yet another reason not to imbibe

Started by oc1, March 12, 2017, 01:09:48 PM

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oc1

The Shakespeare Standard Professional Free Spool remains the best Depression Era reel I can find.  It was discussed in one of Mike's threads here:
http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=20246.15 #16
With an eleven foot three piece cane rod it will throw a 1/4 ounce jig thirty yards.  I'm pretty happy with that and try not to think about the 65 to 70 yards they were throwing 1/4 ounce in casting tournaments a hundred years ago.

The reel is much larger than needed.  120 yards of 15# braided nylon is plenty but that is less than half spool.  At half spool, the retrieve (inches per turn) is painfully slow.  So, I was thinking about adding a cork arbor (spacer/filler) to reduce spool weight.  Then, in a moment of intoxicated brilliance, I decided to also drill the aluminum spool flanges.  



Oops....  When casting, water being flung off the line goes through the holes and into the gear case.  Water was dripping out of the cracks between the shrunken hard rubber spacers and the side plate.  Also, the cork arbor was not true or balanced and it would wobble when casting.

So, the hard rubber spacers were removed and replaced with tubular brass spacers.  This makes it easy to rinse the saltwater out of the gears and re-lubricate.  The photo below is the third attempt at a spool spacer but it too was out of balance and I went back to nylon line backing to take up space. Also, a small brass screw and nuts were attached to the frame to tension the clutch lever.



I could not tell that drilling the spool made any difference in performance.  Despite going from Art Deco to Steam Punk styling, it still works fine.  It was used to catch a medium size (19 inch fork length)  bonefish and all was uneventful.  Actually, both rod an reel felt like I was over-gunned for the task.  The next step is to find a smaller reel with the Koph style clutch and figure out how to reduce the weight of the cane rod.



-steve


thorhammer


Bryan Young

Very cool. At least rinsing and drying would be easily done.
:D I talk with every part I send out and each reel I repair so that they perform at the top of their game. :D

Bill B

Pretty cool use of the brass spacers......Bill
It may not be very productive,
but it's sure going to be interesting!

oc1

oh... and don't let the fine people at ORCA see this.  They would not approve.
-steve

Tightlines667

Quote from: oc1 on March 12, 2017, 08:00:53 PM
oh... and don't let the fine people at ORCA see this.  They would not approve.
-steve

Lol  :D
Hope springs eternal
for the consumate fishermen.

Midway Tommy

Quote from: oc1 on March 12, 2017, 08:00:53 PM
oh... and don't let the fine people at ORCA see this.  They would not approve.
-steve

Ya think? Surly not something for the weak at heart!  ;D
Love those open face spinning reels! (Especially ABU & ABU/Zebco Cardinals)

Tommy D (ORCA), NE



Favorite Activity? ............... In our boat fishing
RELAXING w/ MY BEST FRIEND (My wife Bonnie)

oc1

There is something I didn't mention because it is so embarrassing.  But they say catharsis is good for the soul.

With a long limber rod and 3/8 or 1/4 ounce jig the reel is uncontrollable.  If the jeweled spool tension knobs are cranked down enough to get somewhat thumb-free casting it yields no distance.  If the spool tension knobs are backed off and my thumb is perfectly aligned with the cosmos it will throw 3/8 ounce at least 39 yards.  The trouble is, my thumb and the cosmos almost never line up so 95% of the time it either falls way short or ends in a backlash.

The original goal of having a Depression Era period appropriate rig went out the window when the spool was drilled.  So, I magged it to get the spool under control.  I had never magged a reel before and bought the wrong magnets.  They are a whopping half-inch in diameter and the neodymium number is probably low.  Drilling the spool may make the magnets less effective.  The steel clicker ratchet centered between the magnets may make them less effective.  For whatever the reason, I seem to have a lot more magnet under the spool than you would expect for a reel this size.



The magnets were attached with a stick of rod guide hot glue and a hot air gun. The clicker spring was removed to make more room for magnets.  There are four stacks of two magnets in a +-+- arrangement.  For a 1/8 or 3/16 ounce jig all the magnets are used. For a 1/4 ounce jig a magnet is removed from one of the stacks.  For a 3/8 ounce jig two magnets are removed. 

With the spool tension knobs backed off, a 3/8 ounce jig will cast 34 yards, thumb free, every time.  It's a beautiful thing.  1/4 ounce goes 29-30 yards.  3/16 ounce about 25 yards.
-steve

mhc

I don't know if the magnets are too big or not but it sounds like it's working - Ya gotta be happy with that!  ;D

Mike
It can't be too difficult - a lot of people do it.

mo65

   That is some serious experimentation there Steve...and seems to work very well. Who knows what we'll see next time you "imbibe"! :D
~YOU CAN TUNA GEETAR...BUT YOU CAN'T TUNA FEESH~


oc1

#10
I have been watching for a smaller reel with the Kpoh style clutch and finally had to drop a Benjamin (with shipping) for one.  That's two to three times more than I am usually willing to pay for an old reel.  It arrived today.

You may have seen it; a Shakespeare Tournament Free Spool, Model 31.  That makes the release date circa 1931.



However, the stand is marked Model 26 with a strike through the 26.  It is a sharp clean strike and I suspect it was done at the factory.



The head plate is not marked and the head plate finish is not as nice as you would expect.  There is faint pitting and tool marks.



The handle is ridiculously small.  It is the smallest handle and the smallest knobs I have ever seen.  When reeling in, the opposing handle knob bumps my finger with every turn.  The knob shape is not typical for a Shakespeare of this vintage, but the knob color and mottling is spot on so I suspect that is how it came from the factory.  I think the knob material is what they were calling Ivoroid (faux ivory).  I have a handle from a Shakespeare Criterion parts reel of the same vintage and it fits perfectly.



The reel was spooled with some fancy two-tone hard braid silk.  I suspect the line was six to eight pound test when new but the silk has deteriorated and now breaks at only one or two pounds.



I removed the line and was very happy to find a cork spool arbor/spacer.  The curious thing was that the line was not tied to the spool but to a little piece of thread.  To me, this indicates that the reel was used for tournament casting only and the owner had no plans to take it fishing.



The ends of the spool shaft are somewhat grooved and the jeweled end caps have worn depressions in the agate.  To me, this indicates the reel was used with a long rod, high start-up speeds and tight spool end caps.



The tail plate is peened to the posts.  The head plate is removed with only two screws.  Inside the head plate is a familiar Koph style clutch.




Whoa, hold everything !!!!  The spool flanges are drilled.  The triangular shaped marks you see are where a tool was driven through the aluminum spool flange leaving a small pointed piece of metal on the other side.  This may have been to keep the cork from slipping on the arbor.  There are two sizes of round holes and the spacing is irregular.  Some of the holes are not completely round either.  The irregular spacing may have been for both weight reduction and dynamic spool balancing.  I cannot tell if the holes were drilled at the factory or drilled by the owner.

Frankly, the spool I drilled looks better.  Also, I drilled holes near the perimeter of the flange where a small weight reduction makes a big difference in the moment of inertia.  Holes drilled near the center of the flange have little effect on the moment of inertia.  Some casting tournaments of the time had rules about using stock reels.  It is possible the holes drilled under the cork where they could not be seen was a clandestine modification.

I'm making a lighter weight rod for this reel and am anxious to try it out.
-steve

The Great Maudu

Fascinating post Steve. Keep it coming.

sdlehr

Steve, any idea how the cork was applied to the arbor? Does one have to disassemble a spool to get that?

Sid
Sid Lehr
Veterinarian, fishing enthusiast, custom rod builder, reel collector

oc1

Man, I've wasted a lot of time trying to crack that nut Sid.  There is no seam so the cork (or sometimes it is a very light wood) is put on the arbor before the flange is pressed into place.  I would be terrified to disassemble a spool.

At one time, ABU, Shakespeare and probably other companies had plastic spacers that came in two halves and just snapped into place.  They actually work pretty well.

I've tried to make something similar with wood and cork but don't have a precision lathe and can never get them true (perfectly round) and balanced.  If the spacer is not true there will be more line on one side than the other and the spool will be unbalanced.  If the spool is not balanced you can feel it wobble when casting, it decreases performance and probably causes undue wear to the shaft and bearings.

To make things more tricky, cork and wood are not uniform material so the spacer can be true, but still not balanced due to one side being a denser material than the other.  If you start out with a spacer that is true, you can use dynamic balancing (like spin balancing the tire on a car) to add weight to one side.  Just spin the spool and let it come to a stop.  The odds are it will stop with the heavy side down.  Mark the spool with a spot of ink and keep repeating the process until you see a clear grouping of ink spots on one side.  Insert a small weight into the spacer on the opposite side and then start the whole process over to verify it's balanced.
-steve

oc1

#14
So, I made a light rod for for the Tournament Free Spool.  It's a split bamboo blank, nine feet, spliced in the middle where a ferrule should be, minimalist wire guides with silk wrap, calcutta cane handle with some old Cuttyhunk and a piece of roofing lead pounded into a butt cap.






I still don't know how to cast and could not control the reel with a quarter ounce jig so bring out the magnets.  The magnets are Neodymium 52 size 1/4 inch diameter X 1/16 inch thick.  Eight magnets was way too much.  Four (+-+-) is about right and I'm getting 31 to 32 yards thumb free.  It may be possible to squeeze out another yard with one less magnet but I haven't tried that yet.

I learned that you cannot heat these magnets.  I was using a hot air gun with a hot glue stick to attach the magnets.  Not sure of the temperature but it was probably about 250F.  After heating the magnets they lost a lot of their strength.  This is probably why it took so many adjustments and why I ended up with so much magnet in the Standard Professional Free Spool. Every time one was heated it became weaker.

After putting down the hot air gun I tried PC-11 marine epoxy, but it takes a long time to cure.  Super glue is quick and is good enough for now.  The magnets can be manipulated and added one at a time with a long doll needle.  The little piece of line in the photo is to keep the magnet from sucking up against its neighbor and keep it away from the clicker spring while the glue dries.




While the Standard Profession Free Spool is too large, the Tournamnt Free Spool with cork spacer is almost too small.  I had to reduce the line size to twelve pound Dacron in order to load 110 yards leaving enough room to accommodate inconsistent line leveling.  It palms really well though and is so small that the thumb can be used to spread and level the line from the top while retrieving.



I hoped to show you a bonefish photo.  A medium size one was hooked and got to the stage of circling the canoe.  The rod did well enough and all of the bend was down in the lower half when the fish was running.  The rest of the rod was pointing at the fish, including that sketchy splice in the blank.  Then at one point, the fish was coming around the stern, the rod was bending to the right. I was watching the fish and cranking, but didn't notice that line was piling up on the right side of the spool (because the rod was bent to the right).  All of a sudden the retrieve rate went to almost nothing.  Drat, the small line had slipped under the spool flange and wound around the shaft.  When I pulled on it the line broke from under the flange and I was left holding the end with a fish attached.  For a moment I had visions of hand lining the fish in but it took off again and sliced my finger as the line slipped away.



It's almost a fatal flaw.  The reel will not hold enough thick line and thin line can slip under the spool.  But everything was fine until I let the rod bend to the side without leveling the line.  Maybe it is not a fatal flaw, but just one more thing to remember.
-steve