I was fortunate enough a couple of weeks ago to pick up a cool, and extremely rare, Spool=Change Spinning Spool from the early 1950s. The reel was made in Germany exclusively for the Spool Change Co of Chicago, IL.
Here's an August 1954 Popular Mechanics article about the reel.
After receiving the reel I undertook my usual total disassembly process. I soaked the unpainted metal parts in lacquer thinner and cleaned the painted stand/foot and aluminum spool with Original White Goop and then washed them with Dawn and warm water. This reel doesn't have many parts and was easy to take apart.
Here are the cleaned parts (3 of which I ad-libbed) ready to put back together. I posted thumbnails so you can click on them to enlarge for better detail.
First I'll install the line guide mechanism onto the arm. The line will ride against the post and go through the plated wire guide. The post and nut retain the wire guide. The grooves in the arm keep the wire guide from moving.
Next I'll install the arm onto the stand/foot. Once installed the arm will pivot on the stand/foot. Tension is maintained by a detent ball and spring. There is a hole on the stand for the spring and grooves in the sides for the ball to slide down against the spring. If you look closely, although it's dark, you can see them. The notches in the plate on the arm hold the arm in the casting, and then reeling, positions. The arm pivots on the retaining screw.
The arm is connected to the stand/foot and it's time to install the spool and crank/handle. Here's where I ad-libbed. The reel doesn't have any drag washers, the drag is the spool friction against the arm and handle. There is a space between both flanges which provides tension adjustment. I decided to make a couple of crude
drag washers. I put the teflon washer under the spool, a mylar washer above the spool and a rubber tension washer between the mylar washer and crank/handle. They can easily be discarded to take it back to original. Drag tension is adjusted with the nut on the crank/handle.
That's it, pretty simple and it's all put together. Here are a couple of photos of it in the reeling position.
Pivot the arm up and it's ready to cast or release line similar to an open face spinner. I'll bet it doesn't cast very well, though, given the depth and narrowness of the spool flanges.
Flip the arm down and it's ready to reel in line.
A unique, cool and rare reel from the early innovative days of US
spin fishing. Thanks again, Jim!
