Sounds easy if you say it quickly, but it wasn’t, and it took me over a month, working every day. Various parts went into the scrap bin daily, but slowly, it came together.
I had made parts for reels over the years, and had always fancied making a complete reel. I had made a couple of half hearted attempts before, but due to time constraints and general lack of patience, the results were disappointing.
This itch had to be scratched…
A rough drawing was made, and details, dimensions etc., were decided; it was to be 4” dia., wide drum with shallow core and lever check.
Things didn’t go too well to begin with. The backplate was made first, which took all day, only to find I had turned it too thin, and it took its place in the scrap bin, to be followed by other rejected parts as the project continued.
Slowly, it began to come together, the backplate, drum, and spindle were eventually finished and the check mechanism needed to be made next, before I could assemble it. At this point I hit a brick wall… I couldn’t come up with a decent lever check mechanism. I looked at various checks on existing reels but none was what I really wanted. I had admired the check mechanism that Watermole+ had fitted to his beautiful creations, but didn’t think I could just copy it without asking him first…so I asked him. Being the perfect gentleman, he didn’t mind at all and offered every encouragement with the project. Thank you Leszek. I first made the check mechanism from card, using pins as pivot points, to get the geometry correct before making it in brass. After lot of hacksawing and filing (and a fair bit of swearing) I had a check I was happy with.
I’ve rambled on long enough now, I will try and post some photo’s.
Thanks for reading
