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

[Tightlines667]

I like it. 

I wasn't aware of these, though I keep an eye on the Alcedos and have been looking for a few to ad at some point.

I enjoy seeing your great tutorials on these, and other quality old classic spinners.

John

[Midway Tommy]

Thanks for all the comments & support, guys!

Sal,

I have a very small Craftsman tongue-and-groove (water pump) pliers. It's basically ignition wrench size and one of my most used tools. I use a piece of leather between the pliers & worm gear teeth to keep from marring the gear teeth. I'm really careful and work things back and forth until the nut comes loose. It's not often that I need to put it on gear teeth, I try to avoid that, but on this one it was either the teeth or the threads and I definitely avoid threads at all costs. The nut came loose pretty easy on this one, so I was happy about that.

BTW, no more Loose Balls!   They're all back at home in their races, adjusted and rolling smoothly.    

Phil,

You'll be fine! Just don't take the rotor cup off.  If you do, though, do it inside a bucket with a piece of clear plastic over the top.    I learned the hard way on that Spin Mitey.  Somewhere in the nap of the carpet in my reel room, or the vacuum cleaner, there are a couple of Spin Mitey ball bearings. I had to go to Ace and get replacements. While I was there I picked up a few extras in all the smaller sizes for future carelessness. Haven't had to use any since, though.     

[Midway Tommy]

I threaded the nuts all the way onto the pinion worm gear and slid the rear bearing race on the shaft. It has to be installed from the rear. I held it up with a block of wood, greased the race with Super Lube and installed the balls with my little cheapy magnetized screwdriver. I needed the plastic poker to get the balls to come off the screw driver.  



I added a couple drops of oil, slid the worm gear forward and put a little wood block against the worm gear to keep it in place so the balls wouldn't fall out.



I greased the front inner race, installed the balls just like the first bearing. I added a couple of drops of oil, the outer race, teflon and metal washers.



Next I installed the rotor and adjusted the spanner nuts so that the bearings spin freely without any play. Shown is the small water pump pliers and leather pad I use to hold the worm gear to remove and/or tighten the rotor nut. Also pictured are a couple of nice little micrometer spanner wrenches I picked up on the Bay a couple of years ago for situations just like this and crank handles that have double spanner nuts. They sure came in handy securing those bearing nuts.



While I didn't need them on this project, I also have the smallest size vise-grips that I ground the ridges off the jaws to prevent marring.



If the rotor nut wouldn't have come loose easily I would have locked them onto the gear like this to remove the nut.



There's not a lot of drag stack parts. The spool, coil spring, metal washer and retaining rim/fitting.



Here the crank handle, bail and all the internals are back in place and everything is working as it should, although it's just like any older reel that has had it's balls and races completely cleaned of all old oil & grease, it makes a little noise, and will until a nice coating sets into, and onto, the metal. I set the anti-reverse and snugged the rotor nut down another quarter of a turn. The ratchet gear holds the main gear, and in turn the worm gear, from turning enough to snug the rotor nut. It's ready for the side plate, spool and drag knob.



The Alcedo Erie 2CS, along with its little brother, the Micron, are both ready to go fishing!  

[Shark Hunter]

Very Nice Tommy.
You do good work.

[foakes]

Here is an old Johnson's Sure-spin —

It is listed in George Thommen's 1954 edition of "The Complete Guide to Spinning Tackle".

So it must be a little older than that, 1950 vintage, maybe?

Anyway, not even a bit of plastic anywhere — but a basic low quality reel compared to those of 25 or 30 years later.

Best,

Fred

[Alto Mare]

Nice little reel Fred, I have something very similar in green, I believe made in NY.


Beautiful tutorial Tommy, but I must say, while you were holding that pinion with the vise-grip I was biting my finger


Sal

[festus]

Can you tell me anything about this Swiss Whiz, Fred?

At first glance it reminded me very much of my first spinning reel--the old Zebco 707. Gave $2.99 for it at Star Sales in Knoxville, TN.

[foakes]

As you can see, Chester — the design is similar on the Zebco 707 to the much earlier Swiss Whiz from around the very early 50's.

The SW has more metal — the 707's are mostly all plastic.

Now, Zebco made some really nice high quality early all metal reels during the same time they made these entry level 707's.  They were identical to the earlier Langley's, with just color differences.  These were Zebco reels such as the 822, and others of the same model group.  I have maybe a dozen of these.  Some are unused — and they are wonderful, solid reels.  Good action, solid mechanics, sharp and crisp bail return.  And they were not inexpensive when new back in the early 60's — running $15 to $19 at that time.

The 707 listed for a MSRP of $5.98 in 1965.

Here is a Zebco 707 that was in the bottom of one of the old bins.  It has never been used, and still has the original factory line and clear plastic line keeper on the spool.

Took it apart for pics, still had the original honey grease inside — added a little more grease as well as some TSI321 — took pics, put it back together.  Whole process took 6 minutes including disassembly, pics, grease and oil, and reassembly.  Dead simple little reel that weighs in at 5 ounces.  Good for kids to learn how a spinner works on bluegill, trout, and panfish.  No bail spring, no A/R, no dogs, no springs, 80% plastic.

If anyone wants, I can post some pics of the metal Zebcos and Langleys.

They will still catch respectable fish today.

Best,

Fred

[Midway Tommy]

Nice little reel Fred, I have something very similar in green, I believe made in NY.


Beautiful tutorial Tommy, but I must say, while you were holding that pinion with the vise-grip I was biting my finger


Sal

Thanks for the kudos, guys. I cut a couple of corners on the tutorial but figured those were pretty basic steps. I tore it all the way down, as usual, I just didn't photo all the parts and a couple of steps.

Not to worry, Sal. Good solid steel flat on both sides and plenty of flange to grab.  

The Swiss Whiz has always cracked me up. They touted it as being designed by Swiss Craftsmen, the lightest spinning reel on the marked and Made in America. I always laugh when I read that in their advertising. The designers clearly weren't watch makers and my first thought is that they were the aluminum pop can predecessor.   They were made by Myco, Inc. in Detroit, MI.

Here's a couple of pages from a 1970 Zebco catalog. They were still selling their basic spinners even though they had been promoting the Cardinals for three years. They also had an 830 Spin Deluxe.

[Midway Tommy]

Here's all seven of those early right hand Zebcos in real time. All were originally Langley models except the 707.

Top row left to right: Spin de luxe 830, Spin Flo 822, Spinlite 850, 707
Bottom row left to right: Spinator 870, Surflite 860, Spinner 777

[festus]

Those metal Zebcos look pretty sturdy. I can't say that for the old Zebco 707.

Thanks for the pics, Fred and Tommy.

I don't remember ever disassembling the 707.  That's the simplest innards l've seen in any type of reel.  What I remember most about that reel is the brake didn't work properly and I lost a big smallmouth that hit my spoon just about 5' from shore. But l caught my fair share of crappie, bream, and carp. Yes, I actually got the 707 for $2.99 wholesale.  Got it with an old cheap $1.99 6-1/2' no name rod that I threw away years ago.

[Alto Mare]

Nice little reel Fred, I have something very similar in green, I believe made in NY.


Beautiful tutorial Tommy, but I must say, while you were holding that pinion with the vise-grip I was biting my finger


Sal

Thanks for the kudos, guys. I cut a couple of corners on the tutorial but figured those were pretty basic steps. I tore it all the way down, as usual, I just didn't photo all the parts and a couple of steps.

Not to worry, Sal. Good solid steel flat on both sides and plenty of flange to grab.  

The Swiss Whiz has always cracked me up. They touted it as being designed by Swiss Craftsmen, the lightest spinning reel on the marked and Made in America. I always laugh when I read that in their advertising. The designers clearly weren't watch makers and my first thought is that they were the aluminum pop can predecessor.   They were made by Myco, Inc. in Detroit, MI.

Here's a couple of pages from a 1970 Zebco catalog. They were still selling their basic spinners even though they had been promoting the Cardinals for three years. They also had an 830 Spin Deluxe.

I wasn't worried Tommy, I know you have it under control, I can just tell

[foakes]

Beautiful tutorial Tommy, but I must say, while you were holding that pinion with the vise-grip I was biting my finger 

You are right, Sal — made me cringe a bit also — but I know that Tom knows what he is about, though.

For me, it is like wood working bench planes — blocks, trim, jointers, jacks, smooth bed, rabbet, etc..

I might have 20, or so...seldom use them except maybe a few times a year because of power jointers, shapers, routers, and router tables.

However, they are always stored on their side, or rested on their side when using them.  Newer woodworkers say that either way is fine — and I believe they are right.  And 99% of the time there is never an issue if you know what you are doing.

I just prefer to eliminate the other 1% as a course of habit.  And that is the way I was taught as a kid when it came to woodworking.

But Tommy has it covered.

Experience lets us take shortcuts and make our tools better.

Best,

Fred

[Midway Tommy]

Oh, believe me, those ground off vice-grips are a very, very, very last resort!  I'm even nervous with the tiny water pump pliers and leather strap, but I've never gouged a gear using that protective leather strap and it grabs into the gear teeth pretty nicely. Those specific Alcedo 2CSs are a booger, as Sal obviously knows. The pinion doesn't have flat sides for the rotor and the rotor hole is round. The only thing that holds the rotor in place is heavy duty nut tightening friction and locking down the A/R doesn't work because it's in the wrong direction. Locking it only helps to tighten it down. Since the race retainer nut threads go all the way back to the gear it makes it even more difficult to hold the pinion to loosen the rotor nut. I'm glad I don't have to work on very many reels designed like that. If did I'd have to figure out how to make some sort of tool to lock the pinion down.

[Midway Tommy]

I've been playing around with a cute little French made Centaure 600 the last couple of days. Centaure reels were made by, when translated to English, "The French Water Pipes Company" of Paris. Their first reel, in 1947, was a fairly large & heavy medium sized reel simply named Centaure. They made various models throughout the '50s and were one of the earlier makers to use skirted spools. The 600 was their smallest reel and sold circa 1960. It's considered light size. It's is a little longer than a Mitchell 304 but weighs about the same. It is a very light neat little reel.  

Here's what she looked like when I opened her up.




Took her apart, snapped a few photos during the process and cleaned everything up. Here's all the parts ready to reassemble.



I assembled the bail spring, bail arm, and bail trip mechanism first. The coil spring wraps around the bail arm & is inside the rotor. The crescent metal piece is part of the bail trip mechanism and held in place by the two screws. The square end locks against a ridge on a rolling bail arm fitting, both open and when closed. The square stud trips the mechanism. On this one I'll wait to add the bail until last.



Here you can see the stud, the ridges that trip the stud on the bearing retainer and the bearing, regreased and ready to put together.  



Next, I assembled the spool click parts. It's an interesting design and threads into the bottom of the spool.




Here's the drag mechanism. Not much there. A coil spring, flat washer & drag knob. In the end, when I put it all together, there was some room for additional washers so I added a fiber & bronze washer. That ended up making knob adjustment a little easier.



The side plate, anti-reverse parts, main gear, oscillation stud and shims.  



All put together, ready for installation and set aside.



Next step is to install the pinion. The rotor hole is threaded to accept the pinion, which slides through the bearing from the rear, and there is also a retention nut.



They conveniently provided a hole in the pinion tube to hold it while tightening the rotor & nut. That was really nice!



Time to install the main shaft, under spool washer & oscillation block.



Next I installed the main gear/side plate mechanism making sure the oscillation stud was in the slot.



Time to check the bail for adjustment, install it, add the handle, install the spool and test everything.  



Done and everything works as it should. A neat little, almost 60 year old, reel.