Old, Weird, Historical, and Unusual Spinning Reels --

Started by foakes, August 26, 2017, 06:36:33 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

oc1

Whew!  That was a rabbit hole.  Just spent half the evening reading a 1953 issue of Popular Mechanics.  What was interesting then is mundane now.  What was mundane then (ads and classified) is interesting now.
-steve

Midway Tommy

Quote from: oc1 on April 23, 2018, 06:50:17 AM
Whew!  That was a rabbit hole.  Just spent half the evening reading a 1953 issue of Popular Mechanics.  What was interesting then is mundane now.  What was mundane then (ads and classified) is interesting now.
-steve

Ain't that the truth!  ;D
Love those open face spinning reels! (Especially ABU & ABU/Zebco Cardinals)

Tommy D (ORCA), NE



Favorite Activity? ............... In our boat fishing
RELAXING w/ MY BEST FRIEND (My wife Bonnie)

Midway Tommy

Been organizing a few reels to add to my third display cabinet and came across this cute little Orvis 50A. I got it about 10 years ago with a 5' Master boron rod for $15 for the pair. My dad likes boron rods so I gave him the rod and cleaned up the reel, and then stuck it in a storage tote. I used some regular old reel grease on a few of my first renos so when I pulled it out of the box it was kind of stiff. I did a quick tear down, got rid of the old grease & relubed it with Super Lube. Took a couple of photos along the way & figured I share them.

It's no wonder some reels get a little stiff. Here's what the ten year old unfished grease looked like.



Cleaned the major drive parts with lacquer thinner & they're ready to reassemble.



The anti-reverse mechanism lubed with grease & oil, in place & operating correctly.



Main gear, oscillation arm, main shaft and handle installed, ready to button up with the sideplate, spool & drag knob.



All back together working like new with quality up to date lubrication that won't stiffen up for many years.    :)




The Orvis 50A, made by Zangi in the late '60s, is a nice little quality Italian made Ultra Light spinning reel.  8) 

   
Love those open face spinning reels! (Especially ABU & ABU/Zebco Cardinals)

Tommy D (ORCA), NE



Favorite Activity? ............... In our boat fishing
RELAXING w/ MY BEST FRIEND (My wife Bonnie)

happyhooker

That Orvis looks pretty good.  Master was one of the last bigger manufacturer to offer boron rods, I think; they were still selling them in the early '90s when a lot of the other guys had already packed it in or were planning to do so.

Frank

festus

I like the simplicity of the engineering on that Orvis.  Lots of the larger sizes going for decent prices on the big auction but the 50 is demasiado caro!  :o

Midway Tommy

#200
Here are a couple of unique German designed half bail reels from the early 1950's pre-Hardy full bail patent expiration time frame, Silent and Silent Spin-Flyte, both 1950- 1954. They were made by Graf Hagenbrg KG from Sonthofen, Allgau, Germany. They were distributed/sold by French Industries of San Francisco, CA.

The bail operation is quite different from any other half bail of the times. The bail arm has a regular coil type bail spring. The bail opens up the spool for casting, rather than by pulling the bail out, up and out of the way, by pulling it back and down to be held in place by a post on the rotor. The reel has an external post on the top of the body that trips the bail to wind line normally onto the spool.



The reel on the left has the half bail in its normal retrieve position. The reel on the right has the half bail open ready to cast. You can see the studs on the rotors that hold the half bail open and on the bodies that trip it closed.

Here are a couple of photos of the inner workings.




The pinion worm gear is steel and supported on both ends by ball bearings. The front ball bearing is encased and the rear bearing has  balls sandwiched between two steel washers. The main gear is brass and has hollow spaces between the spokes. The reels have a constant gravity activated anti-reverse. The anti-reverse dog is located on the side plate near the front. It has a small flat spring under it to keep it in the appropriate position. When the crank is turned backwards the dog flips out into the spaces in the main gear and stops rotation, kind of.  :) The dog doesn't always hit precisely in the space and sometimes hops over until the gear stops at an optimal position. It's not the best anti-reverse design I've ever seen but it does eventually stop rotation. One mylar washer goes under the spool and mylar washers go on each side of the keyed washer in the recessed area on top of the spool under the drag knob. The rubber washer goes on top of the stack and is for drag pressure. Not a lot of adjustment but it works smoothly. The lower photo shows how the drag click works. There is a wire attached to, and wrapped around, the main shaft fitting and then bent down into a L shape that hits the raised areas on the bottom of the spool when line is payed out. That contact makes the click sound.

I received a Silent as a parts reel in a lot awhile back. It was missing the bail and had a small J shaped heavy wire pinned into the bail arm screw hole that was used as a manual line pickup. The anti-reverse dog & spring was also missing. I contemplated how to make and attach a nicer manual line pickup. Sal, thank you again kind sir, was nice enough to send me a free gratis bail with a conical line pickup area. I had some old steel bail plates, bail screws, roller & nuts. I also made a new dog out of a piece of SS washer and a spring from some thin brass sheet I have.



First I filed the raised area on the rotor down to a larger flat area where the bail plate rests and drilled a small hole in the same location as the spring hole in the bail plate so that I could insert a pin that would keep the bail plate from rotating.



I cut the bail wire off just in front of the conical area. I filed and sanded it round and smooth. I also reshaped and rebent the metal bail plate for better fit and functionality.

Here are all three reels together. The handle knob is spring loaded so it can be flipped in towards the body and out of the way. The parts reel, even though it's no longer original with its PUM, is now a well functioning, almost 70 year old. reel.





While working on these reels I uncovered some interesting information. The Charles Garcia Corporation imported a few reels other than the famous Mitchell and ABU Ambassadeur lines. Among those reels were the Atlantis and the Spinette manufactured Dr Karl Plate of the famous German monofilament maker Platil. In 1954 Dr. Plate acquired the Silent patents and started manufacture of the Atlantis. Since the Hardy full bail patent had expired the Atlantis incorporated a full bail, externally tripped. The Atlantis also has an adjustable dog & ratchet gear style anti-reverse. The drag knob, while clear plastic, is the same shape as the Silent's. The drag washer configuration is a little different but the spool click mechanics are exactly the same, as is the basic drive train and bearing design save for the anti-reverse mechanics and design.

Here are the Silent and Atlantis reels side by side for comparison. You can clearly see their similarities.





Here we have the Platil made Atlantis and Garcia Spinette.





These are all some interesting and cool old '50s quality German made spinning reels.                        
Love those open face spinning reels! (Especially ABU & ABU/Zebco Cardinals)

Tommy D (ORCA), NE



Favorite Activity? ............... In our boat fishing
RELAXING w/ MY BEST FRIEND (My wife Bonnie)

foakes

Thanks, Tommy —

Those are really neat reels — thanks for the write up, pics, and education!

Best,

Fred
The Official, Un-Authorized Service and Restoration Center for quality vintage spinning reels.

D-A-M Quick, Penn, Mitchell, and ABU/Zebco Cardinals

--------

The first rule of fishing is to fish where the fish are. The second rule of fishing is to never forget the first rule.

"Enjoy the little things in Life — For someday, you may look back — and realize that they were the big things"
                                                     Fred O.

Alto Mare

Beautiful reels Tommy, thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Nice little jewels built like a tank...

Sal
Forget about all the reasons why something may not work. You only need to find one good reason why it will.

happyhooker

WOW! Extremely interesting, both the history and the reels.  Thanks, Tommy.

Frank

mo65

   This is a reel I saw posted by Pompano Joe. It has an interesting drivetrain  design...never seen one quite like this. Just thought I'd share...maybe someone can elaborate on it. 8)
~YOU CAN TUNA GEETAR...BUT YOU CAN'T TUNA FEESH~


Midway Tommy

It's a Shakespeare 2000. They were offered from '69 through about 1972 during Shakespeare's transition era with Noris, Pfluger and factory move to Arkansas. Shakespeare went through a lot of changes during that time frame including cheapening down the costs & quality of their reels. It's an interesting change compared to the "Maroon" and previous "Wonder" lines. One can truly see how they cut corners. The early examples had a plastic rotor cup but so many broke they changed the rotor to metal on the latter issues. I've often wondered if the parts were made in Japan and assembled here in the US. I've never been able to confirm that, though.
Love those open face spinning reels! (Especially ABU & ABU/Zebco Cardinals)

Tommy D (ORCA), NE



Favorite Activity? ............... In our boat fishing
RELAXING w/ MY BEST FRIEND (My wife Bonnie)

foakes

Thanks Tommy, for the history —

If this reel has a main bearing — it is not too bad of a light reel.

The obvious weak links are the nylon oscillation block, the cast crank handle, and more subtlety — but from an engineering importance — the off center transition gear between the main gear and pinion.

If any grease gets old or hard in this reel — and forced — something will break that cannot be sourced without a donor reel.

The differences between a reel like this — and other more well engineered reels, is:

Solid and sleeved support points front and rear for the pinion, a center-line crank that operates evenly the rotor and spool oscillation.  And these friction points need to be supported with a tough frame, then backed up with brass sleeving. 

Plus, quality of materials designed for tough fishing and longevity that surpasses generations.

Examples of the tough reels are Penn, ABU/Zebco Cardinals, DAM Quicks, previous Shakes, and a few others.

I do however, love these old spinners that you guys are showing us.  We can see by studying, using, and having these on our benches — the good, bad, and ugly. 

There are literally hundreds of variations of old spinners from the 50's through early 80's — only a few of them have stood the test of time and angling demands.

Best,

Fred
The Official, Un-Authorized Service and Restoration Center for quality vintage spinning reels.

D-A-M Quick, Penn, Mitchell, and ABU/Zebco Cardinals

--------

The first rule of fishing is to fish where the fish are. The second rule of fishing is to never forget the first rule.

"Enjoy the little things in Life — For someday, you may look back — and realize that they were the big things"
                                                     Fred O.

The Fishing Hobby

This is a really good thread that I completely missed! I just posted a video I did on some reel oddities that I own in this forum and I scrolled down and saw this thread! Y'all have some really cool stuff! I saw a few that I need to try to add to my collection. Here are some of the strange ones I own:


Darin Crofton

What a cool thread, so happy I found it, and down the rabbit hole I go . . . . . . .
God, Family and Fishing, what else is there?

Dominick

Cool reels and video.  Keep them coming.  Dominick
Leave the gun.  Take the cannolis.

There are two things I don't like about fishing.  Getting up early in the morning and boats.  The rest of it is fun.