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

[foakes]

Thanks, Kevin —

Neat video and good information!

B3st,

Fred

[Midway Tommy]

This is a cute little mid '50s spinner from an Italian company named SPEM. SPEM is considered the oldest company in Italy with ties to fishing equipment and gearing, and has a history which goes as far back as 1750. SPEM is the acronym for Sport, Pesca, Milano. They started manufacture of fishing reels shortly after WWII. There were about twenty different models made by SPEM. This little reel is about the same size as a Garcia Mitchell 304, but quite a bit lighter. It's named Velox and was imported, and distributed in the US, by the Ideal Co. of  Sykesville, PA.

Here are the parts cleaned and ready for installation. As you can see, there aren't a whole lot of them.



The conical tapered line guide is built into the bail and has one bail spring. The opposite side bail fitting appears to be pressed in with a flared end on the bail so I cleaned the fitting and bail end intact and decided not to try to remove the fitting. The pinion gear is brass and held in place with tree screws from the rotor into the pinion flange. The bail trip lever is a pretty basic design.



This is the anti-reverse dog and spring. The anti-reverse knob is knurled and rotates completely around. There is no stop so it can be turned in either direction to activate or deactivate the A/R.



The main gear has anti-reverse ratchet teeth on the back side and a groove in the face that accommodates a pin for main shaft oscillation. (Lousy photo quality, BTW.  )



The rotor is held in place against the body housing via the main shaft tube. The main shaft tube also has a plate brazed on the end that is used to trip the bail. The small brass screw holds the main shaft tube in place, and in turn is the only thing that secures the rotor to the body. Needless to say, there is a little play between the rotor and body housing. The main shaft has a threaded hole that accommodates a pin which rides in the oscillation groove on the main gear. The pin slides back and forth in the slot in the body for oscillation.



Here the main internal parts are installed ready for the side plate and main gear to be positioned and fastened with screws. The pinion and main gear are both brass. The drag consists of one felt and one keyed metal washer. It works adequately for a light reel of this size, but remove the drag knob and both wahers fall right out. The handle is threaded and is also retained with a hex nut.



It's all together and this is what it looks like. You can see that knurled anti-reverse knob in the second photo. It's a cute little reel, but not high quality.




Here is the SPEM Velox beside a Garcia Mitchell 304 for size comparison. This specific 304, by-the-way, was my very first open face spinning reel, and the braided nylon line on the spool has been on that reel since about 1968.

 

[The Fishing Hobby]

That is interesting to see. You don't happen to have a picture of the anti-reverse teeth on the main gear do you?
Neat little reel.

[Gfish]

Great detail Tommy. Another one of those very interesting "never heard of this company or reel before" things for me.
That looks like a huge main gear. What's the ratio?

[foakes]

Cool, Tommy!

I do not have one of those that I know of, and was not aware of the company.

I see many similarities to Luxor, Mitchell, OC, AGAL, and a few others.

Just lesser quality, as you point out.

Best,

Fred

[happyhooker]

Interesting and informative on the SPEM and the 5 "odd feature" reels with the video.  More entertaining than TV.  And, a nice research effort for all the background info.

Frank

[festus]

Thanks for sharing, Tommy.  Interesting oscillation and anti-reverse system.

[Midway Tommy]

Great detail Tommy. Another one of those very interesting "never heard of this company or reel before" things for me.
That looks like a huge main gear. What's the ratio?

58 teeth on the main gear & 18 on the pinion, roughly 3.2:1.

You don't happen to have a picture of the anti-reverse teeth on the main gear do you?

I took it apart & took a couple of picks for you. (see below) It is a one piece brass gear and the ratchet portion is cast as part of the main gear. I've never seen them one piece before, usually the ratchet gear is a separate piece of metal. 

[The Fishing Hobby]

Thanks for the picture! That is an interesting reel. What about it seems inferior to the 304, just curious.

[Midway Tommy]

There's not a whole lot of difference, really. Both have their pluses & minuses. Tolerances are a little tighter and materials in the 304 are a little more stout, other than maybe the plastic oscillation block. Lighter materials in the Velox appear have worn a little more, therefore it makes a little more noise. Both were fairly basic reels in their day, but they were still well enough made to last 65 years.      

[The Fishing Hobby]

Thanks! You really have some interesting stuff!

[Midway Tommy]

Thanks, Kevin, .....and..... a lot of it, too.   

[foakes]

Tommy is doing such a good job on these cool, historical old reels —

It is inspiring me to pull a few more out of the mothball bins for posting.

Best,

Fred

[The Fishing Hobby]

Thanks, Kevin, .....and..... a lot of it, too.  

haha!

[Bill B]

While not officially a spinning reel, it does have "spin" caster in it name 😉  Picked it up in a bundle of stuff at an estate sale.....I don't really know much about spin casters, but it seems to be ok.....what are your ideas about the Abu Garcia Abumatic 170C......is it worth fishing with?  Bill