Reel Repair by Alan Tani

The only time I make these is if someone wants a full custom reel built. Its not that they're difficult but they are time consuming and not cost effective for me to make individually.

The plus side is you can build anything you want. The sky's the limit!

Adam F, the two Alan's, and Ted make some very nice arms at reasonable prices.
This customer wanted a narrow jiggy and a matching narrow 4/0. Trying to come up with something a bit out of the ordinary, I decided on a spin off of the Newell dog legged arm. Of course we had to change it up to personalize it.

A bit wider and longer, changing the angle a little plus a nice hole pattern really dresses it up.

1st pic, it has been drilled, rough milled, and being picked up to mill the key. I rough mill the key and then use some special files I've modified for my filing machine and those make the key fit perfectly. Of course if you go to the cutter, you can eliminate all the work. Chances are he wont be willing to make one or two and if he does, you will wait forever.

I try to do the hole patterns to a Jig Bore layout. Reason being, if I want to make several or make them again, I can stack them by using pins in the holes and gang mill the shape on a handfull at a time.

2nd pic is after many, many hours of polishing.

3rd pic is on his Cortez jiggy with shop made, green semi transparent, centered tbar knob.

4th pic, same reel but the custom knob is a 9 deg off center tbar in a light/dark green pearl. This is going to go on his 4/0. The arm for the T4N will be similar to the jiggy but a bit larger and longer and an additional .040 thicker for strength. That reel will also have the shop made wide top star. I'll try to post it all when complete.

I've also included a pic of the modified files. I have them for both JM and 4/0's. As you can see, they are flatted on 2 or 3 sides depending on what key you are qualifying.

Hope you find it interesting and comments and suggestions are always appreciated.

Have a great evening,  ..  Lou

Modified files.

Thanks Lou.  Very nice. Very custom.  You have many skills .  You are an inspiration to me.   Thank you for sharing.🐡

Beautiful job Lou! I remember cutting that 1/8 stainless steel by hand for my wood handle and it was no joke.
Yours being thicker, I can just imagine how hard it must have been.
No money into this type of work, but it does give a great rewarding feeling .
Keep up you great work.

Sal

All I can say is WOW!!  

AWESOME!!!

Great work Lou and spectacular finish as usual. What did you use to modify the files?

Mike

   Modified files! You're on a higher plane than most of us Lou. Just love your work.

Your right Mr. C. Stainless can be a pain, especially when tapping small holes!

Last month I spent $240. on carbide cutters and my electric bill was over $300. I'd have been happy if I had made enough profit to cover it but that wasn't the case.
I do enjoy creating though.

I've been working on a 12/0 frame and plates for over a year now. I was thinking of posting but I'm really not sure if I'm ever going to finish it and would probably end up embarrassing myself. I have a ton of projects like that. Hopefully someday.

Mike, I modded the files on a surface grinder using a 60 I wheel. A friend of mine has a shop much larger than mine and I've helped him rebuild a lot of his machines. He lets me use anything I don't have at my own place so it works out well.

Mo, same plane as everyone else here. After 50 yrs in the business, something has to finally rub off! I think?
Meriden/Wallingford was know as the Silver City capitol of the world so to speak. Back then, toolmakers from Europe flooded the area for work. If you weren't in with the best of the best, the next guy took over. There really wasn't much choice if you wanted to make it. Some of us got lucky I guess.

Thanks, and all comments and criticisms appreciated,  ..  Lou

Amazing Work Lou.
Way above my pay grade.

Lou: Beautiful work! I new you had talent when I saw the shop.

Joe

Fantastic, Lou!!!!


You people, watching all this stuff, gets me over my pay grade as someone else said. I start thinking about what I can make on my limited tooling: grinders, drill press, belt sander, taps, Dremel, buffer, when there are some days i can't even get an AR to work. Like watching the home shows on a rainy day with the wife..."oh, I can do that...."....no, I can't, lol. Then I end up spending dough.