Grinding a 20/30/50 visx cam

[alantani]

the only way to know for sure is to try changing the settings and then pull with a scale.  remember that there are two things that determine the drag profile.  one is the cam. the other is the bellevilles.  the visx 30 has lighter bellevilles. 

yeah, just gotta pull with a scale and see.

[Gfish]

Interesting thread.
My takeaway is that changing one factory part will affect other parts.

I remember guy's would modify their factory hot rod engines to increase horsepower and speed. A mod such as shaving the heads might increase compression ratio, but that would put more pressure on parts not factory-designed for it, e.g. head gasket, piston parts and the crankshaft assembly. Expensive engine Blueprinting might eventually be needed after too many problems.

The cam-ramp thing sounds like if it were done right, paired-up with other mods, it might make the drag system last longer than normal and be much easier to use.

[akfish]

Has Penn ever addressed this issue? I like my 16 and 20 **so** much better after grinding the cams. I can see no advantage to a cam the way Penn ships them.

[alantani]

penn has not.  that much has been disappointing.   

[JasonGotaProblem]

Changing the design probably means renegotiating production contracts. Contractors love change orders.

[Keta]

With CNC it only takes a few minutes to change the drawings and they could make a minimum run to see if they sell.

[JasonGotaProblem]

We have reps on here who are kind. Why don't we (you) ask?

[redsetta]

I did six last week that would benefit significantly from reprofiled cams...

[gary760]

the only way to know for sure is to try changing the settings and then pull with a scale.  remember that there are two things that determine the drag profile.  one is the cam. the other is the bellevilles.  the visx 30 has lighter bellevilles. 

yeah, just gotta pull with a scale and see.

[gary760]

Alan yes I see what you mean. Thinner bellevilles would mean that they would compress more than thicker bellevillies
Makes you wonder why they would put different Belleville washers in the 20 and 30 visx and also different drag cams according to the schematics.
This is not a knock on the reels I like them a lot the drags are very smooth with little start up and also the drag lever operation is very smooth, the standard drag curves and gear ratios are perfect for my type of fishing

[UKChris1]

I'm not an engineer; reading some of this most interesting thread and trying to figure out what it means makes my brain hurt 

But from my albeit limited experience with various Penn Internationals and, in particular, trying to improve the dodgy drag performance of some old ones, I came to the conclusion that fiddling around with the bellevilles was the way to go unless the drag cam was actually faulty.

By juggling with the arrangement and thickness of the belleville washers it was possible to produce a smooth increase in drag over the 120 degree range without either locking up before max. or having freespool before min.
Of course, it requires a lot of different bellevilles to be at hand and to take meticulous notes as you go, plus endless patience. And don't get them mixed up!

It is true Everol sorted this out a long time ago, but the drag system used in those reels is quite different in the way the thrust is transferred from the drag lever to the drag plates themselves: no bellevilles but a lot of little springs whose number and arrangement can lead to endless hours of experimentation and entertainment 

[JasonGotaProblem]

This seems like an aftermarket part with a lot of potential demand.

Somewhere in the gomexus design office, a person just had comically oversized dollar signs appear in their eyes as folks around them heard the sound of an old fashioned cash register opening.