from the inception of conventional reels , enduring design elements have been a pair of sideplate bodies held rigidly apart to support a rotating spool between them . reference to u . s . pat . nos . 2 , 361 , 239 and 4 , 131 , 245 show this initial construction as well as the characteristic that sideplates function as housings that support transmission systems for converting handle rotation into spool rotation . referring to the fig &# 39 ; s , a representation of this prior art shows a conventional sideplate housing assembly 1 with sideplate 3 housing a main gear 5 and pinion gear 4 . the main gear and pinion gear are common elements of transmission systems which are not claimed and the two gears together shall be considered as a unitary transmission element 13 throughout the following description . as transmissions developed in size and complexity , so too did their associated sideplate designs become wider and more complex to accommodate the new transmission systems . u . s . pat . nos . 4 , 516 , 741 , 5 , 090 , 634 and other patents teach both enlarged transmission systems and a growing size and complexity of the sideplate designs required to house these transmissions . one solution to the larger sideplate designs was to add simple chamfers or fillets to sideplate edges in order to reduce the sideplates &# 39 ; volume . but such solutions still required complex sideplate designs . fig3 and fig4 illustrate the problem associated with adding simple edge chamfers or fillets to sideplates . in fig3 and fig4 , sideplate assembly 10 shows sideplate 12 formed to have a concentric chamfered face 14 . it can be seen that by adding this chamfer , an area of interference 15 between the transmission and sideplate develops which can only be resolved by either making the sideplate wider or by reverting to a more complex geometry sideplate design . fig5 and 6 show the concentric application of a simple edge detail 17 to a circular sideplate 16 to yield a reduced volume sideplate 20 wherein the reduced volume is dispersed evenly around the full perimeter of the sideplate . fig7 and 8 show the eccentric application of the same simple edge detail 17 to the same circular sideplate 16 with a rotational offset 19 to produce an uneven reduction of sideplate volume 21 around the perimeter of the sideplate . a sideplate design that unevenly removes sideplate volume and avoids interference with transmission elements is illustrated in fig9 through fig1 . in these fig &# 39 ; s sideplate 27 is formed with a simple bevel surface 28 wherein the bevel detail &# 39 ; s center of rotation is offset from the center of the sideplate &# 39 ; s center of rotation so that an eccentric sideplate shape is formed to remove substantial volume from one portion of the sideplate while removing very little volume in another so as to leave enough sideplate volume in the area of the transmission to avoid the fig4 interference problem . it can be seen that the eccentric application of the edge detail provides a substantially reduced sideplate volume 30 where there is are no transmission elements and almost no reduction of sideplate volume in the area 29 where transmission elements are present . while these illustrations teach a simple bevel or chamfer eccentric edge detail design , it is understood that the edge detail shape may be a bevel , an arc , a radius or many other edge detail shapes .
this invention teaches a simple eccentric reel sideplate design to provide greater sideplate volume in one area than another .