I found a Ocean city Long Key that did not look to bad . It is missing a knob and knob stem .
I can make one and make a nice little project for a late night in the man cave .
Well when I started to take it apart for a general cleaning , than came the surprise . The side plate screws were not original . Out of 14 screws only 3 were correct . Original are 6- 40 thread .138 diameter with a unique long head on it, what the replacement were are 8 - 32 thread .164 diameter . Now when you are going to re tap a hole for the next size ,you should re drill the hole before trying to tap it other wise you are going to make a hot mess . Chip are going to tear out and the tap is not going to go in straight .
4 of the 8 bars are junk now . The other 4 bars are screwed in with the rings behind the side plates .they were alright
The reel seat is tapped 8 – 32 and is holding the screw even thou it is only .090 thick . I can make 6 screws just for the seat with the correct head on the screw . Or I can make a whole different custom seat with a little more length and stiffness to it . Still dreaming on this idea . Well I am going into my cave now and start making parts .
Yes! Keep pics going on this one...
very interesting project, please take us along as you proceed, cheers Don.
One of the things that I did check before I tore it down was, is the spool centered and how was the end play for the spool . When the side plates came off i noticed that the end bearing were not seated on both plates . About a turn and a half each . Yes these are adjustable ! This tells me that the spread between plates can be tighten up .
When i checked the reel seat ,the corners went 2 .253 on one side and 2 .260 on the other side .
Then i checked the bars for length :o They went from 2.250 ,52,54,55,58 and 2.260 . Well that means that the plates are not parallel to each other , more like a V shape . The first 4 bars that I made were 2.258 just so i can put the reel together and check tolerances. I found that i could make the bars at 2.253 and that was my targeted lengths for 11 bars . I am not giving up on the stock reel seat , I can square it up to 2.253.
I will post some pictures of bars and screw being made also.. First 3 are the adjustable bearing than the corner shots of the seat
:) I have my bars and screws made and did a assembly to make sure everything fits . It`s square and parallel now . I put 3 bars were the reel seat would sit so i can try a make my own seat .
I had to put in a order for some brass bar stock for the seat , so it will be a while before i can get back to it. Plus with the Holidays coming up and family coming it maybe after the new year before i get to play with it again .
I may play with the stock seat and put bars in between the stamping like a Ja Coxe seat !!
Good work on the screws & squaring up the posts / frame Joe - the 10 thou variation in the original posts & seat probably isn't too bad for something made with hand tools but I would have thought machined parts should be a bit tighter. How old is the 'Long Key'?
Mike
Quote from: mhc on December 10, 2022, 12:26:35 PMGood work on the screws & squaring up the posts / frame Joe - the 10 thou variation in the original posts & seat probably isn't too bad for something made with hand tools but I would have thought machined parts should be a bit tighter. How old is the 'Long Key'?
Mike
It`s a 80 plus year old reel !! I think the build date were 1932 -1941 for the long key .
I`ll take .010 , a small burr can be .002 thou . I just needed a excuse to use the needle files ..
I had one of those sleepless nights , so i made the 3 bars and squared up the stock seat .
And i will post some pictures of some knobs ..