Pflueger Akron No. 1893 cleanup

[FirePro911]

First post so I hope I can entertain. lol!

This is my Fire Department Captain's reel. He recently found it in his Parents garage and it used to be his late Fathers. It was still in original pouch, but you can see it had a lot of use anyway. We estimate it to be about late 1940's to early '50's based upon the time his Father would have used it.

He asked if I would clean it up so he could display it at his house.

Here is the pouch, pretty rough shape, but is still neat.


Some before pics before I tore it down.






The jewels are pretty neat and cleaned up real good.




Started to open it up.






Here is the extra Pawl that comes with them.


Not really sure what this brass piece does. Once out, nothing else comes apart as the "bearing" is built onto the plate as far as I could tell. Looking up above at the plate when I first took off, you can see on the inside that the "bearing" looks to be riveted onto the plate.




Worm Gear assembly


The spare Pawl is on top. Only difference I can see is the head of it is more beveled compared to the Pawl already installed.


Pulled the gears off


Side view with red jewel, which is neat. If this was mine to display, I would be tempted to install small LED's inside it to light each jewel up.


Skeleton housing with spool


Secondary side plate being pulled off


Drag setup


The actually drag looks to be a piece of hardwood or a type of composite material.


Removed both pieces, but the wire is riveted down on one end.


Hole in spool for string.


Clicker Gear


Pinion Gear


All cross pieces come off, leaving just the side plate.


Clicker assembly


All parts cleaned and ready to go back together.


A lot of scratches on it from some hard fishing. But it cleaned up real nice for display.








Used an old advertisement for a back drop to the reel.


Now a video of it free spinning which surprised me. I have read about them being to tight to cast and mainly used for drop fishing, but this video shows different and with a little cleaning I bet it can cast pretty good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osh852aLEV4

[robert ellis]

Great break down pics, it always amazes me how well some of these old reels clean up! Nice job! making chicken pie out chicken s*#t. That should make your Captain very happy? Now go ask him for a couple days off, so you go try it out!

[john elder]

Wow, great job on a first post! We look forward to more clean-ups and finds! Thanks for sharing!

[kingfisher]

A very good job. I am sure he will be amazed with the result.

[FirePro911]

Thanks All! I have a 1951 Shakespeare Direct Drive No. 1924 with Ty Bo handle that was my Wife's Fathers. It was on a Rod I am still still researching as it has no marks on it.

Once done with that one, I think I will use it once to check it out. It still has the original Wexford braided line on it.

[Kelly L]

FirePro, bravo on the redo. That was quite a transformation. You outdid yourself on this project. Major hand clapping!

[Bill Sonnett]

A very nice job of documenting the disassembly of a casting reel. This would be a good place to send anyone taking a reel like this apart for the first time. Akrons from this time period have a ton of plating on them and usually polish up well. They were the best selling reel of my boyhood. I would guess that three quarters of the reels I saw bank fishermen using in Ohio in the 1940s and 1950s were this same reel. The price was reasonable and when one went into the hardware store, no reel on the display rack would spin as long as a standard model #1893 Akron. What we did not appreciate back then was that the reason they spun so long was that heavy spool and it was that same heavy spool which would lead to a lot of backlashes. The 1893L Akron with an aluminum spool and light brown handle knobs is a fine caster but I do not ever remember seeing one as a boy, only the standard model with the green handle knobs.

[keebranch]

very nice!