felt oil washers in old Squidder bearing cups

[dgz3]

Greetings all! And thank you all for sharing the wealth of information collected here. By far, the finest single reference source on the net!
But I cannot find any reference anywhere to my question. And no parts diagram I have found shows what I found in my reel!

I bought a box full of junk reels at a yard sale a few years ago and only recently went through it. Buried in the bottom was what I believe to be a very early, prewar even, 140 Squidder. It has black side plates, a tawny colored handle knob, the flat or leaf type dog spring, and a metal spool.
All of the exterior metal was badly corroded and pitted. 25% of the chrome is gone. The spool, spacer bars, and reel stand are particularly bad. It was filled with some very old powdery mono over about 100 yards of old white dacron backing.
My guess is that it was used a few times, never rinsed, and then put aside for decades.

Miraculously, the insides are pristine! And likely to be all original. I don't believe it has ever been opened.
So, naturally, I ordered a new black Tiburon frame and clamp, an HT100 drag kit and bought a pristine Newell spool off ePay! lol I know, i know. Coulda bought a new and better reel for the 100 bucks I have in it. But what fun would that be?

I plan to load it with 30 or 40# mono and use it for dead bait snook fishing at night in the St. Sebastian River in Florida.

Now to my question... I was going to replace the bearings, which actually seem to be just fine. And I found felt washers in between the bearing and the bearing cover washers in each bearing cup.
I'm guessing these were to hold oil. But they are not shown on any parts diagram. And I can find no mention of them anywhere by anyone
.
So, do I need them? Or can I pretend I never saw them and reassemble without them? I think I have attached pics. If not, I will repost.

[thorhammer]

Great job bring this one on line! You can try the reel without. If it works, don't worry about them. It is possible they are in there to center the spool but you will know that quickly.

[Bill B]

X2......enjoy your new treasure brother.....No turning back now..  BaWWWWAAAAHAHAHAHAH       Bill

[sdlehr]

I've had a few squidders open and never found any of those felt rings. They are present on my Pflueger reels, though. I agree with John, if it works without them you can leave them out. If not it shouldn't be too hard to make new ones with new felt. Office depot would be where I would look first, they look like felt discs used to cushion objects placed on glass furniture.....

Sid

[thorhammer]

I don't think I've seen them in mine either Sid, unless I just didn't  look close enough.  Will check the two I just converted to Cortez tomorrow.

[alantani]

i can't say i've ever seen those, although the daiwa reels have them sometimes and they seem to work pretty well.  welcome!!!!

[PacRat]

I found some in an old Penn (Squidder or Senator...I don't remember) and I just took them out and tossed them.
-Mike

[Alto Mare]

I've seen those only on spinners and at the bottom of some really old gear sleeves, never on a Squidder.
I'm not 100% on it, but I'm thinking he was probably using that washer as a spacer to help center the  spool.
Either way, I usually toss them when I run into them.

Sal

[dgz3]

Thanks guys! Kinda what I thought. I think this reel probably "pre dates" all of us! I suspect the felt was on the very early reels and was simply deleted later on.
The furniture pads are an idea... i may even have a few of those around. I think the idea was to retain oil to feed the bearing and possibly also act as a sort of oil bath dust seal. I have seen similar felt washers on old electric motor shafts.
Old breaker point ignition distributors have a felt plug in the distributor shaft that you're supposed to put a few drops of oil on to keep the shaft lubed. But I never understood how the oil is supposed to lubricate anything, if it is soaked into the felt.
So back together it will go, with or without.

[oc1]

I found it in a post-war squidder with black plates, part numbers, hershey kiss clicker, surf fisherman embossed picture.  It was about the same condition as yours.  If they were so intent on having an oil reservoir down there under the bearings it seems like they would have put bearing oil ports on the head plate and cast control knob.  But, they didn't.
-steve

[Maxed Out]

Your squidder is pre war early 1940's..................that's why that type of washer was in there. Your handle counterbalance is the giveaway, it's definitely pre war era

P.S. welcome to the forum, and feel free to ask any questions. Lots of knowledge resides here in the "Ohana"

-Ted

[thorhammer]

See, that's an 80 year old classic. I would've just serviced, sticked, thrown.

AT is like going to Chamelot for fencing class..../.

[steelfish]

Your squidder is pre war early 1940's..................that's why that type of washer was in there. Your handle counterbalance is the giveaway, it's definitely pre war era

wow  a Pre-war reel, thats deffinetely a collection item

I just got a 140 with metal spool, it was sold to me for cheap by a co-worker that found it on a flea market

its really similar to the on on the picture, but the side plates are dark maroon color and the counter balance on the handle is exactly the same bu the color of the wood knob is dark green

[Maxed Out]

Your squidder is pre war early 1940's..................that's why that type of washer was in there. Your handle counterbalance is the giveaway, it's definitely pre war era

wow  a Pre-war reel, thats deffinetely a collection item

I just got a 140 with metal spool, it was sold to me for cheap by a co-worker that found it on a flea market

its really similar to the on on the picture, but the side plates are dark maroon color and the counter balance on the handle is exactly the same bu the color of the wood knob is dark green

Somewhere around mid 1950's the word "gear" went away from the headplate, as seen in first pic of this thread "on, "gear", off" surely dates this squidder to mid 1950's or earlier. Handles can be easily switched around, so it's not a foolproof way of dating a reel. Maroon sideplates are 1970's, then sometime in 80's went back to black

[dgz3]

Thanks for the info and confirmation on my estimated date. I haven't put it together yet. I forgot I needed a fiber washer for the gear.
Had the finish not been so badly corroded I would have simply shined it up and put it on display. In fact, I have a very nice Montague Tri Color two piece split bamboo rod with, what I believe may be a nickel silver seat, it would look great on. And it will likely wind up there one day. It's more of a boat/pier type rod, but very few people would likely spot that. Now if I were to come across a really nice period correct surf rod...
But until then, I'll get a kick out of using it, and I haven't done anything that can't be reversed. I certainly won't get rid of the old parts. I'll clean them up as best I can and file them away.