Opening my Mitchell 441A

[Barishi]

Personally, I never imagined that I would ever own a Mitchell, not when the shipping fees from America are so high that I would rather get a tougher reel. However, when a really cheap local listing for a NIB Mitchell 441A popped out, I couldn't resist. Here's a pic:



When I got it, it was seriously so rough that I thought that someone had sanded the gears prior to assembly! Nevertheless, in hindsight this wasn't particularly shocking, considering the peculiar gear setup of the Mitchell 300 and its 999,999,999 cousins. Given my shoddy track record at servicing my own reels and the complexity of the Mitchell, I never intended to service it myself. Guess what, I was feeling sad today and decided to give it a shot to cheer myself up. Here are some pictures of the inside:
 


Wonder when Mitchell added this red seal to their reels. Never saw it in other Mitchellls before.



For a sec I saw the rollers and thought this was an ARB, but no, its a roller bearing. There's one in the sideplate supporting the main gear. Another is under the rotor, supporting the main shaft. You can see it in the photo below. Wonder why ball bearings weren't used.



The reel looked to be kinda dry when it came, so I decided to just grease the gears and call it a day. Surprisingly, the only 2 shims I encountered were under the bronze pinion directly meshing with the main gear.

One interesting thing to note about this Mitchell is the rather odd bail setup. To those that aren't familiar, here's a quick rundown.



The bail spring is located where the red circle is on both reels here. On the left is the Mitchell, while on the right is a DAM 440N. The job of a bail spring is essentially to pull a bail open and keep it open. So, imagine the spring is exerting a force trying to pull the bail upwards.

In spinning reels, there is a small catch that prevents the spring from pulling the bail open. On the DAM, this is a simple springloaded catch as indicated by the right yellow arrow. The Mitchell takes a more complicated approach.

The Mitchell's bail arm has a pivot link in the centre  that splits it in 2. When the bail is in the closed, or "bent down" position, the pivot rests against a protrusion in the reel's rotor (as indicated by the left yellow arrow). Now, imagine the bail spring trying to flip the bail upwards. This pushes the link into the protusion, preventing movement.



When the bail is pushed down by a finger, the pivot is brought upwards, and the bail arm is "straightened" from the "bent down position". Now, there's no pivot resting on the protusion to stop the bail spring. And...



The bail arm enters the "bent up" position, opening the bail. To reset, all one needs to do is to crank on the handle. Or, one could push the link back down into the "bent down" position, as shown 2 images before. Nifty system, works nice. This system is present on many Mitchells, the most popular model being the Mitchell 330. After the quick service, the reel was definitely less grindy such that the roughness no longer transmitted through the handle.

However, it was still completely outmatched by my DAM 440N in terms of smoothness, which isn't all that surprising. The DAM has a worm drive system which uses sliding motion to turn the gears with a larger meshing area, contributing to its superior smoothness. I guess this is as good as it gets for the Mitchell in the smoothness department.

Overall, as a newcomer to these reels, and having grown up with modern spinning reels, the Mitchell design heavily confounds me. Why does the gearbox have so many gears? Why couldn't they opt for a less complex locomotive oscillation system? Why are there 2 brass pinions? Why is the anti reverse acting in the gear teeth? And why, oh why, is the darn thing so rough?

Then again, when the Mitchell hit the scene it was the most popular and successful spinning reel, and it probably became many people's first spinning reel. Without it, spinning reels wouldn't be where they are today.



Maybe this might be too modern a reference, but the Mitchell 300 to me gives me the same feelings I have towards the Nintendo Game Boy. It had pathetic, calculator esque graphics and limited processing power when it first hit the scene in 1989. However, it opened new frontiers for early gamers due to its portability compared to the large, bulky home consoles that dominated the gaming market then.

When the Game Boy finally ceased production in 2003, many competiting consoles with significantly better features had tried and failed to topple it from the portable gaming throne. And with that, the Game Boy solidified its place as a gaming legend.

In a similar vein, the Mitchell 300 was woefully underpowered compared to the multipliers of old. Yet, it opened up a new realm of fishing to many fishermen back in the day. Although superior reels like the DAM Quicks and Abu Cardinals popped up over the production run of the Mitchell 300, it still held its own in the market. In fact, sales skyrocketed during the 70s, over 20 years since the basic 300 design was established.

It would be until 1986 when the last Mitchell 300s would leave the factory. By the end of its tenure, new spinning reels closely resembled their modern counterparts, and Japanese manufacturers like Daiwa had begun carving out large segments of the fishing reel market originally dominated by Western manufacturers.

I wrote this originally to destress myself after a long day at work, and I think I have gained a new appreciation for the Mitchells that I never had before. But, as I'm a right handed saltwater fisherman, I don't really intend to fish my 441A. After establishing that it just needed a little grease, I'm still wondering what I want to do with it. I like to fish my reels rather than leaving them to rot in a box somewhere, so I might let go of this one some day. In the meantime, my heart beats for another classic...