Construction of anodized 500 spools

[mhc]

Has anyone pulled apart one of the Penn 500 anodized spools to see how they are made? The silver and red spools appear to to be assembled rather than a one piece spool with a shaft pressed in like the black/dark grey spools. I have a silver one that has a c or e clip on the shaft on tail plate side and there seems to be 'joints' in the arbor.



The line holding pin on the arbor is missing and I can poke an allen key through the hole to the opposite wall of the arbor - which suggests, to me anyway, the 'shaft' doesn't run through the full width.



I'm just curious how they were built.
Mike

[Keta]

The shaft is one piece with a hole drilled through it.

[mhc]

Thanks Lee, but I'm not sure - this one appears to have a hollow aluminium arbor - not just a hole drilled through like most spools with a line pin. I can feed a piece of bent wire into the hole and move it around.

[Cortez_Conversions]

Here you go Mike.
This was an Ebay buy of a blown out spool. Mono spooled tight under pressure actually ripped the threads on one flange and seperated it from the assembly.
I pressed it all back together and milled it in half.

[coastal_dan]

Holy cow, that is a photo to keep in the archives! (mind if I save a copy?)

[Alto Mare]

Cool shot of that spool Tom, love it!
Mike, I would think if the spool shaft was in two pieces it wouldn't last very long.
Here is anothe pic, this one is a narrow:





Sal

[mhc]

Thanks Tom, I think that's the neatest dissection of a spool I've seen!  
I was hoping someone had already done it.

Sal (and Lee), Now that you mention it - you're right a two piece shaft wouldn't be very strong. Now that I know what is there I can 'feel' the shaft running through the cavity with a piece of wire.
The silver and red anodized penn spools are the only ones I've seen with the 'C' clip on the handle side (not tail plate like I first said) Do the dark anodized spools have the same cavity and threaded sections on each side that Tom's has? It doesn't look like it with your 501 photo but that could be the solid ends are butted together with the narrow spool.  

Mike    

[Cortez_Conversions]

Here's what I have found Mike,
Original Penn spools are one piece cast aluminum and then finish machined and hard type III anodized. Some of them look like they have been honed to size prior to pressing the shaft in, while others like Sal's have anodize in the hole. The shafts are press fit and maybe glued(adhesive). The cross pin is drilled once assembled to prevent any movement.
Whatever the process, Penn makes some very durable spools.

[mhc]

Thanks Tom, that clears it up for me. The process used for the red/silver spools looks interesting.
Mike

[Alto Mare]

I'm guessing Penn was trying to make it more cost effective with the production of these 3-piece spools.
The two end pieces could bee used on many reels, by changing the spool shaft and arbor.
Many of their metal spools come in 3-pieces, some are held in place with a c-clip, as the red and silver and some with nuts.
The 2-piece plastic spools are usually held in place with a pin, but we're talking aluminum here.

Most larger spools are pressed in, aluminum or chromed.