Getting crafty.

[gfen]

While the rest of you were off catching steelhead, I decided to get crafty...

I like the Medalist. I like the idea that this thing has been virtually unchanged since sometime in the 1930s when the brake drag came into play. I also like the idea that there's not a gamefish undiscovered in the last 80 years that wasn't caught on these, including most of the oldest records and first ig game saltwater fish out there.

Of course, if you've ever had a Medalist, you know the drag isn't going to ever be described as "train stopping." Alot of debate seems to exist if that matters, but there's no doubt that in some cases, you really want to put the brakes on a big boy, and the Medalist drum brake isn't gonna do it...

So, what'd they do in an era of no rim control, and no serious drag mechanism?

Improviisied. I like that, and I wanted to do it myself... now, I couldn't go cutting up a classic American made one (although, I'm considering it again), but Pennkev was selling a 1495 that was cheap and fit the bill... so, bored one night, out comes the Dremell, and away we went...

Revision one, based on the only images repeated ad nauseum when you look around for this... Cut the back of the spool out, and you can clamp fingers to the back of the spool, like this:

Had someone post some images to show the leather pad people would put in, and saw my cut was definatly undersized, so, I went back to the Dremel...

Big enough for three fingers now, but still missing the leaher finger pad for a real serious runner...

Cutting leather with crappy scissors and no deent template is hard, hence all the sharpie marks... Next to it is an unmolested '50s 1495 for comparision.

Looks pretty sweet from the back, eh? I tried to fix where I'd accidently ground some of the spindle hump while cutting, but you can only do so much..also thought about a red leather pad, but decided it was simply too ostentatious.

Of course, this is only one of the problems... The other one is the original Medalist spool isn't counter balanced. They used to epoxy Hardy counterweights on to resolve this, but without a spare Hardy to hack apart for this, I had to improvise.

The craft store provided me with a pretty awesome, lucky, find in the "charm bracelets" area, while looking for a cool metal bead to make a handle out of.

Cut the hanger off, filled the back with melted lead and then expoxied it to the spool. Awesome, personalized, counterweight.

Now, I'm gonna have to give Pfoot a bucketload of cash for the metal spool cover, sculpted pillars, and metal drag plate (its got a plastic 6/6 in it now, although I do have a metal 4/8 plate from the '50s model if I want to start moving the American to the Chinese model... I probably won't, though).

I love this thing.

 

[jayL]

That, sir, is friggin awesome.

We went to a chinese buffet in Cortland today. Nobody consumed paper. You were missed.

 

[wsender]

Nice work. How did you do this with a cutoff wheel? It's kind of hard to cut contours with one, at least I've had difficulty doing contours.

I fished for Steelhead AND managed to craft this weekend. Not quite done, but I'll make sure to follow up w/ pictures by the end of the week hopefully.

edit: Holy sh*t, I didn't see the skull and crossbones. Truly awesome.

 

[gfen]

Thanks, its silly, but I'm inordinatly proud of it.

There'll be a buffet in our collective future, I'm sure of it.

You going to Somerset this year?

 

[wsender]

jayL wrote:


We went to a chinese buffet in Cortland today.

:-o You're still alive to talk about it?

 

[gfen]

wsender wrote:
Nice work. How did you do this with a cutoff wheel? It's kind of hard to cut contours with one, at least I've had difficulty doing contours.

I used the "high speed cutting disc" for the bulk of the work, the first cuts were easy, from hole to hole to hole. After that, cutting a series of lines and very gently curving along the frame bottom.

I've had these cutting discs shatter in my face if you try to curve too far with too much in a slot.

You can see the results of this in the first, squared off cut. I used regular sand paper to smooth it out a bit, but it was pretty brutal. By using the wheel at an angle, like a grinder, you could shave off edges and work out a nicer, gentler curve.

I picked up the Grinding, Sanding, Cutting kit for my Dremel, which had some grinding stones, more cutting discs, sanding discs, and some other stuff. I originally thought the grinding wheel would do it, but it turns out the sander was awesome for really opening the cuts ahd smoothing it out.

You can see where I had the chuck from the Dremel hit the frame on the spindle cup and at the working front of the finger cut.. When I opened the hole, I was excited to remove my last mess-up, go figure I put some new ones into it when I was doing it.

Seriously, though, cutting the leather was more painstakingly annoying.

 

[gfen]

wsender wrote:

jayL wrote:
We went to a chinese buffet in Cortland today.

:-o You're still alive to talk about it?

So, is that fear of Cortland, or the Chinese buffet equivilent of Montezuma's Revenge that's cause for alarm?

 

[wsender]

gfen wrote:

wsender wrote:

jayL wrote:
We went to a chinese buffet in Cortland today.

:-o You're still alive to talk about it?

So, is that fear of Cortland, or the Chinese buffet equivilent of Montezuma's Revenge that's cause for alarm?

Cortland is a bit on the sleepy side, but I couldn't imagine it having decent Chinese. I actually am yet to find a decent Chinese place in upstate NY.

 

[jayL]

gfen wrote:
Thanks, its silly, but I'm inordinatly proud of it.

There'll be a buffet in our collective future, I'm sure of it.

You going to Somerset this year?

If you guys do it on a weekend, most likely.

 

[jayL]

It wasn't decent chinese. It was a chinese buffet, which is basically chinese themed fried buffet food.

It was okay. About par with most other chinese buffets.

 

[wsender]

Sounds about right. The Chinese buffet in Mill Hall takes the trophy for worst Chinese buffet out there.

 

[gfen]

Just one last thing on this I wanted to add... for people who think that it was downright stupid, there's been precious few examples show on the Internet.

Here's a pair of frame cut Medalists, sans the leather. I think these are 1495 frames:

Here's another one that includes the leather pad. The shot of the interior (not included here) shows the designation as a 1498, the biggest boy of the Medalist lineup at 4":

 

[jayL]

We need to test this. I suggest we tie the line to alpa and release angry dogs... preferably democrat dogs.

 

[gfen]

Either that, or we just drop him in the middle of Bryn Mawr Univeristy's quad and then I'll have to exert side pressure to control his run.

I think he'd find that more enjoyable, it'd certainly be more of a challenge.

 

[jayL]

You realize that this must be done now, right?

 

[gfen]

I'd be amendable to being dropped into the Bryn Mawr quad, as long as you outfitted me with a case of wine coolers, a quarter z, and an electric boom box and a copy of the latest ani difrano LP (gotta lure 'em in somehow).

 

[osprey]

gfen.............aaarrrrrrrrrrr! this old pegged legged sea farin buc just loves the skull and crossbones thing there. Crafty? YEP!!!!

 

[Fishidiot]

Cool reel Gfen. A hot rod Medalist.

 

[gfen]

Thanks for the kind words, it was definatly fun to do, and it was a pretty great way to make something already pretty quaint into a retro piece, y'know.

It'll be a real hoot when I finally get to put a serious fish on the end of it.. I guess I'm gonna have to do more carping next summer, and less thinking about it.

 

[sandfly]

There's a great chinese in wellsboro, everything is made there. no buffet. made to order.
I have a lefty 1498 sitting on a shelf. don't use it anymore that I got the anti reverse ones.