Shakes-Bender 2052

[PacRat]

This is an impractical solution but a solution all the same. Ever since I was a kid I wanted to get my hands on a 2052. I would lust after them at the local sporting-goods store. My one and only reel at the time was a one size fits all Daiwa that I used in streams, ponds, and piers.  By the time I could afford the Shakespeare it was out of production and I was mostly ocean fishing anyway. Decades later, I land here at alantani.com and my desire for a 2052 was re-ignited. I quickly purchased one before fully understanding which year models are more desirable. My first 2052 had the dreaded plastic arbor and it was cracked to boot. Thanks to Tommy's tutorial I was able to rebuild the arbor with JB Weld.


Once repaired the 2052 felt great in my hands but my experience with the cracked arbor kept me focused on the spool, drag, arbor configuration. I was disappointed when comparing this reel to the other worm-drive microlights in its class. I knew I could pick up a shaft with a metal arbor and problem would be solved, but I have a reel problem and I always end up fixing my 'parts reels'. The plastic spool and drag still seemed to put it near the bottom of the class when compared to the Penn 716, SouthBend 925, Daiwa 8100, and the Quicks, which all had better spools and drags...plus they had quick-release spools.

Then I had the idea to swap in a spool and shaft from one of the others, hopefully with just a little modification to the shaft. It seemed important to find a potential donor with readily available spools and shafts so Penn and Quick were my first choices. Whenever I had a reel apart on my bench I would test fit the parts. The Penn and Quick seemed somewhat do-able but would require a lot of modification. I tried the Daiwa too but decided those parts were hard to come by. Then one day I had a SB 925 on the bench and low and behold it was a very close fit. Luckily I had received a couple of 925 spools that were mixed in with a lot of Mitchell spools. Mike (MO65) saved the day with a trade for an 925 shaft that he had procured when Fred was culling out his parts. (I wish I had this idea sooner). Fred, if you ever come across some SB 925 shafts again, I will purchase them from you.

Here's some photos:








You can see how close these parts are. I even considered making new shafts from scratch. I remember Tommy saying that Shakespeare and SouthBend were manufactured in the same plant at one time. Maybe that's why they are so close?


Here's the shaft installed. It's nearly a drop-in mod. I did need to test fit a couple SB shafts with different Shakespeare pinion gears until I found a set that wasn't too tight. It only required a little lapping and polishing until it fit perfect.


With no further tweaks the line lay is still a little wonky. I haven't fully tested it or played with it enough to figure it out yet. Any and all critique and advice is welcome. I need to purchase some shim washers so I can play around with the arbor-to-spool shim a little. Also, the spool in the photo was completely spooled on the Shakes-Bender so maybe if I fill the spool on a proper 925 it will perform acceptably on the Shakes-Bender with practical casting and retrieving of the outer wraps.


So, here's the (mostly) finished project. it's a hybrid so I call it the 'Shakes-Bender'. Shakespeare gets first billing because it's 75% Shakespeare. I know it's not really a practical fix but if you have the parts it might just put this little hybrid solidly in the class with its rivals. Thank you Mike, Tommy and Fred for all the parts, input and knowledge that you share with all of us. I'll update this when I actually get to fish it.

  Cheers 
-Mike

[handi2]

Great job..!

[foakes]

Good work, Mike —-

Just let me know how many you want.

Will send them out @ N/C.

Got about 40 lbs. of New-Old-Stock South-Bend parts.

Best, Fred

[oldmanjoe]

    Nice Thinking ..    Looks like you are in the ball park with line lay .   Mono line ?
     A shim under the spool should do it .  OR look at the bail roller diameters , a larger dia . would help also .

[Midway Tommy]

That's pretty amazing, Mike. Nice mod, & I like that side plate decal! 

BTW, is that a typo re: 825? It looks like a 925

[PacRat]

That's pretty amazing, Mike. Nice mod, & I like that side plate decal! 

BTW, is that a typo re: 825? It looks like a 925

Good catch Tommy, except not a typo but rather a straight-up brain-fart...too many irons in the fire today. Actually if you could zoom-in on the photo, you would see that it's actually labeled as a 935 because the medallion was missing and that was all I had. I have several SBs that are mislabeled and I know it's going to drive someone crazy one day. I'm going to go back and fix the post though. Thanks for pointing that out.

-Mike

[jgp12000]

Great engineering minds(Mike)at work here to learn from and get ideas!

[mo65]

   Great work Mike! I see this project worked out fantastically...I bet she fishes like a champ!

[Gfish]

Cool! Thinkin outside the box. The "Shakes-Bender" is uniquely your reel.

[PacRat]

I'm going to take a closer look at line-lay issues. When looking back at my shaft photos I realized I was doing and apples to oranges comparison. So I used a drill rod to better align the pin hole for the oscillating arm and to include the push-button arbor from the 925 since this is where the spool indexes and also where a washer would be added or deleted.





I know the forward mating surface of the 925 arbor looks much greater than the 2052 but that is compensated for by the geometry of the perspective spools. When measuring the throw of the shaft, it is within 1/32" between both reels with their stock configuration.

The 925 spool is slightly narrower between the flanges but those measurements get subjective due to the curves, I measured between the flattest portions of the flanges. I have some more numbers that I need to look at but first I think I need to fill the 925 spool and throw some casts and retrieves before changing anything.

[Midway Tommy]

Line lay on push button type spools are tough to adjust and compensate for. The cross pin and groove in the bottom of the spool or insert pretty much limits how much adjustment you can get without major refabricating. 

[oldmanjoe]

      That`s crazy looking , you would think that it would be bottom bunched .


   
   Just to be sure you did rewound that spool with mono ?

[PacRat]

I can't figure it out. That spool has 4 lb mono. I wound it a while ago. It was the 2nd spool I wound but the first one was the same but with heavier mono. I just wound some junk line from an ebay reel to see what the initial line lay would look like and it was the same as the photo. I stripped the other line and replaced it with the 4 lb with the same result. Today I wound that same 4 lb onto another 925 spool and it was much better. I went to the pool and threw a couple dozen 40' cast with a washer tied on the line to simulate some ultralight fishing and it did bunch a little at the bottom but much better that the original results on the first spool. I'm wondering if the first spool could have been that far out of spec?? My next two steps are to compare the spools and fish the thing as soon as I get a chance. I have a job coming up in Burkville Alabama and I might take it with me. I might have some better fishing opportunities there if I'm not too burned out after work.





You can see just swapping spools helped a lot. This is the same line from the other spool.

[oldmanjoe]

 I would say take a good look at the empty spools , check arbor contours ,check the lengths and also the floor thickness .

 Let`s see if i can pull a post over here with the pictures ..
      I am going to put some picture`s up , the subtle  differences in the 5 stock spools .    Things that will change line lays from spool to spool ?
 The contour of the arbor , radius versus straight and the usable string height  from spool to spool .     Range from .600 to .695 thousands.


   
   

[PacRat]

Thanks Joe. I have a couple of spare spools and a few already on reels so I'll compare them and try to sort it out. These are quick change spools so I'll compare the shaft arbors too.