Drennan 12ft 9'' Tench Float Handle Conversion.

I recently had this Drennan 12ft 9'' Tench Float  dropped off for a handle conversion from the old sliding reel fittings to a new style screw down winch fitting, I've always had a thing for Drennan rods, I personally think they're up there with the best ever made and sold in the UK market.

The Tench Float's one of my favourite's, so it was with a pang of jealousy that I set to work on this one !

The start consists of removing enough of the cork to accommodate the winch and still keep the reel in the position on the handle that the owner uses it in.

Then the blank is cleaned up in preparation for the masking tape arbors that the winch will be seated on.

Arbors in place, the winch can then be tried in place before a liberal dosing 
 of epoxy resin to ensure it doesn't go anywhere !

In place and once the glue's set, the blank can then be whipped and finished.

 The finished article, showing how the reel locks on with my 'half a reel' that I keep around for lining up winch fittings with the butt rings.

 

Incidentally, this particular rod had one butt ring that was also removed and re-whipped and finished.

 

Luckily I had whipping that was an identical match to the original ;)  

Any enquiries for prices or estimates for any type of work, call me on the usual number, top of the page . . . . . . .

Cork handle & winch fitting clamp

Howdy folks, been a little while since my last post, been keeping busy with rod building and quite a few refurb's and the usual smattering of reels to service !

I had a few handle conversions all come in at once, like buses, so as I made a start on them, placing an order for some winch fittings that I'd run out of, I thought I'd be clever and get ahead of myself by having everything ready and to hand for once !

Didn't quite pan out  . . . . .  as I rummaged around the outside shed where I'd stored all sorts a couple of months ago having a big tidy up - I clapped eyes on the end of my handle clamp, only to realise it was buried under a load of brollys that had fallen over ( I also repair brollys!) and unfortunately, my clamp was twisted and bent beyond repair :(

So part of this afternoon was spent making a new one, quick trip to toolstation in Trafford Park for some m6 threaded bolt, and for the princely sum of about £3.00 with my wing nuts and washers, a new clamp was born !

A quick test with a Drennan IM8 Super feeder that's in for a handle conversion from plastic rings to Fuji DPS/HPS reels seat and the job was a good 'un !

 

As I don't have a rod to hand that's recently been converted I'm a bit short on before and after pic's, but this is the Fuji DPS/HPS fitting below that replaces the old style rings with a really decent fitting that keeps the reel solid and brings an end to reels dropping off mid battle !

These look really great on the rod, I'll post a few 'after' shots of some of them that I'm doing when my order arrives and I get cracking with them, and for those wondering about cost, generally they end up between £25 and £30 as an average price, that's finished and everything included.

Some Daiwa Tournament reel servicing shots. . . . . . .

Thought I'd pop some pictures on of a few recent reels in for servicing, namely some Daiwa Tournament's, the TS5000T's that came out years ago, then went off the market, and then came back into production years later!

Cracking reels, and at (still) over £200 a piece, definitely worth looking after.
Great work horses and really well engineered reels too, ingenious design! one of only a few reels I've come across where the body plates come off either side, which is great for servicing.

This shot shows both side plates off, from the back.........

And the view from the left and right sides..........................

The best part of this configuration is having access to the worm shaft for inspection and the small drive gear on the end, everything else can easily come out be quickly cleaned, greased and put back in place.

Unfortunately this one had a serious case of wear on the main drive gear and the pinion gear as can be clearly seen in the images below, the main round drive gear had very badly rounded and worn teeth, the pinion gear came off even worse and has clearly taken the brunt of the damage. Luckily the oscillating shaft and pawl seem to have gotten away with it, which is something like a miracle to be honest !

The cause of this damage is largely unknown, the only clue seems to be that it's been taken apart before and by the looks of it, not put back together propely, screws not tightened up right, and grease not applied, the reel was bare, with very little, very old, black grease, a sign it's not been done in years.

Here is another example of how damage occurs - the reels are Daiwa again, this time the Emblem Z 5500 models.

 I think it's fair to hazard a guess this guy fishes a sandy pit somewhere fairly often . . . . . . . that stuff really won't help, and can ruin bearings, especially if the reels are left wet and covered in this or any length of time, best advice, wash them under a tap and shake them dry, leaving them on a towel for a day, take the spools off and prop them up so all the water drains out of the reel,  fresh water generally doesn't do much harm if you do your best to drain it off.

And don't forget! 3 reels serviced is only £35 ! That's a bargain! The reels are stripped, cleaned, oiled, checked, greased, re-assembled, this price will not last forever, and it's currently less than half of what Tackle Box charges, it's cheaper than Shimano's charges, you don't have to send them away, so you're saving on postage too !

I'm not bragging but . . . . . . . .

It's nice when a plan comes together and it certainly did that for me on my last trip out to Burton on Trent, a bit of rain and a small rise and fall in river levels followed by a nice warm spike in the weather had me scrambling to get my gear ready for a mid-weeker.

I don't often 'show-off' but it's nice to just remind folks every now and again that as well as build rods, and offer advice, I know what I'm doing with one too ;)

So although not a p.b it's still a very good fish and a real beauty in the flesh, excellent condition and when it 'woke up' a proper scrapper!

Tipping the scales at 13lb dead on, this fish came just after midnight and was well worth the effort, catch of the season so far, I do love the autumn and winter for these bigger fish, makes putting up with the winter worthwhile !

* Mental note to self: next time get all the TTR logo in the picture on my new embroidered hoody !

A blast from the past with some Garcia Mitchell multipliers !

A few before and after shots of some Mitchells in for servicing, a very old Garcia Mitchell 600 & 624, not opened up either of these for about 10 years so It was great to reacquaint myself with some ' old tech ' as I guess they'd be called now.

Still, 'old tech' or not, they made them solid and simple and at over 30 years old, after a good service they're purring again and even shining a bit . . . . these are great old work horses that just need the minimum of looking after to keep them working, no frills, but just good old fashioned well built kit. . . . . . . . . .


As it had been a while since I'd had any of these apart I took a little longer than I normally would to strip them right down to the bare bones and re-build them from a box of bits, partly to re-familiarise myself with them and partly because I could tell they probably hadn't had a service in 20 years! To be fair they were pretty well looked after, and even so long as they're dry and not kept anywhere with lots of moisture/damp etc, they fair pretty well over the years, but with a bit of pitting to the chrome and some oxidisation here and there I got the cleaning kit out and went over the lot with a fine toothcomb, well, brush ;)

The drag washers were a bit worse for wear as well but I took them out of each reel and left them out overnight and well into the next day after cleaning and de-greasing them to re-invigorate them as the customer wasn't wanting to throw too much at them on this occasion, but the clean seems to have brought them back to life and they should last a good few sessions before needing to be replaced, which I would always point out and advise to do.

Butt ring repairs on two boat rods . . . . . . .

Just a quick post to illustrate the quality of finish I use, which is Flex Coat epoxy resin, and the variety of rod types that can be dealt with.

Dave from Stockport phoned after a search on the net in a bit of a panic on a sunday as he had a sea trip planned the following friday, amd two boat rods both with broken butt rings !

As I'm always happy to try and accommodate where possible, and as I had a day or two to wait for reel parts I was able to slot him in in-between jobs. The rings weren't an exact match in shape, the rings on the rod were the older, flimsier version of the one below, which are notorious for not being able to take a knock or bang !

(no offense to the ring pictured which is actually a decent type!)

So when the rods were dropped off I actually made a start on them the same day, applied the finish over the next couple of days as it was quite a thick finish, and the end result is pictured below, not too shabby at all ;)

I didn't get an exact match on the red coloured whipping but not a million miles away either and Dave was made up to be getting out so another happy customer!

Free Spirit Launcher Spod Rod butt ring repair pre-finish shots

Just a couple of quick pic's of a butt ring repair to a Free Spirit spod rod, quite possibly my 'favourite' brand to repair !

The blanks really are great to work on and always come out really well, the factory finish is pretty much bullet proof and very difficult to mark, very much a case of - you get what you pay for - and it shows.

If you ever wanted a set of rods as 'an investment' you'd be hard pushed to better them, no offense to Century or Harrison ;)

Anyway, the finish to match is what I'd call 'extra-thick', so I prefer to do it in 2 stages, first stage shown here. This coats and sinks into the whipping thread, securing it to to the blank, I'll leave this 24 hours before applying the top finishing coat, it can be done in one, but this gives me the chance to tweak and adjust it so it comes out as perfect as a factory finish, I don't get any complaints. 

;)