Penn 720 & 722

[foakes]

A little over a week ago, Tommy was looking for a nice sideplate for a Penn 720.  I had one —- and offered it to him.

However, he very graciously said to keep it for someone else —- because he had a box for a 720, and wanted a near or new example reel for the box.

So I just set the plate aside.

In between working on reels this week —- I saw the plate and decided to put together a pair of reels out of new parts from the bins.

I have always liked the 720 & it's  high speed cousin —- the 722.

The 720 is a light blue metallic —- the 722 is a light green teal metallic.

The correct exterior parts for these older models prior to the  newer black ones are silver spools, silver cranks, and white crank knobs with white drag knobs,

While these are attractive reels —- a better color scheme, IMO, is to use gold spools and cranks —- with black drag & crank knobs.

I have done a few of these —- and they are a knockout combination.  They tie in well with the gold sideplate emblem and the metallic paint.

I will put these two together —- then see who might want a pair of these for $200.

Will work on them in between parts being cleaned in the US cleaner.

Best, Fred

[sandbar]

Hello Fred
There is another version of the 720 with a multi-colored side plate. Is this an earlier or later version?
Did you take any pictures of the completed reels? Are they sold?

[foakes]

That is the earliest version, Steve —-

Haven't had a chance to finish up the other two yet.

Been busy finishing up other folks reels, camping before fire season, and about three dozen other life priorities.

104 in Fresno today, 93 up here, slight wind at 6 mph predicted to go up to 15 later today.  Everything is dry.

Even our neighbors are coming around to get 💦 water!

We put out troughs for them.  Most are welcome, a few are not.

Best,

Fred

[Woodpuppy]

Striking! I never thought to try that; I have a 722 and 722Z (the 722 needs a crosswind block).

[goes to garage to try it]

Ooooooh! That is nice. Was planning to sell these after some crosswind block troubles and few available replacements. But maybe...

[foakes]

That looks great, WP —-

While not original, I think with that gold and black contrasting with the metallic teal and metallic light blue —- it is much more unique and attractive.

Best, Fred

[reelrepair123]

HI  FRED     nice reel jobs as usual, your the man,   the crosswind blocks are a problem, expensive and hard to come by.  hope you enjoyed sharing the chips,   you and sue  have a wonderful safe and healthy  NEW YEAR.    HARRYK

[foakes]

Yes, that has always been an issue on the 720/722, Harry —-

X-Wind blocks.

The weak links in any quality spinning reel —- is ALWAYS the plastic parts.

At some point (soon) The aftermarket X-Wind blocks will be all that I will have.  And I think they are $20, or more.  But they are very good items.

I think Tom at Cortez and Mystic carry these.

Happy New Year, Harry!

Best Always,

Fred

[Gfish]

That's too bad, a nice spindle-hub(?terminology?) on the axel for the spool, and then they godda put a plastic part in the gear-box, for a high stress function.

[Midway Tommy]

The way I see it every reel needs to have at least one weak point otherwise there would be major damage or an explosion to the critical drive train portion when they're pushed beyond their intended design capacities. It seems like there's a growing number of fishers out there that enjoy pushing their equipment past its intended design capacity.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with pushing fishing equipment past its limit but I don't understand complaining when it happens to fail.

[jurelometer]

That's too bad, a nice spindle-hub(?terminology?) on the axel for the spool, and then they  put a plastic part in the gear-box, for a high stress function.

 Tommy and Fred have  seen the insides of many more spinning reel models than I have, but this is how I see it:

The 720/722 crosswind block rubs against the post on the main gear, so using a hard material could  wear out the post. Also, all spinning reels take a bit of effort to start the rotor spinning and spool oscillating, and then rely on momentum to make winding comfortable.  So low friction is important in the drive related mechanisms.

I think that plastic is not necessarily a bad cost/performance tradeoff. Just have to replace the crosswind block every decade or so.  I do think that the manufacturing quality of these plastic parts was not of the highest grade.  With modern manufacturing techniques, a Delrin block would probably be even better.   

I still like this reel design better than something like that Mitchell 300 we were discussing recently.  Penn gets it all done with two gears instead of eight.

The  narrow/deep spool (also unskirted) makes the reel a bit less than ideal for distance casting, especially with modern braid, but it also means that it doesn't  need a bunch of extra parts to enable a different  oscillation rate and  travel distance.  Hence the simple crosswind block design.  A pretty reasonable tradeoff considering how a reel of this size is most frequently used. 

The crosswind block is a pretty easy part to replicate.  Tom at Cortez offers one machined from a high tech plastic.  There used to be aluminum aftermarket crosswind blocks that was popular, but I would be concerned about main gear post wear.

I was also 3D printing plastic crosswind blocks for the 720/722 and offering them up to members.  Just wanted feedback in return.  Only Mo provided feedback, which was positive.  The other plastic parts  (drag and handle knobs) were also pretty easy to design and 3D print.

-J

[xjchad]

I remember you 3d printing those parts J.  Awesome idea and they turned out great!  If I ever get my hands on one of these reels, I'll be doing the same thing.

[Gfish]

Ok. But I want the failsafe for me to be the drag, not a gear-box part. Then if the drag fails on a full rotor cup spinner, I can finger the underneath as it spins backwards.

Never noticed any start-up pressure or excess friction on a quality spinner with a metal oscillation system. Then again, how would I be able to tell that-that was the issue?
Have had loose oscillation arms in worm drive reels(maybe a bit of start-up there) but that was easily corrected with shims.

Can see the point about excess wear when you have metal to metal oscillation parts though. A good design might mitigate some of that. How about the Planamatic gears in some Mitchell reels(e.g., the 302).

[jurelometer]

Don't the plananatic reels still have something that worked essentially the same as crosswind block (they call it an oscillation slide)?  Those old planamatic Mitchels were popular, so I guess they worked well enough, but still more parts to go bad.

Planetary gear systems can allow you to pack very large (or even several different, including reverse) gear ratios into a small area, but it is more complicated to keep the gears aligned properly under load.  Simple gear pairs with centered shafts are more functionally limited, but are easier and cheaper to pull off.  It seems that in many cases, the smaller the mechanism, the less likely planetary gearing is going to be the smartest choice.

Getting back on topic, if memory serves me correctly (not great odds ), the post is cast right into the pot metal 72x main gear.  Cheap and effective, but now the post is not very durable.  If the post is some nice hard stainless, then the crosswind could be metal.

Agree about the drag being the preferred failsafe, but that presumes the drag can't be locked down too far- which is almost true on these reels, because you will break the plastic drag cap    No shortage of failsafes here.  I can defend the crosswind design choices a little, but  Penn is on their own when it comes to the drag cap.

Chad:  If you ever decide to print some 72x crosswinds, let me know.  I can send you the CAD files and/or an STL for printing.  May save you some work.

-J

[xjchad]

Getting back on topic, if memory serves me correctly (not great odds ), the post is cast right into the pot metal 72x main gear.  Cheap and effective, but now the post is not very durable.  If the post is some nice hard stainlesss, then the crosswind could be metal.

I think you're right, the post is cast into the main gear.  This makes me wonder.... Could that post be machined off and a stainless pin pressed in to replace it?

Chad:  If you ever decide to print some 72x crosswinds, let me know.  I can send you the CAD files and/or an STL for printing.  May save you some work.

Thank you!  I will definitely take you up on that if I get my hands on one!

[foakes]

The blocks made by Tom at Cortez are excellent.

They are available at Cortez & also Mystic.

$20.

This may seem high —- but frankly, I do not think $20 is too much to put a high quality reel back in service for another 20 years.

These upgrades are made out of a Polymer material —- which is so much better than the original plastic blocks from Penn.

Best, Fred