Soft handles...Hard sleeves

[Leif]

This probably came up many times before on this site but here goes...

I've been replacing the bridge sleeve on my Penns with Alan's stainless ones. The question is...

Doesn't it defeat the purpose to use an aluminum handle since it is softer than the stainless steel?

I've noticed that some of my tiburon handles have some wear already just from switching them around.

Problem or no problem??

Leif  

[Alto Mare]

I believe that the aluminum handle would be a problem no matter what type of sleeve you have. I did mention it on the 113H reel tank, I believe on the 5th page.
Aluminum handles are ok, but, I personally don't trust them over 15lb.

[Makule]

Aluminum handles are much softer than even brass, so the mounting hole will become distorted with forced cranking regardless of the sleeve material.  That issue is not actually related to having SS sleeves.

The benefit of the SS sleeve, in addition to not having the mounting hole round out, is that it is less prone to wear against the shaft.  If there is too much wear between the shaft and the sleeve, it will cause the main gear to push away from the pinion gear.  This extra play will prevent the gears from fully engaging (will engage only at the tips of the gear teeth).  Consequently, this will lead to premature wearing/failure of the gears.

[doradoben]

So, is the takeaway lesson that a stainless gear sleeve would be best paired with a stainless handle blank??

[Leif]

So, is the takeaway lesson that a stainless gear sleeve would be best paired with a stainless handle blank??

Sounds simple. It's like anything else you modify....You create a different weak link. On a stock Penn 500, all things remaining the same, the end of the bridge where it meets the handle is the weakest link.

Replace the bridge with a stainless one and the handle being chrome plated brass becomes the weak spot...Correct?? If the handle is aluminum, it is even weaker.

What is the weak link with a stainless bridge, and stainless handle? The bronze gears?

Replace the stock gears with stainless ones of same ratio then what??

My feeling is ultimately the "drags" would wind up being the weak spot as there is only so much you can do because of limited drag surface.

Leif     

[Keta]

"Aluminum"  can have many properties including hardness but SS is a much harder (and heavier) metal.   http://www.engineersedge.com/aluminum_tempers.htm

If we were all crazy wealthy we would be making reel parts out of titanium, hard, relatively light and not easy to work with.  Ti does not play well with other metals in a saltwater environment too.

[Leif]

"Aluminum"  can have many properties including hardness but SS is a much harder (and heavier) metal.   http://www.engineersedge.com/aluminum_tempers.htm

If we were all crazy wealthy we would be making reel parts out of titanium, hard, relatively light and not easy to work with.  Ti does not play well with other metals in a saltwater environment too.

Funny...You read my mind on the titanium parts.

Why don't we all get together, engineer a line of perfect reels so we can be crazy wealthy. Perfect would be industructible, easy to work on and have interchangable parts for different applications. We could have a mini reel...stronger and smaller than the Penn 146 two med models/Penn 501 and 99 size , one 4/0 large and a 9/0 size.

OK wake me!!

Leif

[Irish Jigger]

I haven't seen Penn aluminium handles for about 15 years when Penn introduced a batch of 24-66 soft grip aluminium handles on their Long Beach 65 reels. They had severe corrosion issues (in salt water) almost immediately between the aluminium handle and sleeve/ securing screw /lock screw which were all brass.
After a number of complaints they reverted to chromed brass handles again.

[doradoben]

Leif... I agree that the ultimate limitation of the original design becomes the drag washer stack. I think this is best demonstrated by Alto Mare's excellent 4/0 Tank Reel. With the wide acceptance of spectra line, the trend has become smaller, more powerful reels for big fish (at least on the west coast). There are now new reel models to fish 40lb line that produce 25 lbs of drag. The limiting factor has again become capacity, until the next advance in line technology. My skills are pretty good, but not being Superman, there is also a limit to how much drag I can withstand while fighting a large tuna from the deck of a San Diego sportboat for an hour or more... 

[alantani]

ideally you want stainless steel from the spindle of the handle, all the way down to the spool shaft.