A Couple Pflueger SW Reel Questions

[Paul Roberts]

-How well does the big "Mechanical Thumber" on the Pflueger SW casting reels work? It works quite well with the FW SkilKast's I have. How about the upsized version?

-Anyone try casting with one of the Capitols? I see they are listed as trolling reels. Will they cast too?

Thanks!

[Wompus Cat]

There is definitely an art to it but yep they cast just fine with the right Weight, Rod,and Line .
Once you get that dialed in you adjust the tension on the spool to get your SWEET SPOT .
One you master that you can cast anything !
I have quite a few and always messin with them especially the Quick Take a-parts that won't.

[oc1]

What is a mechanical tumbler?   Is it just an over-sized cast control knob?

[Wompus Cat]

What is a mechanical tumbler?   Is it just an over-sized cast control knob?

lol...........
TUMLBER
It is a Leather Pad you put over the Crossbar to use in holding presure against the outgoing Braid od line to keep from burning the Prints off you Thumb casting or when a Big Un gets on .

[oc1]

Oh, OK.  I call that a thumb stall.

[Wompus Cat]

Here is a picture of a  Pflueger Tumbler,Thumb Stall,Thumb Pad ,and or Finger Print Saver
in good Condition.



Here is one well not so good.

[Paul Roberts]

What is a mechanical tumbler?   Is it just an over-sized cast control knob?

Yes, although "just" may be selling it short, IME with the freshwater SkilKast. The technology is pretty ingenious. Probably the best of the pre-magnets lot. (Although the lone OC 2000 series reel I have may be close.) Well maintained the Pflueger's "Mechanical Thumber" allows for bombing casts with virtually no thumbing. Pretty amazing. Maintenance, or initial clean-out at least, on them is not for the feint at heart though.

I've only used it on the freshwater SkilKast. Curious how it might behave upscaled ("over-sized" is a good description) found on the SW versions. I have purchased a few to try out.

Attached are:
-Sea-Vue oversized MT.
-SkilKast Mt with cap, cover washer, and retaining spring, removed. Man, watch out for those minute bearings!! I have a procedure to deal with them, learned the hard way.

[oc1]

Very interesting.  That is a centrifugal brake.  It looks like the three little balls are thrown outward by centrifugal force to slow the spool down.  

Pflueger introduced the Skillcast in 1941.  From catalog pictures, it appears the mechanical tumbler was there from the beginning.  

The ABU Record was also introduced in 1941 and it too had a centrifugal brake.  The ABU centrifugal brake design was more simplistic (with brake blocks riding on two pins) and persisted unchanged in Records, then Ambassadeurs and other brands like the Shimano Bantam into the 1980's.  That design was then replaced with the current style of four-pin centrifugal brakes.

[Wompus Cat]

I see the Light now .
That gadget was used  on a Few models .
I though you were referring to the Pflueger Leather add on thing. lol

I had forgotten about those . Mechanical THUMBER.Tumbler /Brakes.
Thanks for posting the pic.

Now I have to dig one out of the Moth Balls and Try it.

[Paul Roberts]

I actually do not know how it works. I've been interested in the various mechanical AB systems in the old DD reels. They tend to work, by putting pressure on the spool wall, or on a thickened spool shaft end thingy (not sure what an engineer might call it), increasing surface area contact I'm guessing. This latter describes the Shakes Wondereel and the Ocean City 2000's. OC went to a very large "thingy" and it appears to do the trick. The Pflueger MT isn't obvious to me how it works. It must be a centrifugal as it isn't constant pressure. There is no pressure on the spool when reeling in, and seems to kick in as the spool is speeding out. Feels kind of like using magnets.

Wompus, like any old DD reel, all parts must be at peak condition/maintenance. The SkilKast adds an added challenge in this department, but is worthwhile. Take pics, and prepare ahead not to lose any of those those teeny tiny bearings. Apologies if you already know this. I'm new here.

To deal with those tiny bearings I work on a dampened paper towel, to keep them from bouncing, or having static fling them off the table. Yeah, I had that happen. I also magnetized the fine pliers you see in the pic below. And a toothpick is used to roll them into proper place in the cam. Missing in the following picture is the wire retaining clip (forgot to put it in the pic) that holds the whole stack in place at the very end. Forget to put it back in place and there can be hell to pay. Yup, I did that too.

[Wompus Cat]

It has been quite a while since I stored mine and your pics are a welcome sight any time .
Like I said I am going to dig a couple out and check em for casting .
I seem to remember this system puts tension on the Spool shaft and was kinda iffy at best .
More later and thanks for the pix and safeguards on tearing into this .
Pflueger had another deal called the Hydro Drag I recall as well as  Models with screws that were in the sideplate that had a felt pad attached to it on the inside which would put pressure on the Spool .

[oc1]

They tend to work, by putting pressure on the spool wall, or on a thickened spool shaft end thingy (not sure what an engineer might call it), increasing surface area contact I'm guessing.

The ones that have an adjustable brake pad to put pressure on the spool flange or shaft are a friction brake.  Back in the day, they called them a "drag"; not to be confused with the star or lever drag we use today to slow down a running fish.  

The trouble with friction brakes is that it takes a lot of energy to get the spool started, but once the spool is spinning the the braking force is reduced; all without changing the setting.  

That is sort of the opposite of what we want.  When casting, we want the spool to get up tp speed very quickly but have the braking pressure increase the faster the spool spins.  This proportional braking.  That is the advantage of centrifugal and magnetic brakes.  The faster the spool is spinning the more braking pressure they apply.

The first used magnetic reel brake was patented by a guy named Ransome in the early 1940's.  It was first used commercially in 1947 when Ocean City introduced the Inductor and Horton introduced their Bristol Electromatic reel.  This was high tech stuff back in the day.  These first magnetic brakes were a little heavy because they used alnico magnets.  They were the strongest magnets available at the time, but the rare earth magnets like neodymium developed in the 1970's and still used today are much stronger and lighter than alnico.

You can find in-depth discussions of magnetic brakes and Lenz's Law here at AT.

[Paul Roberts]

Thanks, Steve. "Friction brake" is a good description. And I did wonder about the use of the word "drag" but it makes sense considering that there was no fish fighting drag back then, beyond the thumb. I am fascinated by the AB systems through the decades. Just cool stuff, seeing the ingenuity people have applied.