Adjustable mag - squidder

[d510addict]

Are there still kits out there? If so, where would one find them?
Thank you,

[GrowleyMonster]

You might get in touch with PMR through his Pimp My Reel youtube channel. I believe he has a 12mm knob mag brake kit that might work but you would be drilling a hole in the left side plate, possibly losing the clicker, and of course you need an aluminum spool. Two of them, even better, so you have flux between a N and a S pole in proximity to the spool. You might find that a non adjustable solution is kinder to your reel, just glue a couple of washers inside the left side plate and stick some N52 magnets to them. If you can find a spare side plate, you could do this with more confidence as you would not have do do anything to your original side plate. Anyway see what he has or what he recommends. His kits are not cheap but they are nicely made. He has some nice vids on his youtube chan, too. Watch them. You might get some ideas.

If you are up to more of a challenge and you have a lathe and a mill, you could machine a replacement plate from aluminum and then bore and thread it in two places for magnet holders. Half inch diameter by half inch long N52 mags, x2, should be strong enough to give you pretty darn good braking.

The original vaned plastic spool casts a lot like a magged reel, btw. You could customize the braking by trimming the vanes, but of course this isn't an adjustable solution.

[JasonGotaProblem]

That seems like extra steps. I just glue neodymium magnets inside the side plate on my jigmaster's and my surfmaster. I just use 5min epoxy. It'll pop right off if you decide you don't like it. I didn't lose the clicker on any of them. Not adjustable though.

[oc1]

I'm with Jason on this.  Once you get several magnets fastened to the side plate you can stack wafers of various sizes to fine tune it.  K&J magnetics have countersunk magnets that can be screwed to the side plate permanently with a small nut and bolt.  They also have a million different diameters and thickness of flat wafers.  Just remember to do +/-/+/-.  I recall doing a 146 and almost couldn't find enough room under the hood to get the amount of breaking I wanted.  An adjustable single stack would not have worked.

[MarkT]

Have you looked at the Squall 12 SD? Has a dial adjustable mag with way better drag and gears. I still use my old GS 525 Mag from back in the early 90's... the Squalls are the updated GS reels with a different name.

[Cor]

I use reels with adjustable and non adjustable mags.   A non adjustable (or static) works just fine on condition you take some time to get the magnet set to suit your casting style.

If you need to maximise your casting distance or fish in variable wind conditions, or need to regularly change your casting weight, an adjustable mag gives you a benefit.

[d510addict]

Have you looked at the Squall 12 SD? Has a dial adjustable mag with way better drag and gears. I still use my old GS 525 Mag from back in the early 90's... the Squalls are the updated GS reels with a different name.

If they are anything like my Akios Nitron, I doubt I'd enjoy it. Plastic and cheap feeling. But mostly just like the look of the Penn. Did Chad discontinue his?

[JasonGotaProblem]

So yeah in case my description wasn't clear enough

[GrowleyMonster]

Wow is that magnet gonna be big enough to give you the amount of braking you are looking for? Remember a full spool takes a lot more to slow it down, than an empty one.

[JasonGotaProblem]

Wow is that magnet gonna be big enough to give you the amount of braking you are looking for? Remember a full spool takes a lot more to slow it down, than an empty one.

Me personally, yes. Others, maybe not. But you can always add more. My thumb is my brake. Anything added to that is just frosting on the cake.

Nothing wrong with what you shared. I'm something of a minimalist.

Im a physics nerd. So I think the entire concept of magnetic braking in general is super cool. And along those lines, and unrelated to performance, magnets are a lot cooler than friction in my book. But that's just me.

[thorhammer]

Have you looked at the Squall 12 SD? Has a dial adjustable mag with way better drag and gears. I still use my old GS 525 Mag from back in the early 90's... the Squalls are the updated GS reels with a different name.

If they are anything like my Akios Nitron, I doubt I'd enjoy it. Plastic and cheap feeling. But mostly just like the look of the Penn. Did Chad discontinue his?

Regrettably for us, because Chad is a stellar dude, I think he has backed away from rigging / parts after he moved to Idaho and likely has hands full all his young kids!

[d510addict]

Have you looked at the Squall 12 SD? Has a dial adjustable mag with way better drag and gears. I still use my old GS 525 Mag from back in the early 90's... the Squalls are the updated GS reels with a different name.

If they are anything like my Akios Nitron, I doubt I'd enjoy it. Plastic and cheap feeling. But mostly just like the look of the Penn. Did Chad discontinue his?

Regrettably for us, because Chad is a stellar dude, I think he has backed away from rigging / parts after he moved to Idaho and likely has hands full all his young kids!

can't blame the guy. But he did make some great product. Really turned my 10 into am awesome reel.

[thorhammer]

Yep, I was planning to put one of his kits in a 150. Great guy to deal with.

[d510addict]

I ended up with an idea that I liked alot. Found a washer with a small enough OD to fit in the end plate within the those ribs that are around the inside of the plate. But still had a large enough ID to clear the clicker gear. I have no use for the clicker, so I deleted that and glued in the washer. Now I can place magnets as needed. Casts like a champ. Just wish I could find someone to add an aluminum ring into a Cortez sideplate. They are on order but install will be delayed until I can figure out a clean way make the ring.

[Cor]

Wow is that magnet gonna be big enough to give you the amount of braking you are looking for? Remember a full spool takes a lot more to slow it down, than an empty one.

Me personally, yes. Others, maybe not. But you can always add more. My thumb is my brake. Anything added to that is just frosting on the cake.

Nothing wrong with what you shared. I'm something of a minimalist.

Im a physics nerd. So I think the entire concept of magnetic braking in general is super cool. And along those lines, and unrelated to performance, magnets are a lot cooler than friction in my book. But that's just me.

Jason from the first day I became aware of magnetic cast control I was intrigued by how it worked and how well it worked in this application.   A mate gave me a Shimano Trinidad DC to go and test, it had 6 large magnets, fully adjustable and some sort of electronics onboard.   My coments after that was that you could set it that you could not cast a backlash if you tried, casting directly in to 25 knots of wind. Set that way you gave up a fair bit of distance.  For me it worked best on its minimum setting.

I normally use a 10 X 3 mm magnet, set around 2 mm from the spool and find that is good starting point for me.   These rare earth magnets are not all the same strength and it takes some fine tuning.

I would much rather have adjustable mags in all my reels but particularly in my Tranx reels it is rather difficult to do.   I don't have the machine tools nor the skills to manufacture the parts and do the precice machining that is required and always end up indebted to a friend.