The Fathom Levelwind and Stardrag series of reels are well proven workhorses with many good size fish to their credit. One of their potential problems in case of a failure of the roller bearing antireverse is the Ambassadeur style design of the secondary antireverse system and its associated problem.
Becoming a Fathom Levelwind owner myself I decided to do away with the problem by putting a secondary antireverse spring made from a biro spring. The secondary spring is affixed to the dog stop, looped over the dog post and hooks behind the dog forcing it against the ratchet. The spring also acts as a dog retainer. The result is the sound of safety :) .
Looks great! ;)
Thank you :). At the moment I am in the UK and I am the happy owner and user of a Fathom 25 LW. Next I will need to source some Cals grease.
Tile, that's very creative, simple and effective. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Sal
hmm a spring loaded double dog, awesome
as an owner of a fathom 40 star Im interested on what kind of spring did you used.
Quote from: Tile on January 14, 2016, 12:15:44 AM
I decided to do away with the problem by putting a secondary antireverse spring made from a biro spring.
I don't know the term 'biro spring'... ??
Thanks and great pic & cure.
The better term is pen springs :). Any spring loaded pen can be sacrificed for a good cause by using its spring and they are ubiquitous :).
Quote from: Tile on January 14, 2016, 01:41:39 AM
The better term is pen springs :). Any spring loaded pen can be sacrificed for a good cause by using its spring and they are ubiquitous :).
so you take the pen spring out... stretch it & reform it?
Would love to see a pictorial...
thanks!
I take the pen spring out, enlarge the end coils (their diameter) and after that I uncoil the rest of the spring, straighten and then reshape it to go around the dog post and then I make a small hook on the end.
Very nice work. The spring went from a pen to a Penn.
Mike
Tile, this is AWESOME!!!
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Quote from: steelfish on January 14, 2016, 01:26:09 AM
hmm a spring loaded double dog, awesome
I am imagining that your Fathom 40 SD will sound like a minigun :)
Quote from: Tile on January 14, 2016, 08:22:54 PM
Quote from: steelfish on January 14, 2016, 01:26:09 AM
hmm a spring loaded double dog, awesome
I am imagining that your Fathom 40 SD will sound like a minigun :)
it would sound like pure music
I will try this in as soon as I find some time and spring, and post some pics here
I studied Aaron's (ReelSpeed) video and is easier to put a secondary antireverse spring in the Fathom SD reels, similar to the job that I did on my Abu AG Seven.
This is one of my favorites. It should be done on any reel with an AG style "silent" dog. We really need to stop being pre-Madonnas and realize that pretty and quiet are not as important as bullet proof and reliable.
Ron
Well said :) . Next I will replace the levelwind guide with a metallic one ( I will buy a cheap multiplier with a solid levelwind guide that is dimensionally close to the Fathom one and swap them over).
Now my Fathom sports a full metal levelwind guide in place of its original. This was posible because I could pull the levelwind wire guide, shape it to match and trim as needed. To ensure that the wire will not come out of the levelwind guide body I used Super glue.
Since doing these modifictions my Fathom is performing well with zero malfunctions. It has brought to the landing net good sized brim on the Don Navigation Canal. Now I have to figure out a way to bring double figure barbel or chub on the Derwent.