Alcedo Micron: Servicing, Repair, Maintenance: Part 1

 

This tiny spinning reel, introduced into the American market just after WWII, has had a continuous and loyal following up to the present day. Made in Italy and imported and distributed by The Continental Arms Corp. which was based in New York , they were an immediate hit even as almost all the other reels in the company's line up were basically ignored. Their 2CS model, much larger and heavier than the Micron, developed a limited following but it was never revered as the Micron was, for some very good reasons. The 2CS seemed to be too big a jump in size up from the Micron. This would not have been such an issue except that some very important design features made the reel very impractical to use in saltwater, where it would have seemed to be a good fit. It was heavy..... 13+ ozs.....and so should have been a useful light saltwater reel. The trouble was, it was designed simply as a larger model of the Micron with no other consideration for saltwater use. The crank handle incredibly, had the same approximate turning radius as the Micron. This made it impossible to fight a heavy fish on say, 12 lb test line, and have any power at all to pump the fish in correctly. The company never corrected this error by the way, up till production ceased. It was disappointing that they continued to produce the reel all those years with such a short cranking handle. It took only one outing with the 2CS in saltwater, for me to put the reel up on a shelf. It was too heavy for most freshwater fishng, so many anglers had no use for the 2CS. Much better medium sized freshwater reels that were lighter, faster and more corrosion resistant were very common at the time, so the 2CS seemed hopelessly incompetent. Worse yet, the reel corroded badly with saltwater use even if rinsed off carefully after each use. This also applies to the Micron since it is constructed of the same exact metals; do not use the Micron in saltwater..........it will not hold up. If the company had simply designed a slightly larger version of the Micron rather than the oversized 2CS, they would have had a second all time hit. If the reel came in at approximately 8.5-10 ozs (vs the 2CS's 13+ ozs) and had a slightly larger spool diameter than the Micron with the same 5.1: 1 gear ratio, it would have been an all around favorite with freshwater anglers all over the world. 

 

There actually was a larger spool version of the Micron introduced in the 1970's, but by then the company was losing market share and their reels were no longer respected as they had been in previous years due in large part to the lowered quality of manufacturing and the introduction of higher performing modern ultra light reels at that time by other manufactuer's. The reel was designated the Micron Settanta and was essentially the last version of the Micron with a larger rotating head and spool. Weight was slightly heavier and the reel could have been a huge success, but it was never imported into the USA market. Continental Arms closed down operations shortly after it was introduced so the reel is extremely rare and commands a very high price in the collector's market. So, while this larger version of the original Micron did exist, it never impacted the market as it was just too late and produced in far too low numbers to be considered in any discussion about vintage reel use. 
 
The issue for this reviews "Repair and Maintenance" theme is:  Prevention of Corrosion and Parts Freezing. If you use the Micron for extended time in saltwater, you are condemning the reel to a short useful life. Not only are the metals incompatible with saltwater use, if the parts freeze in place due to corrosion they will break or be damaged when you then try to disassemble the reel. This would not be such an issue if one was willing to spend big money to change parts regularly in order to use the reel in saltwater. The problem is, the company ended production some time in the 1970's and parts are forever an issue with Microns.........they are just hard to find, and are very expensive if you do get lucky and find what you need. I suspect that parts hoarding exacerbates the problem as the ones who do have parts are very unwilling to part with them..............unless you offer them enough money for the parts, of course.

There is another issue that should force the hardheaded not to use the Micron in saltwater. If any saltwater gets to the ball bearing races (under the rotating head) and stays there it is very bad news. Rinsing the reel thoroughly in freshwater after a trip to the salt may convince some that this will prevent any serious problems, but this just is not the case. If saltwater does end up in the ball bearings the grease there makes it impossible to get all of it out. And what happens if it stays there for any length of time?.......corrosion. The races are made of high carbon steel that easily rusts with saltwater and the problem is, once the ball races have even a bit of corrosion, the ball bearings will feel and sound like a coffee grinder when you reel in. If you have a Micron that reels in very rough and with a lot of noise no matter how much grease you lather on, this is your issue. It cannot be corrected in any way, other than complete disassembly and a rebuild of the ball races..............and you do not want to attempt this unless you are a pro. This is a very difficult job to do and it is very easy to fracture the housing area holding the races when trying to remove them. Besides, once again, just getting the ball races to rebuild the bearing is going to be problematic in itself.

The other place where parts corrosion is always an issue is the agate line guide holder, where it screws into the bail wire head. If left for years without servicing the screw threads will freeze to the bail wire head and it can be a nightmare to remove after it gets frozen in place. Gripping the agate guide holder with pliers to forcefully unscrew the holder will surely cause it enough damage to ruin the part or break the agate line guide. Moral of the story is to prevent the threads from freezing before it happens. It is much, much easier to deal with re-greasing the threads every few years rather than dealing with the situation when the part freezes to the bail head. The best way to do this is to put some heavy wheel bearing grease on the threads before assembling the unit. Then once a season or at least every few seasons, disassemble the agate line guide holder and re-grease. But before re-assembling make sure to turn the agate line guide 1/3 turn or so before tightening everything up. What this will do is rotate the agate line guide every season or so to prevent a significant line groove from forming. When using very light 4 lb test mono line, it takes only a season or two to start a groove in the agate. If left in place for a very long period a deep enough groove will form that will eventually damage your line. Many guys think the agate is hard enough not to be grooved by monofilament, but they are dead wrong. The same point again about parts availability is so very true and even more so for the agate line guide.............they are extremely difficult to get..............at any price. So keep the one you have in great condition by rotating it every year or so and it will last until you crack it.........something easy enough to do by attempting to disassemble a frozen agate guide assembly, or dropping the reel.

 

Well, that's enough words so I'll end it here, but check back periodically as I plan to continue to write on the many issues that crop up when keeping a Micron in use for the long term. 

 

Please rate this guide (check box below) as helpful or not.