The 99 Club 2.0

[George4741]

After reading Daron's post about how he briefly considered installing a Tiburon frame on his 99 Silver Beach, I decided to give it a try. Tiburon's "99" width Jigmaster frame lacks three screw holes necessary for properly installing a Silver Beach sideplate. I used a drill press to carefully drill the holes, then threaded them with a 5-40 tap. Here is the frame drilled and threaded.


And the assembled reel.


Thanks for the idea, Daron, and I would of blamed you if I ruined my Tib frame.

You can easily install a set of 250 or 500 sideplates on an unmodified Tib frame to accomplish the same thing, so there is no good reason for this 99 mod. I had too much free time on my hands and decided to have the first Tib framed 99 Silver Beach on my block.    
George  

[Tightlines667]

Maybe you should send these pics over to Tiburon.  Someone in R&D might be interested?

[DaBigOno]

Nicely done George,

What size drill bit did you use?

[Keta]

The tap drill for 5-40 is a #38.

[Shark Hunter]

Very Nice George! I am Jealous.
I need a drill press!
There is a little more meat on that frame. The Accurate had me scared.

[Maxed Out]

George, that is a beautiful reel and It does have a step up on the surfmaster 250 and the jigmaster 500.

Here's why: The surfmaster head and tail plates are secured with 6 screws and they are not evenly spaced which is less than optimum for your topless frame. The Jigmaster also has only 6 screws on each side plate, the spacing is better, but still lacks the 7 very evenly spaced screws that secure each side plate on your silver beach....it's just an observation and sounds logical to me that you have a more solid reel with the 7 evenly spaced anchor points.

.... I'm officially renaming your reel the "silver beast", a well deserved title.

Ted

[George4741]

What size drill bit did you use?

As Lee said, a #38. First I used a #29 drill, as it closely fit the holes in the sideplate, and carefully drilled enough to create a slight dimple centered in the Tib frame so the #38 drill wouldn't drift when starting the hole, as in the photo below. Then I removed the sideplate and drilled the screw holes to the desired depth with the #38.



Daron, I also wouldn't have tried this without a drill press. If I did bugger up the frame, at least it wouldn't be unserviceable, just ugly.

.... I'm officially renaming your reel the "silver beast", a well deserved title.

Ted

Thank you, Ted.  I hadn't thought of how the additional screw and spacing would increase strength, but I like it. I also like the "silver beast" moniker, but to truly live up to that I'd better replace the wimpy handle with a power handle, install a SS gear sleeve and aluminum spool, etc, etc.

[Alto Mare]

George, you're revealing some good tricks there, very nice job .

[George4741]

Thanks Sal.  Sometimes we must reveal a trick or two so one of our good buds doesn't bugger up their reel.

BTW I didn't use the 2-99 ring as I chose not to drill the extra holes on the right side of the frame.  Only one of my four Jigmasters had a 2-250 ring that the R/H 99 sideplate would properly attach to.  I suppose it is differences in manufacturing tolerances over the years.

[fIsHsTiiCkS]

Nice work! I thought about that a lot! Can't wait to see that beauty fully moded

[Rothmar2]

This is a reel I so want to be able to attain and do this and other mods to.
I just love those side-plates with coastal lighthouse scene moulded in.
Not many of these pop up on EBay, and the few that do rarely want to post outside of America.
Maybe one day.......
Great work and share.

[redsetta]

Great work George - thanks for sharing.

[George4741]

I decided to drill and tap three holes in the right side of the frame so I can install the 2-99 ring. I figured I may as well do a full and proper conversion to the Tib frame. Besides, I need the 2-250 ring for a Jigmaster.

As I was playing with the Tiburon frame, I decided to experiment with something a little different, as shown below. What is it?  A Senator, some other frankenreel, or what?



It's a Long Beach 259 on the 99 width frame. Everything bolts up to the Tib frame perfectly. I'm sure someone has done this before, but I got the idea after reading about Bryan's 501 width 259. If you want an Albacore Special size reel, don't like the removable sideplate, and a 3:1 retrieve ratio is OK, then this is an option.  



You can also do this with a 1/0 Senator, as the 259 is basically a rebadged and widened 1/0. Same gears, beauty rings, etc.

[Alto Mare]

Very nice George! Don't stop experimenting .
Sal

[Dominick]

Glad to see you experimenting George.  Keep it going  Dominick