Finger spool: Plastic vs. Aluminium

[soggydog]

I want to get a finger spool as an alternative to my larger cave reel, but I'm not sure what to get. There seems to be pros and cons to plastic or delrin spools vs. aluminium spools.

What are your thoughts and experiences?

SD

 

[UnixSage]

I want to get a finger spool as an alternative to my larger cave spool, but I'm not sure what to get. There seems to be pros and cons to plastic or delrin spools vs. aluminium spools.

I have a delrin spool. The reason I went that way is because it is near nutral so if you drop it does not plunge to the bottom it will spin right in front of you. I dont use it that often though so their may be an advantage to Stainless Steel or Aluminium that I do not know about.

Good Luck

 

[Meng_Tze]

I want to get a finger spool as an alternative to my larger cave reel, but I'm not sure what to get. There seems to be pros and cons to plastic or delrin spools vs. aluminium spools.

What are your thoughts and experiences?

SD

Question, what pros and cons do there seem to be? Maybe more pinpointed answers would come rather than preference opinions.

 

[Mr.X]

Metal spools are certainly cooler...however they are more expensive + negatively buoyant. This is only a slight issue when you may need to deploy a marker/SMB etc.

Additionally, the metal spools can develops nicks which can hang line or worse. The Delrin spools are more forgiving in that regard. Also, metal can bend. You can always hammer it out but metal tends to fatigue. Given a choice I would get a couple of Delrin spools to one metal one.

X

 

[ClayJar]

Well, if you want one of the "100ft" or "160ft" delrin spools (although you probably want to remove some of that length so the spool is easier to clip off -- they're sold overfilled, IMHO), you can get decent ones from Dive Sports for a ScubaBoard-special $15 each:

http://www.divesports.com/mall/divesports_acc_fingerspoolSPC.asp

I couldn't come up with a good reason to buy any of the prohibitively expensive aluminum, stainless steel, or brand-name delrin spools when I saw those. If I ever have one of them break on me, I'll have to post about that, but I don't expect to have any more problems with them than any other spools I have.

For a primary cave/wreck reel, I might justify going with something expensive (and worth it), but there's really not that much to a spool, eh?

 

[PhilEllis]

Well, if you want one of the "100ft" or "160ft" delrin spools (although you probably want to remove some of that length so the spool is easier to clip off -- they're sold overfilled, IMHO), you can get decent ones from Dive Sports for a ScubaBoard-special $15 each:

http://www.divesports.com/mall/divesports_acc_fingerspoolSPC.asp

I couldn't come up with a good reason to buy any of the prohibitively expensive aluminum, stainless steel, or brand-name delrin spools when I saw those. If I ever have one of them break on me, I'll have to post about that, but I don't expect to have any more problems with them than any other spools I have.

For a primary cave/wreck reel, I might justify going with something expensive (and worth it), but there's really not that much to a spool, eh?

If you ever have one break on you, simply give me a call and i will send you new one! How simple could that be?

Phil Ellis

 

[cool_hardware52]

Metal spools are certainly cooler...however they are more expensive + negatively buoyant. This is only a slight issue when you may need to deploy a marker/SMB etc.

Additionally, the metal spools can develops nicks which can hang line or worse. The Delrin spools are more forgiving in that regard. Also, metal can bend. You can always hammer it out but metal tends to fatigue. Given a choice I would get a couple of Delrin spools to one metal one.

X

A couple points:

Delrin (acetal) is negative Specific gravity of ~1.4. Aluminum is ~2.6. Stainless Steel is ~7.8 ABS is ~1.05

Nylon is ~1.15.

Our molded spools are made from impact modified ABS. The addition of small amounts of rubber make ABS that's resistant to shattering. Commonly used for the handles and cases on portable power tools. These spools are very close to neutral.

A Delrin (acetal) spool has about the same volume of material as a Aluminum spool, so the aluminum spool will be some what more negative than a delrin spool of similar dimensions.

Our Stainless Steel spools use much less volume of SS than either an acetal Spool or AL spool. They are more negative than an acetal spool, but not as much as the SG figures might lead you to believe.

The total buoyancy of a full spool is influenced by the nylon line, which is just slightly negative. As the line spools out the buoyancy of the spool material becomes more important.

As far as deformation and recovery of metal spools is concerned; Stainless Steel is very ductile, as evidenced by the fact we start with a flat sheet when we form our SS spools. If you happen to bend one you can straighten it easily without cracking the metal.

I would guess that the machined aluminum spools are produced from 2024 (or maybe 2011, 2014) These are strong free machine alloys. Spools machined from solid bar require the removal of a great deal of metal and free machine alloys would be my first choice.

While strong these alloys are not ductile and could crack if you manage to bend one.

My advice to anybody considering the purchase of their first spool is buy and inexpensive one. You will drop and loose them. Save the expensive spools for after you become familar with using spools.


Tobin

 

[TSandM]

I was very happy I had a nearly neutral spool when the dratted thing came loose from the double ender AND came out of my pocket on descent on Saturday. I was actually descending FASTER than the spool was, so a diver from the buddy pair above me caught it and spooled up the line and returned it to me. A far easier solution that having to haul a negative spool up from depth and THEN deal with 100 feet of loose line

 

[SCUBAJENNIFER]

I was very happy I had a nearly neutral spool when the dratted thing came loose from the double ender AND came out of my pocket on descent on Saturday. I was actually descending FASTER than the spool was, so a diver from the buddy pair above me caught it and spooled up the line and returned it to me. A far easier solution that having to haul a negative spool up from depth and THEN deal with 100 feet of loose line

Which one do you have??

 

[cool_hardware52]

I was very happy I had a nearly neutral spool when the dratted thing came loose from the double ender AND came out of my pocket on descent on Saturday. I was actually descending FASTER than the spool was, so a diver from the buddy pair above me caught it and spooled up the line and returned it to me. A far easier solution that having to haul a negative spool up from depth and THEN deal with 100 feet of loose line

If the DE stayed attached I'm sure your spool would have passed you on the way down regardless of the material the spool was made of.

Tobin