Fly Reels

[Tom O]

Nice as usual.
I‘m a bored member but I don’t fly fish.

 

[Dabbler]

I usually fly airplanes, but what do I know

 

[PeterT]

The workmanship is top notch, but I still feel like they are somehow missing some key features around the perimeter. LOL.

 

[Susquatch]

The workmanship is top notch, but I still feel like they are somehow missing some key features around the perimeter. LOL.

Pretty sure that is regulated for pollution, safety, noise, energy efficiency, etc etc. Prolly scare all the fish away too......

 

[Six O Two]

Absolutely amazing detail and craftsmanship on those reels.

Not sure if you mentioned this already, but are the black pieces painted or anodized (or delrin)?

 

[eotrfish]

Absolutely amazing detail and craftsmanship on those reels.

Not sure if you mentioned this already, but are the black pieces painted or anodized (or delrin)?

Thanks

The black pieces are anodized 6061 although I have made a few with Black Delrin and either Brass or 6061. I had not posted those so here goes...

Delrin / 360 Brass reel





Delrin / 6061 reel



I have another design in the works - Delrin / 6061 with a 2.25 multiplier gear box in the handle side. The gearbox design is a simplified version of the gearbox from another reel that I made about 15 years ago. It'll probably be a next winter project.

 

[eotrfish]

The workmanship is top notch, but I still feel like they are somehow missing some key features around the perimeter. LOL.

Peter

Do you mean like this one? I modeled most of it, acquired the material then moved on to other projects. I still have the drawings and book if you are interested.

Bentley BR2

 

[PeterT]

Nice. Is that Lew Blackmore's 1/4 scale Bentley BR2 rotary by chance? If so, I do have the book already but thanks for nice offer. I take it off the shelf, thumb through the pages... and put it back on the shelf. This 5-cyl radial I'm working on was a big enough step for me, never mind cylinders that spin. IF... WHEN! mine runs I may have to take a step away from 'round' engines just to clear my head. Thinking maybe a Vee and maybe 12 cylinders. Go big or go home LOL.

 

[eotrfish]

I just finished a custom reel that a fellow ordered in May. I had to take a short hiatus to recover from thumb surgery but am back making chips

 

[DPittman]

Love it, absolutely a work of art.

 

[PeterT]

Nice.
What's the purpose of the part with right angle partial slits? It kind of reminds me of those 'alignment' hubs when like marrying 2 shafts in a driveline

 

[eotrfish]

Nice.
What's the purpose of the part with right angle partial slits? It kind of reminds me of those 'alignment' hubs when like marrying 2 shafts in a driveline

The slotted bronze sleeve provides axial preload between the outer races of the two bearings that are a slip fit inside the spool. The material between the slots allows for a small deflection based on how many slots and the thickness of the remaining material. It is an empirical design at best. There's a lot of tolerance stack up in the assembly so I needed to account for at least 0.005" variance in the final assembly. It worked out fine.



There is another similar slotted spring in the gear case assembly.

 

[eotrfish]

Yet another fly reel - who would have suspected

This reel is an adaptation of a design from Popular Mechanics ca. 1950 entitled "Make your own fly reel". I can't find the original PM drawings but as I recall the design definitely need a little cleanup.

I sent a copy of my drawings to a board member in case he found time to make one. In the meantime I built this one to verify that the drawings were correct. All worked out well - hope he gets around to making his own.

The only item of note is that I designed a hex captive washer to hold the spool onto the spindle. It was a little finicky milling the hex in the end of the spindle with a 1/16" dia. end mill.

 

[DPittman]

Your beautiful work makes me want to learn fly fishing just so I could justify owning one of your fine pieces of art. Very nice, thanks for sharing.

 

[eotrfish]

Thanks Don

There's some great fly fishing on the Oldman, both upstream and downstream of Maycroft - perfect place for you to learn and not too far from home

Here's a rendering of my next project. I'm making this as a custom order for a spey fisherman in Ontario. It really is 10# of crap in a 5# pail. Fully sealed multiplier gear box with removable spool. This one presented some challenges which I didn't consider when I agreed to make it - deep small bores, trepanning, a lot of precision bearing fits, multiple concentricities, stackups out the wazoo and the list goes on.

 

[DPittman]

There's some great fly fishing on the Oldman, both upstream and downstream of Maycroft - perfect place for you to learn and not too far from home

That's good to know, I've been driving past that area for almost 40 years for hunting/camping and have really noticed the dramatic increase in fly fisherman especially the last 20 years and I wonderd if the fishing could still be good. I used to do some spin cast fishing on the rivers up there but never got into fly fishing for some unknown reason. Maybe had I been aware of reels like yours at the time, I might now be a seasoned fly fisherman!

 

[eotrfish]

Finially finished the reel mentioned in Post #95 - thank God - at times it seemed like I would never get it done.

 

[DPittman]

Wow. Beautiful as expected. That's gotta feel good.

 

[PeterT]

Very nice @eotrfish What is the (silver) alloy?

 

[eotrfish]

Thanks Peter

The reel body including the gearcase is 6061. The pillars, S-handle and S-handle retaining screw are Nickle Silver 752. Gears are 360 Brass cut from pinion wire. There are some 642 Bronze parts where part strength or wear may be issues. All screws are 18-8 SS.