Ted's Pot O' Gold 2.0

[Cortez_Conversions]

Daron,
    The care and attention you put into a reel is beyond the limits of where most of us take them. Sal and Alan  have been key to us as they have led us to thinking outside the box and getting things to work our way.  I agree with the other members in saying that you have certainly come a long way and have motivated so many of us here to go that little bit further than we normally would.  Not only do you make it look easy but you take us on your journey inside the reel with descriptive photos and a solid explanation.  You're a modest guy with a big heart.  Ted, now has a reel that he can be proud to use or display at his discretion knowing that you did all you can to make sure he had the best.  What else can anyone ask for? Well done, pal. Also, I noticed the ring on the towel to prevent scratching that gem.  That's what I mean by going a little further than most.
Ted, you have a hell of a reel that no one else has... Enjoy it!
PS- Good looking out Randy, Paul, and Tom For making this happen. Tom, I had to pass that bearing cap on
because this reel deserved it.Only on AlanTani.com... I love it,
Dom

I was wondering how that beating cup got in the picture!

[Penn Chronology]

Daron,

I am in awe of this job.

There cannot be too many of this size Accurates left and seeing the amount of care and respect you gave the build simply floored me. You are a true craftsman in the vein of the old masters.

I suspect the spool was polished the same way I would polish a old vintage German Silver spool. You use a drill press, then use a block of wood with a hole drilled in it to match the spool shaft. Clamp the wood into a drill vice, then place the spool into the hole in the wood. Raise the table until you can chuck the other end of the spool shaft then easily spin the chuck by hand to center it all, then clamp the vice in place. You can now spin the spool for polishing. The wood will steady the spool while it is spinning.
             Here is a spool from a Edward Vom Hofe 14/O. This reel is worth in the neighborhood of $2000 after restoration.

This is how it looked to begin with. It was originally a chrome plated spool with a base metal of German Silver:


This is the spool sitting in the drill press vice, used to steady it during polishing:


This is the finished product. To make it work you have to remove the chrome plating with about 400 grit paper, then move to finer grits until you are finishing with a 1200 grit paper. Then the polishing part begins with whatever you favorite metal polish happens to be. For me it is whatever is on sale. This is a very labor intensive project that could take hours.


Being that the base metal of the Penn spool for the 9/O is more than likely brass, you wind up with a gold polished spool.

[Shark Hunter]

Thank You Michael. I can't ask for a higher praise than that.

[Penn Chronology]

OK, lets try this>>

I am being blasted with snow today, so every couple of hours I have to go out and clean, otherwise I will be buried. Since I operate out of my garage, I figured between cleaning snow, I would polish an old Penn Model 113, one piece bronze chrome plated spool, after removing the chrome. I wanted to see how difficult this would be, I have done many antiques but not one of these.

So I start by setting up a jig in my drill press to get this project started. Not fancy but it works:


Then I load in a one piece bronze spool 113 size and start spinning it and using wet or dry silicone-carbide 400 grit paper, with a bit of cutting oil to start the chrome removal process.


This particular spool was being resistant to loosing its chrome in some spots so I uped the paper to 150 grit and the chrome came right off. :


Once the chrome was off, I went back to the 400 grit and this was the first stage result:


After the chrome removal process is done, you continue spinning the spool in the drill press jig but move to a finer grit paper:


The 1200 grit paper beigns the polishing effect:


The 4/O spool is the perfect size for my little polishing machine, so, using red Tripoli compound I start to polish the spool:


The end result is a gold colored Penn spool:


I am going to use this spool in a Penn / Neptuna 4/O rig. Now the spool and cradle colors will match. The entire process took about two hours.  

[surfcaster]

That Spool reminds me of  marine corps days shining up brass with brasso & rags.
  We used to polish a large brass bell out in front of the barracks.I would 
  sneak a  fine scotchbrite pad wrapped in a rag to speed up the process.

[Superhook]

Great job Daron . Must be a nice change to work with all new ,clean parts from the start. The 9/0's are few and far between these days .

Good job on the spool Mike . Goes to show , you don't have to go to the big machine shops every time.

[broadway]

Cool tutorial, Mike!
   You make it look easy, even though I'm sure it takes plenty of patience and time.  You're right on when you said that you have to shovel every couple of hours... it just wouldn't quit.  Our snow stopped about an hour ago, but not without dropping 6-7" of white crap on us.  Stay well and warm you Noreasters!
I here that, Ray... nothing like doing a project by yourself to save dough, but most of all, we tinkerers get a lot of satisfaction out of doing it ourselves just because we can
Thanks,
Dom

[RockyR]

http://www.caswellplating.com/plug-n-plate-copy-chrome-kit.html

[Penn Chronology]

Sorry about stealing the thread for a bit. I thought the spool polishing process sort of related.

By the way, I polished the spool as a experiment and it worked out kind of good, so I wanted to use it. I wound up upgrading one of my cradle reels. I have a Neptuna 113 cradle that had an old beat up standard 4/O mounted in it, so I upgraded it to a Model 113H and used the gold spool  because it matched the anodized gold color of the cradle. Not as dramatic as the fabulous Accurate 9/0, but better than letting the spool sit in the parts bin.



Thanks for the idea Daron.

[Shark Hunter]

Great job Daron . Must be a nice change to work with all new ,clean parts from the start. The 9/0's are few and far between these days .

Good job on the spool Mike . Goes to show , you don't have to go to the big machine shops every time.

Ray,
I don't always deal with old parts. I really like to build one from new parts as well. Either way, They look new when it goes together.
That spool looks really Nice in that cradle Mike. I would at least wax it to prevent it from oxidizing so quick.

[Penn Chronology]

That spool looks really Nice in that cradle Mike. I would at least wax it to prevent it from oxidizing so quick.

I did use an auto product on it. I think after I waxed it, it toned down the polishing. Anyways, I don't really mind things getting old looking, then they look like me.

[coastal_dan]

Wow and wow!  Thanks for sharing both of these very cool creations.

[Bryan Young]

I'm just wondering how I missed these posts.  Great work Mike and thank you for sharing the process to our members.

[TechTeach]

I love the drill press trick, any damage from the 3 jaw chuck on the spool shaft?

I have a few spools that I will try this on.

[Maxed Out]

I love the drill press trick, any damage from the 3 jaw chuck on the spool shaft?

I have a few spools that I will try this on.

Putting the spool on a drill press with the line tie post spinning around is inviting possible catastrophy. Notice Mike pulled his line tie post, eliminating possible loss of fingertips. , a must if you do the drill press method.