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Junior MemberCocoa, FLPosts: 16 Deckhand
Fly Reel Build
Freefly
Junior MemberCocoa, FLPosts: 16 Deckhand
I'm not a fly fisherman yet, but I've always been interested in giving it a try. I then got distracted by all the unique reels out there and thought it would be more fun to build a reel. So after some consulting with my brother (he actually fly fishes) I came up with a design for 5/6 wt 3.5" reel. It doesn't have clicker in this design, but a one-way bearing driving a disc drag. Most of the components are 6061 aluminum with stainless bearings and stainless hardware. It's a work in progress so no final weight yet. Actually I expect this first reel just to be a proof of concept that will get butchered a few times to work out the bugs. Enough talk, time for some pictures...
If anyone else out there has built a reel before, give a shout. I'm interested in learning any tricks or hearing about experiences. Thanks!
If anyone else out there has built a reel before, give a shout. I'm interested in learning any tricks or hearing about experiences. Thanks!
Replies
Time enjoyed wasted usually means I've been fishing
Keep the progress photos coming!
Nice looking work, I don't get to see much old school style drafting or machine work anymore, CADD and CAM took alot of fun out of my life.
Personally, I prefer the inside of my spools to be solid. The weight you saved by making those holes, will probably not add up to 1/8 oz. in saved weight. With solid spools, problems with pain and blisters become non-existant. Some argue that the holes facillitate the flushing out of sand and debris that may get in there. My come-back is that if the holes weren't there, then not so much sand and debris would get in. Again, this is only for the inside cheek of the spool.
Looks like the beginnings of a helluva reel, though. Bulletproof, judging by the wall thickness of your frame. Also love the diameter of the spool shaft. Kudos.
I've been working on the mounting foot, but encountered the need to make some mandrels and fixtures to properly hold the workpiece for various machining operations. This really is a learn-as-I-go process. I'd love to have CAM and CNC tools at my disposal, but I just use my equipment for hobby work 90% of the time and can't afford the fancy stuff. I'll try to post some more pics hopefully this weekend.
Have you ever looked at any other reels? That bearing your using looks more like a wheel bearing then something that works in a reel. Why not tear an ABEL apart get a better ideal what it is your trying to make. So far that reel looks like something from mars, and would weight a ton. my 2 cents.
Carl
X2
Time enjoyed wasted usually means I've been fishing
I offer them the brush and say "Here, Take over". The usual reply. . . "Oh I can't paint".
Freefly, I live right across the bridge and will be happy to field test it when it's ready.
I never liked palming, but again, that is just me. My method (and many do this) is to hold the reel flat in your right hand (handle UP, so as not to hit anything) Then just curl your thumb up and over the outside edge of the frame, until it makes contact with the spool cheek. I think this is a much more stable approach and with practice, you can do this while holding the rod over your head, if need be. I used to have a photo, showing this, but I think it is long gone...lost a few computers ago, in fact.
Handle length is of little consequence, so long as it is not too short or long. You can get an idea from another mfgr's handle. Long ago, when almost all fly reels were RH retrieve, it was said that the reason was, so that the fly line did not catch on the handle during the cast. Well, I use RH retrieve, simply because that is how I "grew up," but I have fished with plenty of fishermen using LH retrieve reels and I have never seen a problem.
Down the road, your biggest problem, will be matching the weight of the counterbalance, to that of the handle....AND positioning it in the EXACT proper position, opposite the handle. I don't know if a CNC machine can do this, or even what the big mfgrs use. But the makers with "ultra smooth" reels, have it down pat.
I've looked at a couple reels (Ross, Nautilus, G-Loomis) and noticed some used a plain bronze bearing and other used the one way bearing for supporting radial loads (not all one-way bearings are designed for radial loading and may not engage when reversed). I decided to used a stainless ball bearing (0.5" ID 1.125" OD x 0.25" wide) as the main supporting bearing. Sure it looks stout, but it doesn't have a significant amount of mass. I'm also using a one-way bearing, but it was only designed to engage the drag disc. It very well may be able support the spool, but that would be a poor design assumption. Anyone can reverse engineer things (look at the Chinese military hardware and Iran's new drone), but I'd rather blaze my own path and learn the reason behind a design from my own experience.
Good point on the spool balance. The rotational mass balance of the spool shouldn't be too difficult. I work as an engineer with turbomachinery and frequently deal with this issue. I will likely create the knob and weigh it, then create the counterbalance to match the knob's mass. To get the components located polar opposite of each other, I'll use the rotary table (seen in pic with the spool being milled). I should be able to get the locations within a tolerance of +/-0.002" radial distance and +/-0.1 degrees polar. I may need to make a test rig to inspect the balance of the spool assembled...that may take some creativity.
I made some progress on the mounting foot last night. Next I'll get the foot mounting features done on the frame and make the drag knob. Should have some more pics ready by Monday.
John gave me an extra foot, before he died, but the danged thing was not drilled and I do not know if it is even possible to line up new holes.
Time enjoyed wasted usually means I've been fishing
So this is the latest progress; roughed out the profile of the foot on the mill, then had to make a mandrel to hold the foot in the lathe.
Then set the taper attachment to 8 degrees per an AFTMA reel foot drawing I found online.
I also finished milling the frame and mocked it up with it sitting on foot. I haven't milled the radiused contour in the foot so it's sitting pretty high in these pics. I also messed up with trying to mill the upper and lower frame ears that cover the spool and act as the attachment point for the foot. They aren't exactly 180 degrees opposite of each other. I'll need to work on a better setup for milling these features. Here's a pic of the parts thus far.
Here's the retrieve side mocked up.
Here's the frame side mocked up. I still need to make the drag adjustment knob.
Time enjoyed wasted usually means I've been fishing
www.reelsmithing.com
One thought about mounting the reel foot if you have not yet drilled for it is that you may want to offset it towards the frame side so the reel will hang plumb when the rod is loosely held in the hand. The frame side will likely be quite a bit heavier than the spool side.
The Tibor Gulfstream, for instance, is way heavier on the frame side, so they have offset the reel foot towards that side. The spool edge to reel foot edge is 0.840". The spool edge to frame edge is 0.440" a difference of better than 3/8".
There is another advantage, for me, to that setup besides just balancing the reel that I didn't realize for quite a while.
That reel is called upon to crank in lots of backing that needs to be wound onto the spool relatively level. With conventional gear (right-hand), the line can be pushed to the right with the thumb and pushed back left with the index finger.
With fly gear and a big fish on, this technique doesn't work well for me at all, so I use my index and middle finger and it is much easier with this technique to push the line to the spool side than pull it to the frame side.
So the Tibor offset reel foot makes this way easier. Just a thought if you make yourself a big reel.
Cheers,
Jim
Time enjoyed wasted usually means I've been fishing