Made myself an Admiral

[Robert Janssen]

I have a particular liking of the red Everol reels and the ABU and Garcia Admiral reels.
So, i decided to make one for myself.

Started with a little pile of aluminum and stainless steel bar stock



...and start turning, milling and filing some parts

I am particularly proud of this gear housing. This took a whole lotta doing to get right



All put together, it starts to look pretty good



Add some finishing touches, a bit of polish, and...









And here a family photo with an older, larger sibling, courtesy of our esteemed member Mr John Taylor



Of course, no point in making a reel and not using it, so i do use it regularly. It takes a bit of finesse to cast, as it has no cast controls at all besides one's thumb. It is very uncomfortable for palming, and has no levelwind either. Nice retrieve ratio of 5.5:1, and the drag is very smooth indeed. But it sure does look cool. 



All told, this was a satisfactory little project. It took a whole lotta doing though; it wasn't as easy as it looks. I didn't have any drawings or an original reel to copy, so I just kinda winged it. Shot from the hip to get the look and proportions right. My skilled friend Carl helped with the sideplate graphics, which is kind of funny, since his dad used to work with Berkley Bedell himself.

All told, all good!
         

[JasonGotaProblem]

Stuff like this just makes me feel inadequate. That's awesome and you should be outrageously proud. Heck I'm proud of you.

[mo65]

Stuff like this just makes me feel inadequate.

  Same here! Your work inspires me Doc...your posts never disappoint.  

[Donnyboat]

Looks fantastic, even if it takes some casting, thanks for  sowing us, cheers Don

[Crow]

Wow !!, just, Wow!

[Wompus Cat]

You are Truly the
KING of THE MINI ME REEL MAKERS

[JasonGotaProblem]

What's the drag like (# of disks, material, etc)? Did you go for bearings or bushings on the spool?

[alantani]

pretty amazing stuff!!!!!

[oldmanjoe]

I really like what you do with your scrap aluminium !!!!  Yes , I can see a lot of time in that gear case .
  That`s a whole lot of different set up to do .    Excellent work ...   

[Gfish]

Yeah, some details please. What's that lever on the tail-plate? Some kinda clicker?

[JasonGotaProblem]

Also, normally one does not get to self-promote. But yeah, you totally earned the rank of admiral with this build.

[Swami805]

Speechless

[Mjg378]

WOW!   

[Squidder Bidder]

Wow. Great craftsmanship.

[steelfish]

jjjezzzz !! amazing


...and I feel like a NASA engineer when I drill a knob  out from a stock handle to install a bigger one