Mike Cacioppo sent me these pictures and wanted me to post him for him. he needs an ID on this reel. Thanks,
harvey
Here is the text that he sent me;
Anyways, this is a reel I purchased on Ebay about a month ago. It is a aluminum sidewinder that seems to be a original aluminum sided reel. I know that these reels were sometimes repaired by adding aluminum sideplates but this one has a trade name stamped into the sideplate which makes me think it was made this way. The hub of the reel is wood. Mr. Phil White was not familiar with the reel, maybe one of the guys in ORCA has seen one before.
Thanks again for the help in posting these pics. By the way, the guy I bought the reel from said he had the line tested and it was vintage line with no synthetics. Pure flax or Irish linen, I think. The line is very soft but also strong.
I would thing all ball bearings are precision. Is someone pulling my leg ?
I have to go away for a while. I will return next week and try to post other pictures. I will even try to pull the center post of the reel and photo the bearings.
Wish me luck. I have seen the ball bearings go flying across the room from time to time when disassembling these old reels.
Guyz,
I recieved a reply from Mike, re: The bearings. Here is the context of his note with pictures:
I removed the foot off the spool shaft to expose the bearings. I do not think these would be considered precision bearings. There is no standard inner and outer race. It seems a steel sleave has been pressed through the hub. A snap ring is placed in the sleave and the shaft is undercut for placement of the bearings. I am afraid to try to remove the snap ring. Everything looks aged and if the snap ring breaks My reel will be damaged. When the foot is removed the shaft will not come out of the hub. The bearings ride directly on the shaft, not on a bearing race. Todays reels have a separate bearing assmebly with a inner and outer race which would be considered precision. These bearings I would not consider precision but they are superior than just passing the shaft through a sleave.
Mike would like your opinions on the bearings and NOT on how he spells sleeves!
Just kidding Mike!
"H"
Awful hard to tell from a pic and that description, but I wonder if the bearing is an adaptation of the Meisselbach ball-bearing patent #595,110. The patent shows it in use for a casting reel spool journal, but it has a snap-ring-like device that retains the balls. Since the reel looks like a metal version of their wood reels, it wouldn't be too surprising to discover it's a Meisselbach.
I think Steve is right, it is either a Meisselbach or one of the Meisselbach clones that arose in the wake of the selling of some of the Meisselbach equipment in the early 1920s. Yale Manufacturing also made the "Good Luck" ball bearing reels, which this resembles.
Hell Gate is the name for a portion of New York's East River where treacherous currents separate Queens from Ward's Island (famous for a large state mental hospital). It is also the name of the bridge that spans this strait, completed in 1914, which would put it right in the chronology I am thinking for this reel (post-WWI-1930). Apparently enterprising New Yorkers fish underneath the bridge, which is still in use.
It is not surprising to find some enterprising New York city trade house using this as a trade name, I will add this to my list of things to look up and if I find anything I will let you know.
Am going to second-guess myself and suggest that the bearings were patented in 1899 by Harry J. Smith, New York City. He also used a snap-ring to hold his balls (Ouch!) in a pulley-like spool "of hard wood or similar material." But that doesn't tell us who actually made Mike's Hell-Gate. Since it still looks like a Meisselbach, maybe it was made in Newark under contract.
Thank you all for the investigations and the speculations. What I am looking for now is a proper rod to mount this reel to for display. A old wood Vom Hofe would be perfect, I think, if I can come up with one on ebay at a reasonable price. Do you think I should restore this reel or leave it as is with just a simple cleaning?
I have to apologize for my horrible spelling. I have been using Spell Check for such a long time that I do not bother with checking my spelling.
I know my description of the bearing assembly is not 100%. If someone has a print of a Meisselbach bearing and shaft assembly and would post that print or let me know where I can view it, that might help me make a positive ID.
At any rate, I think you are all a great bunch of people and appreciate everything you have communicated so far.
