Reel Repair by Alan Tani

Quote from: Gfish on September 04, 2022, 01:02:10 AMI want one! Any sales references Joe?

It came out in 2014 .    Here is the About link , than there is a contact at the top.  https://kendragear.com/about

  Here is were i first seen it .    https://www.mensjournal.com/adventure/straightcast-reel/

And the winner is!

Hmmmm... looks complicated. And, I can't say I've had major twist problems just casting. I've seen it caused by certain lure types, and from using a reel's drag (I back-reel so this last isn't a problem.)

looks cool, but what's that thang gonna' weigh 
when the innards get covered up  

Quote from: oldmanjoe on September 04, 2022, 01:21:55 AM

Quote from: Gfish on September 04, 2022, 01:02:10 AMI want one! Any sales references Joe?

It came out in 2014 .    Here is the About link , than there is a contact at the top.  https://kendragear.com/about

  Here is were i first seen it .    https://www.mensjournal.com/adventure/straightcast-reel/

I would like to try this reel! cant find way to order this reel.

I AINT GOT ANY ODDBALL REELS BUT I JUST CAME ACROSS THIS ON THE INTERNET.
iT DATES FROM THE LATE 1950'S

Quote from: kevin cozens on September 13, 2023, 10:44:34 AMI AINT GOT ANY ODDBALL REELS BUT I JUST CAME ACROSS THIS ON THE INTERNET.
iT DATES FROM THE LATE 1950'S

It was actually patented by Cliff Martin from Australia in 1960. That's what the 4-2-60 stands for. It went into production in 1964 and the company was sold in 1970 to Oakley Agencies, who changed the body & spool to die cast metal according to Ben Wright's book, so that would make it a late '60s manufacture since it is an Australian cedar example.

I wood fish it

I saw the Airex Larchmont a few pages back and I just got one at a yardsale the other day. Thought I'd share a few pictures of the internals. It's pretty simple but works quite well.

Quote from: Midway Tommy on February 18, 2018, 06:39:12 AMToday I think I'll talk about an old company that few people associate with spinning reels, Old Pal. Old Pal started as a minnow bucket division of the Animal Trap Company of America in 1956. By the mid '60s Old Pal became a trade name of Woodstream. Woodstream bought Fenwick Rod Co and used Woodstream, Fenwick and Old Pal on their tackle products. Woodstream sold the Fenwick Rod portion to Berkley, which later became Pure Fishing. Pure Fishing was bought by Jarden Corp and is now part of Newell Brands. Wow!

Anyway, in the mid '60s Old Pal decided to get into the spinning reel market. They never manufactured any reels. Their reels were made by Zangi & Coptes of Italy, KP Morritts of England and a Reel-Lectric 1000 (battery operated), the maker of which is unknown yet to this day. The Italian made reels were of high quality. There were 3 models, the Cheetah 500 (light size), Cougar 600 (medium size) and Jaguar 800 (large size). I'll discuss those sometime in the near future as they have an interesting connection between Zangi of Italy and Dam of Germany. The reels made by KP Morritts were lighter sized reel and, compared to the Italian reels, were cheaply made.

The reel for this discussion is Old Pal's ultra light called the Tomcat 25. It was made by KP Morritts & is more or less a pile of junk. I'm surprised this specific reel still functions as it should. Here's what it consists of:

All the parts (not many) cleaned and ready to put back together.



This is the anti-reverse mechanism. The rocker button and dog are one piece and plastic, soft plastic to boot. The spring is a thin flat piece of metal wedged between the button and body screw post. The button pivots on a post on the side plate. Believe it or not, the whole thing works and it clicks when the A/R is activated.




The pinion is pressed into the rotor cup. The main shaft tube is molded into the body and threaded on the outer end to retain the rotor. The main shaft is about 3" long with a hole at the rear for a pin that goes into the oscillation groove on the gear. The outer end has two flat sides for washers and the spool.



Install the rotor, slide the main shaft in, drop in the oscillation pin and you're ready for the main gear to be installed. It's a one piece molded pot metal gear with the anti-reverse ratchet gear on one side and the gear teeth and oscillation groove on the other side. Drop it into place making sure the oscillation pin is in the groove.




Now install the side plate & screw it together.



The bail goes into holes in the rotor cup. There are no bail springs, the long side bail arm slides through two holes that don't line up. That puts a twist on the arm and creates the spring tension. The short side goes into a hole on the other side of the cup. There is a ridge there to hold the bail in place when it's open. 



This photo shows the elaborate drag mechanism. The flat metal washer slides all the way down on the main shaft. The red plastic washer is the under spool drag washer and spool click. The little tail rubs against cogs on the outer rim of the spool when the spool rotates with line pay out. If you look closely you can see a nylon washer under the metal washer on the top of the spool. That's the outer main drag. There's no way to get into them, they were evidently molded in place. At least the drag knob is metal. 



That's all there is to putting it together. The bail is external trip, it just smacks against the leg and snaps shut. Also, notice there's no line roller or guide. The line just rides against the bend in the bail wire. I'll bet braid would cut through that thing in no time.



Here's the handle side.



It's definitely a good candidate for the shelf, not on a pole.   

   

To call the Tomcat a pile of junk is a bit harsh to me.
It should be known that this little reel was a really popular starter reel for UK kids in the 60's and 70's, and was the stuff of dreams for them (sold in all gloss black as the Intrepid Black Prince in the UK).

It has the reputation here now of being both cheap and basic, and is often derided, yet also considered a legend amongst us who grew up learning to fish with one (no one can excuse the terrible groove prone bail arms, which lost me a few good fish back in the day, before I discovered what was going on), but the Bobcat (New De Luxe) and Reelcat (Prince Regent) were very capable reels; still fairly basic, but I used them trouble free for many years.

The Italian Zangi contribution was immediately superior, simply by use of their worm drive system, though Morritt did make one called the 'Intrepid Continental' but still with a soft metal bail...sigh!

Morritt also made a few reels that were quite innovative....that is until Gladding came along and replaced one very good beach model, The Intrepid 'Cresta' with their cheaper self destruct gear version (which they called an 'Improved' model, but thats another story).

The Tomcat / Black prince was a reel aimed at young beginners and was therefore built as cheaply as possible.
Morritt went one lower with a budget L/H wind only Black Prince, called the Boyo, which was truly a 'boys' reel

I would say that you can see where the Tomcat finish came from here, but as all Old Pal reels were matt black and metallic blue, perhaps not?
The all blue Boyo was also sold under the Tomcat 25 name, as the Intrepid Extra (a larger rotor New De Luxe) was also sold as the Bobcat 35, so if you bought either a Tomcat or Bobcat back then, you could have had the choice of four different reels.

No disrespect meant to all the way more knowledgable members than I here, but I just wanted to express my viewpoint on Morritt reels, being they were very popular with a lot of young and old anglers in the UK (we all craved owning a 'professional' Mitchell though).

Great write up. (Tom's too.) Interesting history, putting some color to it. Thanks for that. 

Quote from: Paul Roberts on May 16, 2024, 04:37:33 PMGreat write up. (Tom's too.) Interesting history, putting some color to it. Thanks for that. 

No problem at all Paul.

For years now, many of us old UK Intrepid users and collectors were completely unaware that they had also been exported to the USA and distributed by Old Pal, and then Horrocks Ibbottson, and so I was amazed to see my first Old Pal Bobcat on ebay around 2 years ago, I just had to have it, and the same seller had another one which I also secured, but I had to replace a couple of very corroded parts on it from the same era.

Then I got the Tomcat 25, but the Reelcat 30 still eludes me. It is by far the hardest one to find.
I have seen one recently, but it is in such shocking condition, that it just isn't worth it.

The Bobcat / New De Luxe, was my favourite reel as a teenager, and it never let me down (having a line pickup roller helped), but I eventually got the Mitchell 410 I craved, and the Intrepid was then passed on to a relative; wish I had kept it now.

Somehow I have managed to collect a few from 1966 (red parts) to 1979 (no side badge) when Gladding finally folded the company.
Mine was the blue box silver badge model with the black plastic folding handle lock (after so many years, the plastic locks tend to break).

Man looks like they put some serious thinking into my favorite from your great write-up; the Tomcat 25. "How to make a super cheap piece of crap for a target market, that still works". Reminds me of what my Parents would bought me when I was a kid.

Quote from: Gfish on May 16, 2024, 07:44:41 PMMan looks like they put some serious thinking into my favorite from your great write-up; the Tomcat 25. "How to make a super cheap piece of crap for a target market, that still works". Reminds me of what my Parents would bought me when I was a kid.

Gotta say, if it wasn't for the totally useless bail arm (good for a few sessions maybe) and easy break plastic handle lock (Black Prince; which they did vastly improve on later), many Tomcats might still be usable today?
For me, intrepid reel collecting is more about nostalgia, but as I have already said, there were a few good reels from the company.

In the 70's we had some reels over here made by 'Point' Japan, that were sold in Woolworths stores under the 'Winfield' brand (I think the USA had those outlets also?), called the Coarse Fisher, Spin Fisher and Beach Fisher.
The Coarse Fisher was more of a competitor to the Intrepid Black Prince / Tomcat. Of course most of us kids wanted the cool black Intrepid, not realising the Coarse Fisher was a superior reel with a worm drive and bail roller. Fixed that now though.

A bit odd in some respects, but fairly well known reels that I have in my collection.
Certainly Mepps has to be fairly high up on the quirky list, moreso the Super Meca, but I don't have one of those yet, so I've posted my 1936 Baby Vamp and 1950..ish Super Vamp, plus a nice Marine Record, an American designed Kilian baitcaster (Fraser Kilian in the UK), plus a nice condition Platil Spinette and a plentiful Omnia and Intrepid Supreme; all unique in their own way, but not rarities.

Really like the looks of the Vamp reels. A metal handle-knob? They "look" well made. Except, of course, for the absence of a line roller. Gonna guess that good functioning line roller is expensive to make. Think of how much line runs through something that small in diameter. Plus the bearing part(s) should be pretty water resistant.
Did "the House of Hardy" ever make any spinning reels?