A Winter Project

[Penn Chronology]

OK, I'm back.

After a series of stupid mistakes on my part and a assembly process which I must have done eight times before I got to where I was happy, I now have a assembled head plate:

Now, I am sure because I am not a custom builder, I made some dumb mistakes and I also hit one wall that I could not solve and had to go another way for now. What you see is the gear box finally together and working smooth. All functions are fine. I used the stainless steel sleeve with the Delrin washer and the 4 to 1 stainless main and pinon gear set. The stainless yoke I could not get to work. I have never installed one of these before, so I figure I did something wrong. Just to see if it was something other than the stainless yoke. I used a stock yoke and the problem disappeared. So this reel has the stock Penn yoke in it now and it works great. It also has the stock five washer drag set in it but I will change that when I get the seven washer set with the special insert and the new double dog bridge. So I am now happy and ready to move to more assembly:

And then there was the screw fiasco!. I had screws that were too short, so, I assumed that Penn screws did not work in the Accurate plates and went the McMaster Carr route to get the right screws. All well and good but it turns out that I had the wrong screws in the first place. Because I do not work on Senators too often, most of my spare screws are for the smaller reels. So, the Penn bridge screws I used in the first place were too short because I used the wrong Penn screws. Penn screws for a 113H bridge work in a Accurate plate perfectly. Screws from a Penn Long Beach do not. That is why you see Penn screws in the bridge housing. I will use the Stainless Screws when I get all the other custom parts. As for now, the reel will be held together with Penn fasteners.

Then there is the beautifully machined Star Wheel by Adam. It threads onto the stainless steel sleeve flawlessly, but, because of the special shaping of the star wheel, when used with a Penn drag sleeve, the wheel will hit the body of the head plate when fully tightened. So I took a 316 stainless steel half inch washer and cut down the outside diameter to fit between the drag wheel and the drag sleeve. That gave me plenty of clearance between the head plate and the drag wheel when fully tightened but would not allow full release of the drag. What I did was to sand off some material from the sleeve until I got the perfect clearance between the head plate and handle with full travel of the drag wheel from full off to full on. I was surprised but it worked very well. Here you can see how tight the clearance is but it works perfectly and does not rub the head plate or the handle.

So now I have a magnificent reel to add to my collection thanks to all the generous people here at this great website.




My wife walked into my office and looked at this reel. Her first words were, that reel is beautiful, you cannot take it fishing.

[foakes]

Beautiful Job, Michael --

Best,

Fred

[Penn Chronology]

Thanks Fred

[Three se7ens]

Looking good! I never thought about the accurate plates posing an issue with that star, but I'm glad you got it sorted. 

[Shark Hunter]

Great Job Michael!
She is a Looker!

[redsetta]

Top-notch work - thanks for sharing!

[Alto Mare]

Beautiful Job Mike. Could you point out where the star was hitting and how thick of a spacer was needed. The reason I ask is that I believe that star and handle make the reel, and I'm hoping Adam will fine tune them to make them work.
Thanks!
Sal

[Penn Chronology]

Thank you all. This will be the fourth Accurate in my collection. The others are much smaller, they are all Squidders. I made an Accurate version of all the Squidders. The 140 is gold, a 145 in red and a crazy mottled red and black 146, which I am told is a very difficult color to find:

I guess it is obvious but the Model 140 is on the left, the reel on the right is the Model 145. Squidders are one of my favorite Penn reels. When I was a kid it was the reel I dreamed about but could not afford to buy. My pocketbook allowed me to own a Penn 155 that I worked a deal on, a Squidder was a big money reel to me then. Times change, now my Squidders are worth more than my first car cost me.


I have been told by people that collect Accurate reels, yea there are guys that collect Accurates , that these crazy mottled plates are rare. I just ran across them on EBay a few years ago and thought they were cool. The frame and plates were sold as a set.

So that's it, all my Accurate's plus the one new 113H addition. They are a fun side bar to serious collecting.

[Penn Chronology]

Could you point out where the star was hitting and how thick of a spacer was needed. The reason I ask is that I believe that star and handle make the reel, and I'm hoping Adam will fine tune them to make them work

With the standard Penn drag sleeve, which starts out measuring 9/32" heavy in thickness, the heavy portion of the star leg hits the top portion of the bridge housing:

          Star wheel leg at the 12 o'clock position will rub the plate if not shimmed. The washer / shim I added was 1/32" thick, that wound up being a bit too much, so I shaved off about 1/64" from the drag sleeve height (height of drag sleeve measuring about 9/32" heavy, finished 9/32" lite). Using a shim of half the thickness I used should also solve the problem. I believe this is not a problem on a stock Penn side plate. This problem only shows up on a Accurate Plate. The clearance between the handle and side plate is more critical using an Accurate plate (IMHO).

I believe Adam is no longer making the special star wheel for sale, this would not be a problem using a flat sheet stock star wheel. It only happened here because of the extra thickness at the end of the star legs in combination with the higher profile of the Accurate plate at the top of the bridge housing.

[Three se7ens]

The machined stars fit fine on the original penn side plate because the area at the spool bearing doesn't protrude out like the accurate frame does.  The stars I have for sale on my site are cut from flat stock and will not have that clearance issue with the accurate plates.

[Alto Mare]

Thank you Mike, sounds like an easy fix. I know Adam is  not making those anymore, but I need to have one .

[Three se7ens]

Thank you Mike, sounds like an easy fix. I know Adam is  not making those anymore, but I need to have one .

Dont worry Sal, I have one here with your name on it.  It hasnt been machined yet though.

[fIsHsTiiCkS]

Great work! Beautiful reel and an excellent addition to your collection!

[txangler81]

Great job Mike. They all look great that 146 is just wild looking though. 

Dustin

[Penn Chronology]

Thanks, yes, the crazy looking 146 always brings comments. Great little reel also!