Old Florida flyreel

[joefrasc]

Where would I purchase a cork drag disc for a model 66 Old Florida flyreel
Thanks in advance
Joe

[alantani]

not sure about the availability of cork, but i'd bet the cork in this reel could be switched out for greased carbon fiber.

[joefrasc]

Alan
the cork in this drag set up is glued to one side of the part, does carbon lend it self to being glued and if so what type of glue
thanks for your response
Joe

[Ken_D]

Caveat: I have no first hand knowledge about carbon in this reel. Nautilus scooped O.F. several years ago, and may have cork parts. Islander in Canada may be able to help as well. The Islander uses cork.

That said, unless the contact face of the P.F. reel is steel, not aluminum, I suspect that the carbon would chew it up pretty fast.

[jurelometer]

The OFs have cork glued onto the pawl disk.  It is pulled tight against the spool surface.   

I think that most, if not all Old Florida reels use the same sized clutch pawl disk with the glued on cork disk.  I will double check and report back.

I was able to get a new OF reel foot from Nautilus, shortly after they bought OF and discontinued the reels.  At the time, they said that they were not going to be supplying OF parts, but it is worth a try.

I have one OF reel that is missing a chunk of cork, and it works fine.  Cork is very forgiving.   If the problem is the cork getting sticky, you probably can clean and lube your way out of the problem.

I have been looking for cork drag material for years, and could never find it in non  industrial/quantities.  Regular fine grain cork sheets might work, but the acrylic used to bind the material  might be too sensitive to lubricants, solvents and heat.  OTOH, cork drags cannot get too hot anyways.

Regarding carbon fiber replacement for cork, Hayden offered the option of cork or carbon fiber for the drag material for a reel with a very similar design.  Carbon fiber produces less drag for the same clamping force due to a lower coefficient of friction.  Also the Hayden spool was Type III anodized, so it would ne much more resistant to abrasion than the OF with type II.    The newer the manufacture date of an OF reel, the worse the machining and anodizing quality   (especially on internal surfaces).

If you decide to go the CF route,  you MUST use drag lube on the CF,  account for the difference in thickness of the CF vs cork, and change the spring setup to allow for more clamping force.   If your reel is one of the earlier models with a coil spring, ditch the coil and go to bellevilles  (a good idea anyways).   

Note that CF will be more sensitive  to wobbling and vibration than cork.  An improved reel is not a given.

If you want to hire out  a cork replacement, there is one guy whose name has  popped up for decades for this kind of work on out-of-support high end fly reels.   His name is Bill Archuleta.   I have no personal experience with him.  It probably won't be cheap.

I think we should start a separate thread on cork to carbon fiber conversions....

-J

[jurelometer]

Aargh,  just saw this was an old post.  Will still leave my reply in case folks find it useful.

Dohhh

[Rivverrat]

J, I'm glad you did.
I love a drag with cork disks. Nothing to back this up but I get the sense they may be best for use for lighter lines. Any ways I have replaced the drags on some friends old spinners & fly reels with rubberized cork for building rod handles. They have all been pleased with the results. Now this using very lite line. No more than 5 lbs. of drag

  On another note while day dreaming on The River while watching lines I think on stuff. One such stuff is what would be the best all around drag. Sure there is various ideas on this. But my best drag would be a combination of cork & a weave made from asbestos. A 2 stage drag starting with cork going to asbestos with drag increase... Jeff

[Tiddlerbasher]

For light/ultra light fising I have successfully used Acetal (don't know if it was Pom H or C ). But if it is a multidisc setup I would still go for greased cf.
Then again if you use a click and pawl reel there is no decision to be made