The reel took a bit of research, noodling, and experimentation. Since Van Buren lived in Kinderhook, NY and traveled between there and Washington DC while he was President, it made sense that he might visit the New York City tackle shops of the era. A New York reel seemed fitting both for the era and the location. I was fortunate to be able to borrow 2 reels to scrutinize and even disassemble and had detailed photos from 3 other period reels. The reel I finally choose to duplicate is this one:
The reel is a multiplier and has a stop latch (to lock the spool from rotating). It is about 2" in diameter and has an original, unmolested long reel foot.
I had to learn a few new techniques to fabricate this reel. I started with the front plate and cover. This was turned from a 2" diameter section of brass.
The central "cone" was turned. It appeared that this was how the original was made. The decorative grooves were done by hand with a narrow tipped graver.
The plate has a small lip to accommodate the cover. Next up is the reel foot and bracket assembly. The foot was formed from .064" brass that was pounded in to shape in a concave wooden mold. The bracket is just a bar of brass with a concave cradle for the foot.
The bracket is riveted to the foot with two 1/8" brass pins.
The back plate was fabricated similar to the front plate. Here are the front and back plate assembled to the reel foot bracket.
The screws were made from drill rod. The originals appeared to be #3 and maybe 50TPI. I only had 4-40 taps and dies so I used those. But I took care to make the screw heads the proper shape and size. Here is a bottom view of the assembly with the front cover in place.
Here are the pillars in place. They are 1/8" D brass rods. The back side is turned down to 1/16" to fit holes in the back plate and peened in place. The front end is also reduced in size (3/32") for mating holes in the front plate.
The spool was a complex bit to fabricate. The spool ends were formed using lathe spinning. This is how the originals were made. It was an easy technique to master. The spindle is my design since I could not take the reference reel apart to see how it was put together. But, it made sense.
The spool plates will be silver soldered to it in the next step. Here is the completed spool assembly.
The 8 tooth pinion attaches to the 1/8" shaft on the right side. Here is the frame and spool dry assembled.
With this work complete, it was time to turn to the mechanicals - the stop latch and multiplier mechanisms. The stop latch consists of a small lever and a brass spring fitted with a steel pin. The lever lifts the spring and pin out of a hole that passes through the plate and spool. The ball head on the lever was tricky. The original lever end is egg shaped and appeared to be shaped by hand, not turned on a lathe. I used files to fabricate mine. The end opposite the handle has a 45 degree bevel to act as a wedge to lift the spring. You can see it in this photograph.
The handle is attached to the main gear (20 tooth). The gear pivots on an idler post fabricated from steel. I attached this from the back with an oval head 2-56 screw. I don't know how the original was done but this made sense.
The main gear was re-shafted and turned. The end was cut to a square with a file to mate with the handle crank.
The handle assembly was straight forward. The crank shape was copied from the original. The brass is thicker at the hub end than the handle end. I tapered it with files. The hub end has a square hole to receive the main gear shaft. The grip is "vegetable ivory" - Tagua Nut. I started the fatiguing process of it.
Here's a top view of the mechanical assembly.
The last thing to do was peen the pillar ends to form a nice rivet head. Once this is done, the reel can not be disassembled. Here are some photos of the new reel next to the original reel.
And here is the reel attached to the reproduction Porter's General rod made by John Elder.
Cheers,
Michael
