to spine it cause the butt won't fit. That scares me! However , I did ask Al Goldberg and he said he sticks the tip of fat butted rods in his and it works fine.
I like your idea of doing something to protect the finish on the rod while using the rotary spine finder.
Best way I know to degrease a bearing is to clean in a solvent like acetone in an ultrasonic cleaner. Works great on reel bearings. Maybe I can just find a clean dry bearing in the first place. I've been looking! Not an easy thing to scavenge!
