growler

[oc1]

My last failure had 4:1 gears.  These are 3.5:1.  I almost went with 2:1 but with the small spool it would be painfully slow.

The 3.5:1 gears with a two-point bridge from 1918 seems to be transitional.  About five years earlier you would have only seen 2:1 without a bridge.  About five years later everything was 4:1.  The 4:1 (AKA Quadruple Multiplying) reels were a big deal when introduced back in the day.   I think the increase in speed was accompanied by better machinery and precision.  It took decades more to make reels faster than 4:1.
-s

[Mandelstam]

It's like with every iteration and success you're working your way through history and reel evolution. Very fascinating and must be humbling too when you open up a more modern reel and know first hand everything they had to solve to come to that point in reel development.

[oc1]

It's like with every iteration and success you're working your way through history and reel evoluti

I love reel evolution Karl.  Trouble is, you can't really understand the evolution without understanding the nitty gritty of the manufacturing process.  I don't understand it at all and, other than a couple of old photos, there is not much information about how it's actually done.  Maybe there are trade secret issues or maybe nobody likes to admit how sausage is made.
-s

[Gfish]

Cooooooolllll stuff!
My guess about thread-lock products, is in the presence of air(oxygen?) it stays at real low viscostiy, once you push alla air away, the viscosity goes way up. I've had some parts I've bought come to with the thread-lock compound already painted on.