Past Friday I fished in very strong gusty 25 to 40 knot wind which makes sharp directional changes caused by a mountain behind. I lost my balance and dropped my rod and reel very hard on the rock. The rod seems OK but it feels like the reel spool scrapes on one side and I suspect its shaft is bent.
I would have expected the drive shaft or handle to bend but not the spool and the reel body has very little damage from the fall. Is it really possible to bend the spool in that manner?
It's very difficult to actually confirm it is the spool and I wonder if perhaps the frame could have distorted. From rough measuring and judging by eye there could be 0.2 mm wobble in the spool.
QUESTIONS
How would I measure that accurately
I think the Tranx frame is sintered metal, would it be possible that its the frame and not the spool shaft that bent
Has anyone ever attempted to straighten a spool shaft
Any ideas or suggestions that could help me?
I'll today try to determine what the problem actually is and find out what a new spool will cost. I'll start of by swapping the spool with one of my other reels.
The one photo shows the fairly small damage to the frame after a hard knock and how I attempted to measure the spool axle. Other scratches are just the normal result of fishing on rocks.
Ouch! The wind you fished this past Friday was not for the faint-hearted!
Hope you come right with the correction.
I got a Shimano Speedmaster II off the bay and it came with a slightly bent spool. I probably got lucky but I was able to straighten it out and still fish it today, still casts a mile. I held the spool and hit the shaft with the wooden handle of a tack hammer. Just one or two light whacks and put it back in reel and give it a spin. It took a while, it would get a little better and then it would go back to being wobbly but it finally spun freely after one lucky hit. I cant say this is the best way or if it would work out again for me but I did it once ;D
Being able to measure the angle and know when it is or isn't out of line is the hardest part.
-steve
It happens,,,, ;) last trip to the river of death or some call it the new river ,,,I fell and hit my torque 5 on a rock,,,but just hit the handle $38,,, >:( but last year I feel off a rock and hit my head on another,,,, :o I just figured it was over,,,, :D but I got a thick head,,,,,,,,, ;D
I spent the day examining the reel for damage and trying to find where the scraping sound was coming from and found nothing definite. Cleaned and serviced everything while I had it apart.
Twice swapped the spool with one from my other reels and the original one scraped loudly when casting and also during the retrieve, so decided it definitely was the spool.
I also checked the spool bearing and found the large one was badly damaged, how that could have happened from a fall beats me. Replaced the bearing, the reel sounded bit better but still not right, I can see it scrapes somewhere.
It still casts fairly well despite the lack of good free spool.
Something is bent or out of alignment, but it is slight and I can not find it.
Finally, I checked for a replacement spool from two sources and both advised that a new spool is not available for the reel.
Perhaps, if you "chuck" the spool shaft in your drill, and spin it, you can see if...and how badly, it's bent. You may be able to use the drill chuck to 'hold" the shaft, and, with your hand, "tweek" the spool , a bit, to align it a bit better.
Can you check it with v blocks?
If you can get your hands on a small machinist's V block: hold the the spindle on one side tight on the "v". use the depth gauge feature on any cheap digital micrometer to measure the change on the spindle on the other side as you rotate the spool if you can't visually detect any bend. Try both sides.
Or if you can get your hands on some machinist's parallels, you can place them right next to the spool on both sides and roll the spool along the length. You may have to measure still, but this will show you exactly how the spindle is bent. The parallels have to be on a flat surface, but a sheet of glass will probably suffice.
The drill chuck trick works, except that it relies on the chuck spindle no being sloppy, which is not usually the case. you need to hand turn slowly to see where the bend is. The caliper trick can be used here to detect or measure a small bend as well.
Shars makes some cheap Chinese V blocks, parallels, 123 blocks, etc that are plenty accurate for this kind of work. Plenty of other choices as well, but I have used this brand before.
If the bend is a simple one, with some measuring tools and a bit of tapping with a brass hammer, you might be able to get it back into round enough, if that is the problem.
[edit]
Quote from: oldmanjoe on November 30, 2020, 10:32:15 PM
Can you check it with v blocks?
Posed at the same time - hah!
-J
When I fixed my spool, I held it in one hand an tapped it with the wooden handle of a hammer. Not a heavy tap but a quick solid tap like hitting a jar with a butter knife to open it.
I wrapped masking tape entirely over the fishing line and then marked 8 even lines for reference points. I picked a line to start and gave the shaft a tap then stuck it back in reel and spun it. I did that until I got some change in the spin. I noticed it got worse after the tap so I knew I had to tap on the opposite side of shaft.
It took a lot of taps and I started to wonder if I was even doing anything but one tap it spun like a charm. I didn't put the screws back in the sideplate each time, just pinched it shut and spun it.
It must have hit on the spool when it fell, huh? That could actually be preferable to landing on the frame. You can either repair or replace the spool but once the frame is torqued it's game over.
-steve
Thanks for all the help, is a frustrating problem.
What I have determined is that the spool has a very slight wobble, but it does not necessarily mean the spool shaft is bent.
The best way for me to see that is by giving the spool a gentle spin and watching it stop with a very gentle but sudden halt. When als well it just gently slows and eventually just runs out of momentum, no sudden stop.
An obvious test (which took a while for me to think of ??? ??? :D ) is to also place the suspect spool in another reel which should then tell me if its actually the spool or the frame. This I will do this morning.
On the positive side, this issue does not mean the reel is no longer useful, it will still catch fish and cast fairly well but will bother me forever.
V blocks and micrometer (the latter I have from bullet making) should work, will need to find someone with those kind of tools.
I have had the spool in my drill press, that's how I always polish the shaft, but as Crow says, its not a precision tool and did not really tell me anything.
I also need to be very cautious that I don't aggravate a problem which does not make the reel inoperative. One danger is that these spools are very soft and if you drop them 1 ft they get damaged!
Looking at the picture again ,maybe the spool rim has a kink and is hitting a high spot on the frame ?
If the spool spins good in another frame it could be possible that the frame got racked a bit. Try twisting your side-plates in opposite directions. It may get better or it may get worse. If it gets worse, twist it in the other direction. I use to have these issues with Penns when I installed Newell frames. If you have good free-spool you can do this while it's spinning and you'll see if it's helping or hurting. Once you find the sweet-spot tighten the screws a bit.
Good luck
-Mike
Quote from: PacRat on December 01, 2020, 05:47:17 AM
If the spool spins good in another frame it could be possible that the frame got racked a bit. Try twisting your side-plates in opposite directions. It may get better or it may get worse. If it gets worse, twist it in the other direction. I use to have these issues with Penns when I installed Newell frames. If you have good free-spool you can do this while it's spinning and you'll see if it's helping or hurting. Once you find the sweet-spot tighten the screws a bit.
Good luck
-Mike
Yes that is very possible and I have been looking at that. If you look at the photos above, the one point of impact was on the spool adjusting knob. If that got even very slightly distorted in the frame it could for sure cause a problem. That houses the outside pinion bearing and the pinion is very long, about 2 cm. Therefore if the pinion is ever so slightly out of alignment it will put pressure on the spool shaft and I have "looked" at it at least 10 times.
What perhaps goes together with this......If I leave the opposite side plate off, IOW the left side of the spool is unsupported by a bearing it spins freely and perfectly with only the pinion and main bearing supporting the spool.
Ok now away from computor!
Did you ever say what kind of reel it is?
-steve
He mentions the Tranx in the first post, but I've never seen one up close and personal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8xvvb4ZIns&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8xvvb4ZIns&feature=youtu.be (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8xvvb4ZIns&feature=youtu.be)
Wanted to show the "wobble" in the end of the spool shaft. What you're seeing is the end of the pinion sticking out through the bearing, with the spool shaft being turned with my finger.
2 blocks of wood and make a V notch in each one .
Something is bent or out of alignment, but it is slight and I can just not find it.
Finally I have some progress and will probably leave it as is.
By changing the spool in to a different reel's frame I realised that the old one had a definite "spot" where it got resistance when spinning and would stop at the same spot every time when turning slowly. Also with the spool in the other frame the free spool was significantly better and it made less noise when casting, which confused me and made me think that perhaps it is the frame and not the spool after all. I could still not locate a specific problem area though, no damage, rubbing or scarring was visible.
I spent the whole day tinkering on this and in the afternoon returned to checking the gap between the spool and the frame and decided that is the most likely issue. I took a bit of a chance and removed a fraction of a millimetre from the edge of the spool. This caused the scraping sound to decrease and I realised that I have probably located the problem in the most obvious part where I looked the fist day and I was also told to check!
The reel now has acceptable free spool, casts fine and no longer makes that scraping sound. It is not perfect but its risky to remove more metal from the spool and for the time being I leave it as is.
I suspect that both the frame or body of the reel and spool have some distortion but I don't really know precisely where.
Photo showing how I did the spool.
Thanks to everyone for some excellent input and I will probably sometime make a device with V blocks and a micrometer.