ergonomics and old targets

[oc1]

I'm still obsessed with building long, ultralight, two-handed, baitcasting rods using repurposed 1950's tobacco (Trevano) fiberglass blanks.  It has sort of gotten out of hand but the last one I'll ever buy is in the mail now.  I mean it this time.  In this first generation of tubular fiberglass fishing rods there were a bunch of players.  Notable are the NARMCO Conolon, California Tackle's Cal-Royal, Phillipson, Silaflex, Wright-McGill, St. Croix, and Kennedy Fisher.  California Tackle and St. Croix are my favorites.  Phillipson, Kennedy Fisher and Silaflex are what the fiberglass fly fishermen seem to look for so I can only afford spinning rods of those brands and they tend to be a foot shorter.  NARMCO Conolon are the most common. Wright-McGill may have been the worst of the lot.  More about Trevano rods can be found here but I learned a bit since then:
http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=24775.0

In looking for a basic 1950's baitcasting reel to go with the rods I came across a Langley Target and fell in love.  They were only made for a few years in the late 1950's but were popular for both fishing and tournament casting.  It was one of the few small, non-levelwind, freespool baitcasting reels.  It has a simple design with no drag or AR.  The freespool clutch is the type where the handle, sleeve and main gear is pulled outward to separate the main gear from the pinion.  

This clutch design had been around since at least the late 1930's.  I'm still looking for the original patent so we can give this clutch a name.  Unlike the Penn and Shakespeare versions of this clutch, the Langley version is simple and foolproof.  The tension on the mechanism can be easily adjusted by using a screwdriver or pliers to massage a split collar.  It never wears out.  The pinion is attached to the spool spindle so when the main gear is pulled away from the pinion the reel has complete freespool.  The only points of contact are the left and right spindles riding inside the two brass bushings.  It does not have the friction of the spindle riding inside the pinion while the pinion loosely attached to a yoke.
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Perhaps the important innovation in the Target is the wiffel spool.  The spool is very light weight aluminum.  A light spool makes for high start-up speed and long casts. They consistently cast very well both in free spool and as direct drive.  The distance is just shy of what I would get out of a modern reel.  You only loose one or two yards casting them without putting the reel in freespool.  It sort of defies what I thought I knew about baitcaster physics.

The side plates, posts and frame are also aluminum making the reel very light overall.  Aluminum and I do not get along very well so I bought a few extra Targets to have a supply of parts if needed.  Cheap ones are not always available at auction but if you wait a while you can find one for thirty to fifty bucks with shipping.  

The ergonomics part.....  When the wind cooperates I spend five to ten hours a week repetitive casting from a one-man outrigger canoe (an OC-1 they're called) while drifting over flats.  It's like kayak fishing, but the OC-1 is faster and tracks better into the wind.  Also, a canoe paddle is quieter than a kayak paddle because of the angle that the paddle enters and leaves the water.  Less splashing and flailing.  The canoe is about twenty-two feet long with a cockpit in the center.  You are sitting with your behind a few inches above the water level and cannot get out of the cockpit except to step or fall into the water.  With a fish on, or with the jig snagged on the bottom while the wind is pushing the boat along, it is important to be able to reach the bow or stern with the rod tip.  Having the fish or snag on one side of the boat and the rod tip on the other can lead to a broken rod as is it bent over the gunwale.  Holding the rod by the butt cap, I can stretch and reach the bow or stern with the tip of a rod that is nine feet or more.

Old fiberglass rods nine or ten feet long tend to be very tip heavy, even though it is a light rig overall.  When holding the rod at the reel seat, the tip will want to sag down and you will have to use small muscles in your hand, wrist and forearm to support the weight.  Small muscles fatigue quickly.  Holding the rod at the balance point (like you would when carrying it down the dock or beach) is much easier.  The balance point is usually well in front of the reel and sometimes well in front of the foregrip.  When holding the rod at the balance point you will be supporting the weight with large muscles in the arm and back.  Large muscles do not fatigue quickly.

When the rod is tip-heavy, you'll be tempted to hold the rod at the foregrip during the retrieve.  This will put more weight below your hand and provide better balance thereby reducing wrist strain.  Long conventional surf rigs become manageable when they have a long handle for counterweight and are held by the foregrip.  You will likely use your thumb and index finger to lay line from in front of the reel.  The wide and heavier reel (compared to a small baitcaster) will not have much lateral stability so you will need to keep a tight hold on that foregrip.  But, with small baitcasters there are advantages and comfort in palming the reel; that is, holding it at the reel seat with the tail plate cupped in your hand.  This is especially true with non-levelwind reels because you can use your thumb to easily lay the line from above.  Palming gives the rig solid lateral stability with very little effort but it moves the fulcrum, your hand, back several inches from the foregrip so the rod will become more tip heavy.   Ideally, the fulcrum would also be the balance point so the rig is not tip-heavy and does not need to be supported with wrist and hand muscles.

The easiest way to make the rod balance at the fulcrum (your hand) is to lengthen the handle and/or add weight at the butt cap.  The farther the counterweight is from the fulcrum (that is, the longer the handle) the smaller the required counterweight will be at the butt cap.  I only use two-handed rods but lengthening the handle has its limits for me.  If the handle is too long I'll accidentally bump it on the side of the boat and spook fish.  Sixteen inches is fine, eighteen inches is usually OK, twenty inches or more is asking for a mistake.  It usually takes three to four ounces of counterweight on an eighteen inch handle to balance a nine foot Trevano fiberglass rod.  A graphite blank requires an ounce or two less.  But still, it's a lot compared to the weight of the bare rod blank.  A 10' 6" graphite blank may only weight 3.5 ounces but require almost three ounce of counterweight.

The number and size of the guides, wrappings and finish can have a substantial impact on the amount of counterweight required.  One gram of extra weight out at the tip of a nine foot rod requires and extra five grams of counterweight in the butt of an eighteen inch handle.  Likewise, you want to put all the counterweight as close to the butt as possible.  In the old days, they put oak hardwood handles on rods to make them less tip-heavy.  But to minimize the overall weight of the rod, it is better to use butt-through construction, minimal handle weight, with a dense lead counterweight as close to the butt cap as possible.  You can start with a rod-shaped piece of lead that fits inside the blank.  Then, incorporate sheet lead (roofing lead) into the lower grip.  You can put it under cork, eva foam or cord.

I was told years ago that if I tried a balanced rod (without tip weight) I would never go back.  That has been true so far.  Actually, I get sort of obsessive about it... as you can see.  A balanced rod is heavier owing to the counterweight, but it feels lighter and will not tire you out.  But, all of this is just the background to what I really want to talk about.  Balance in three dimensions.

Removing the tip weight balances the rod front to back, or tip to butt.  But, there is also a lateral balance.  Even though the rod is balanced and naturally sits level front to back, it will still roll over to one side.  It is your grasp on the rod and reel that prevents it from flipping completely upside down.  What if it would sit upright in your hand without having to control the tendency to roll over?  We see many designs that, at least in part, are intended to lower the center of gravity and provide more lateral stability.  Think about the bent butt on a trolling rod, a cradle reel, the Hurd Supercaster, the common drop-down reel seat on one-handed baitcasters, or the drop-down gear box on a modern low profile baitcaster.  There were some two-handed Wonderrods in the 1960's that had a drop-down reel seat and the cork portion of the handle angled downward a few degrees.  Both the drop-down reel seat and angled handle lowered the center of gravity. So, the rod would almost sit upright in your hand on its own.  I think they were calling them popping rods, but today "popping rod" means something very different.  Anyway, the Wonderods were not balanced front to back so it was difficult to appreciate their low center of gravity.  

This was my first shot at building something with lateral balance.
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The rod blank is an eight foot NARMCO Conolon.  The reel seat and handle section are a piece of calcutta bamboo that extends the overall length to about 9'2".  The bamboo was heated with hot air and bent several inches.  It was then fiberglassed and some lead was embedded in the butt.  The lead counterweight put the balance point under the reel and the bend lowered the center of gravity enough to make the reel sit upright.  The handle bends down and a little to the left.  Having it bend slightly to the left offsets the weight difference between the heavier head plate and the lighter tail plate.

The Target was modified by removing the top post and then using what was the top post to replace the front post so it could be screwed to both side plates.  With the top post removed, the tail plate could be shaved down to reduce its height and make the reel easier to palm.  Magnets were glued to the inside of the tail plate.

Dang, it worked out pretty good.  The rod feels great and the reel casts like a bat out of a cave.  It will reach out forty-five yards with a three-eighths ounce jig.  I've put a lot of hours on it.

The second in the series is a bit weird and best described in pictures.  
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The rod used to be a nine foot Conolon fly rod that was stripped down and then extended to 10'6" with the handle.  It is a big lumbering thing.  The long rod required a lot of counterweight and the total weight is much more than what I'm used to.  It cast OK, but is not very snappy.  I used it once and put it back in the rack.  Not my favorite.  It was lot of work for nothing so trial number two was a failure,

The third try started with a piece of rolled lead, an old piece of plastic tubing and a stick.  I was starting with an 8'6" blank and the length extended by only about eight inches.

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Building up the piece with fiberglass cloth and polyester resin is tedious because is has to be done in numerous thin layers.  After wetting out the fiberglass with resin, I was vacuum bagging the piece while the resin gelled.  This allowed more fiberglass to be wound on before impregnation and reduced the amount of sanding needed between wet lay-ups.

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After building it up with fiberglass most of the plastic tubing was drilled out so the butt of the blank could be inserted four inches.

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The donor rod is a St. Croix Trevano fiberglass that had been previously refinished.  The model number was obliterated in refinishing, but Dave Fischer at St. Croix says it is from about 1957 and gave me the specs on several models that it could be.  It's a really sweet rod and my new favorite.  I had been on the look-out for these but it took a long time for one of these to come up at auction.  Then there were three in just a few months

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The reel was modified as before.  This isn't a good photo, but it attempts to show how the end of the bridge has to be thinned and the edge of the head plate ground down a bit to make room for the screw and washer that attaches the frame to the forward post.  That fat forward post (which used to be the top post) needs to be drilled and tapped so it can be screwed into place on both ends.

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Also, there is a machine screw and rounded nut that secures the side plate cup to the frame at the spot where the top post used to be.

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I didn't like gluing magnets inside the tail plate where there is barely enough room so the magnets were moved to the head plate.  The magnets are stuck to a small steel plate that floats on springs.  Screws on the outside raise or lower the plate to adjust the clearance between magnets and the spool.  It works fine but the steel plate is going to rust and I need to make some stainless thumb screws so the magnets can be adjusted without using a screw driver.  I would also like the reel to have a stop latch eventually.  This outfit too throws a three-eighths ounce jig about forty five yards.

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The bent butt is more dramatic in this one but I like it better.  The sharper bend lowers the center of gravity more so the reel sits more firming in the hand and does not teeter.  I was afraid that holding the bent part when casting would be a distraction but I hardly notice it.  That bulbous thing below the reel is where the pad at the base of my hand (that part just past the wrist) rests.  It further improves stability without any effort and prevents the rod from sliding forward when lightly held.

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I haven't been using any type of cord or cork or foam on the rod to make it easier to hold.  I've about decided that the main purpose of grip material is to be able to control lateral movement.  If there is inherent lateral stability then you seldom have to grasp the rod firmly.  It really is more comfortable.  But, fishing had been dismal despite my best efforts so I have nothing to show you as living proof.

OK, it looks really strange and may not be something you would want to take to the public pier.  My poor fiberglassing skills and the funky pigments make them even worse.  But, I'm happy with the outcome and this is how all my baitcasting rods are going to look going forward.  

-steve

[STRIPER LOU]

Very nice Steve! Man, you put some serious work in those babies. Great job!

................Lou

[Reel 224]

Steve: You are amazing!  ...........................Joe

[foakes]

Great work, Steve!

Best,

Fred

[Dominick]

Steve your commitment to detail regarding old equipment always amazes me.  Nice work.  Dominick

[oc1]

Thanks.  

I forgot to mention that all have little home-made side mount wire guides.  They bend easily, but I just bend them back in place so they end up taking a lot of abuse.  If one broke, another one could be made and wrapped in about twenty minutes.  

After everything is sanded, wrapped, the reel lashed down and tested it all (including the reel foot) gets a light coat of spar varnish thinned with a splash of japan dryer.  The finish will need to be renewed after about a year of use, but varnish is easy to remove and spruce up.  It is almost a temporary finish compared to epoxy but gives you a lot of latitude when it comes to making modifications
-steve

[mo65]

   I love the way you work outside the box Steve. You sent me scurrying through my old Langleys looking for a Target...all I have are Streamlites  and Cast-Rites. Great work!

[Swami805]

Thanks for the write up and pictures, fascinating.Really next level engineering.
I fish with heavier gear but used an old silaflex and a roddy on my last trip. There's something about the way the old glass loads up. I like the feel of the old silaflex glass the best too.

[mhc]

Fascinating stuff Steve, you've put a lot of thought into those trial designs and a lot of patience building them. The second one, the custom cradle reel, looks interesting - it's a pity it didn't meet your objectives.

Mike

[oc1]

Sheradin, Silaflex may be a special case when it comes to the first generation 1950's tubular rod makers.  A few days ago there was a 1954 Silaflex catalog for sale at the auction.  The last page described their high-tech manufacturing and included a photo and description saying, Although most rod factories buy cloth already impregnated SILA FLEX does this most important cloth dipping (impregnating) in their own plant.  The picture has twenty-foot sheets of what may be fiberglass cloth hanging from the ceiling with lots of machinery around.  The others rod factories they refer to were buying Hexcell/Travano pre-impregnated fiberglass cloth from NARMCO.  The thing that easily distinguishes Hexcell/Travano is the weave pattern of the fiberglass cloth showing through the brown phenolic resin.  However, NARMCO was only making the resin and they bought their fiberglass cloth from Corning.  I don't know if Corning made a proprietary cloth exclusively for NARMCO of if anyone could buy the same cloth.  If anyone could buy it, and SilaFlex was dipping their own, then some rods that look like Hexcell/Travano may not technically be trademarked Hexcell/Travano, but something made by the ex-Narmco technician(s) that started SilaFlex.  Coincidentally, there is now a SilaFlex fly rod at auction that I would have erroneously called a Hexcell/Travano rod.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Silaflex-Model-F75-Fishing-2-piece-Rod-cloth-and-container/292718942719?hash=item44276899ff:g:L1MAAOSw~jpbMv3k
I'm going to look more closely at my only SilaFlex tomorrow.

Thanks Mike and Mike.
-steve

[Midway Tommy]

Amazing the lengths you go to, Steve, to come up with something unique! Great work, and patience!

[oc1]

Tommy, I was going to add that having a low center of gravity was the last reason good reason to use spinning tackle 
-steve

[Donnyboat]

Steve great work, thanks for the details & pics, I said it before, that brain of your must work overtime, even when your sleeping, keep well, cheers Don.

[Rivverrat]

You cant stop. These threads of yours are very entertaining. In a good way... Jeff

[Midway Tommy]

Tommy, I was going to add that having a low center of gravity was the last reason good reason to use spinning tackle 
-steve

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