The Reel King reel...what's inside

You got 'em, we know how to clean 'em
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john elder
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The Reel King reel...what's inside

Post by john elder »

John Taylor (54Bullseye) has a nice example of a saltwater reel called the Reel King, developed and patented by Fred Grieten in the mid 1960s (Pat. 3,315,913). Three sizes of this very well-made reel were marketed for a short time, starting in 1970: Models 20, 50, and 80. John's reel, shown here, is the larger Model 80, although he also has the Model 20 (NOTE: He needs that Model 50!!). Ed Corwin wrote a nice article on the Reel King in the Reel News several years ago (Reel News, Dec. 1992 and also reprinted in the Best of the Reel News book, Whitefish Press) and Ed Pritchard, who was helpful in supplying schematics for these reels, has written about Grieten's connections to the Fin-Nor reel development. Perhaps he will add more later about that. In any event, here are pics of the Model 80...to jump ahead, I've opened the Model 20 and it's construction is identical, just smaller:




John's reel had a drag that was a bit constipated and it wasn't going into free spool properly, so he asked if I could nose around and figure out what was up...the rest of the post will be a look inside to see how the drags work and get them running properly. Since I've had numerous other rim control reels apart, including the Penn Internationals, Fin-Nors and Shimanos, I fully expected a similar mechanism where a fixed drag washer or washers were affixed to the side(s) of the spool and then acted on by a compression ring...I was surprised to find that was not the case with this reel!

So, first order of business was to break in. The patent drawings gave an idea of what was in store, but nothing specific enough to be of much help and as it turned out, there were several modifications in the final product. I started by taking off the handle and anything else that would come off the face plate. It all needed cleaning and lubrication and in a couple places, straightening, but did nothing to let me inside the reel. So, I attacked from the back plate side; three screws held a cap that covered a roller bearing and a retaining screw:



Trick here was that the retaining screw has a reverse thread, so once I figured that out (no, it wasn't me who buggered up the screw!) and screws were removed from the back plate/pillars and foot, a couple light raps with a rubber mallet opened things up. Here are some pics of the internals:


So, the drags were on either side of the spool, as in the patent diagrams, but rather than the drag washer being glued to the sides of the spool as you see in Penn and Fin-nor reels, the drag ring(far right, below) as well as what is referred to as a "brake ring" (middle right) were free floating, trapped in place by guide pins and an a retaining ring (middle left, below). Pressure was applied on either side by a "clutch ring" (far left, below). I can't figure out what the material is that the clutch ring is made. You can see from the pre-cleanup pics, it makes contact with the rough side of the brake ring (about consistency of 60-grit sandpaper; other side of brake ring that contacts the drag ring is smooth metal) and wears away. Its either really tough hard rubber or delrin type material:



After cleaning everything with mineral spirits and lubing all the bearings and internals where needed, I tried a light vasoline treatment on the drags, as suggested by Ed, based on what had been done on a Klein reel. However, when put together, the drags "chattered" under drag pressure. Examination of John's Model 20, which worked fine, indicated that leaving the drags dry was the best way for this application, so I cleaned them with acetone, deglazed them a bit with 600 grit wet-dry sandpaper and that did the trick.

Here are some more pics of the components and the anti-reverse dogs on the faceplate side:




The drag lever interacts with a cam ring..in free spool position, "ears" on the lever rest in slots in the cam ring (see upper left pic above); as lever is pushed forward, the ears come out of those slots and apply pressure, pulling and pushing the clutch plates and tightening the drag. The patent desciption descibes this action much better than i can!

These are really fantastic reels. I think the death of Grieten and the fellow heading up the production ended things in 1974
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54bullseye
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Re: The Reel King reel...what's inside

Post by 54bullseye »

John you did a great job I couldn't have picked a better person for the job !! I can't wait to get them back. Great pictures throughout the project and in depth description of all your steps and trial runs while figuring out the problem or problems !! Then this great little tutorial of it all. Thanks so much !!!
John Taylor
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john elder
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Re: The Reel King reel...what's inside

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So, for the early visitors to this post before it was done, I managed to get out of the casino for a Pflueger Summit instead of a Meek #3, so that was a success....and Mom-in-law was happy, so I got that going...at any rate, there are a bunch of adds to the original post and here's a bit more detail for the drag handle and cam arrangement. The lever and cam fit together like this:




that pin you can see at 7 o'clock on the cam fits into a hole where it seats into the faceplate. that holds the cam stationary while the lever is moved, thus allowing tension to increase as the ears leave the grooves in the cam and slide along an incline surface:


A couple other tidbits that Ed P. dug out of the Corwin article and his own research:

"Old Fred designed the reel but they were being made by Kaper-Krafts which was a division of Southern Machinery Company in Greer South Carolina. "

…and
"The owner of So Machine Co. died in 1973 and the reels were discontinued shortly thereafter.'

Death is such a bother!
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Brian F.
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Re: The Reel King reel...what's inside

Post by Brian F. »

Never cease to amaze how you figure out these "mystery" reels, JE.
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john elder
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Re: The Reel King reel...what's inside

Post by john elder »

An important addendum: I found the original patent for the reel, but there was also a patent for this breaking mechanism, which I laboriously detailed above (pat. # 3,027,114). Ed Corwin, in his original 1992 article, had pointed this out, but I did not have the original RN and only just recently reacquired the Best of the Reel News book, where it is reprinted (get this book if you don't have it!!).

At any rate, the link to the patent is here:

https://patentimages.storage.googleapis ... 027114.pdf

Fred's mission with this setup was to produce a drag impermeable to water, to keep it clean and operating properly. So, as detailed in the patent, that clutch ring, made of some vulcanized material, is meant to marry tightly to the "rough" side of the brake ring (note in the pics that some of the clutch ring material gets transferred to the brake ring during operation), which in turn, acts via a smooth side, with the drag ring. He also indicated in the patent that he proposed using "oil-soaked cork" or brake lining, "seated snugly within the recess". So that's what this design was all about. Sure wish I had THIS patent when i had John's reel unzipped! It is now back on the East Coast, reeling in Shelf Fish. For those interested, go give that patent a read!
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reeltackle
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Re: The Reel King reel...what's inside

Post by reeltackle »

Here is some fun stuff to go along with John's wonderful breakdown of the reel.

Fold out brochure that came with the reel (gotta love that leaping mounted sailfish) - Side 1 -



Side 2 -



Exploded diagram of the reel and parts list -



Not to many moving parts to go wrong..... :bash: Keep it simple!

Enjoy!!
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54bullseye
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Re: The Reel King reel...what's inside

Post by 54bullseye »

You want it back John ?? Do you see something that you would do different ? These east coast shelf fish are hard fighters wouldn't want to loose one because of reel failure ! John Taylor
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john elder
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Re: The Reel King reel...what's inside

Post by john elder »

:D ...nah, the only thing i might have tried was oil-soaking the drags, but as you recall, the 20 was dry and working great, so that isn't likely giving the free spool the Slows...i think we are where we should be. The patent would have just taken a bit og guesswork out of it all.
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