fly tying tools on a next to nothing budget.

[jeepster]

being on a VERY limited budget.... ive decided to get back into fly tying to save money....

looking at the tools available at sportsmans warehouse.... i decided not to buy a hair stacker tool....

instead, i trimmed down an old empty shotguna shell and have been using that as my hair stacker.... works great and i got a ton of em laying around.

what cheap tools do you guys have?

[fair-chase]

I am using a small dremill wood working table as my fly vise. It has several plastic clamps and vises on it that are all solid set, but they do allow me to get various angles with the hooks and they are all plastic with rubber gripping teeth so that I don't damage my hooks. It was just sitting in the shop collecting dust so it saves me from investing 100 bucks in a tying vise. As of right now I am only making yarn balls with some feather accents but hope to start making real flies soon. Any ideas on bending wire to make your own bobbins?

[jeepster]

. Any ideas on bending wire to make your own bobbins?

i just bought a bobbin for about 4$ at sportsmans warehouse....

if you wanna make your own, get some heavy springy wire, a chunk of plywood and some nails, drive some nails in the desired shape of your bobbin clasps.... clamp your wire down at the head of the bobin, heat up the wire with a small torch and bend it to shape, make 2....

take some brass/copper tube and flare the ends it by heating it up at one end, and driving a nail into the other....

either make an identical plywood/nail die or re-use the one you used for bending your  bobin clasps.

braze the wire to the brass/copper pipe.... not sure how to make the little pegs that fit into the holes on the sides of the spool. but thats as straight forward as you can get....

havent done this myself, but almost did due to the 4$ bobbin i found.... if you got the stuff layin around you should be able to make a few for cheap.



im gettin back into tyin cuz i can buy 40$ worth of material and make at least 2x that in flies..... tying is no longer a novelty for me.

[fair-chase]

A friend picked this up for me the other day. Said he got it for 1.99 at Oak Harbor. The alligator clips are super stiff and should have no problem holding a hook still, I just need to line them with something first so that they don't scratch my hooks.

[Armadillo]

Look at the book entitled "Fly Tying Tips and Reference Guide" by Dick Stewart if you can get your hands on a copy. Its a newer book with over 500 tips on tying, most of these tips are based on the tyer improvising his or her own tools to save money!!! This is a really handy book

[Smokepole]

I tied my first flies on bench vise in my dad's garage.  I used sewing thread from mom's stuff.  Collected chicken and duck feathers around the farm.  Deer hair from hunting.  They were ugly flies, but I caught some trout anyway.  Now I have a rotary vise and a tying bench, and sure appreciate it.

You can tie flies in the field with forceps.

[Armadillo]

I tied my first flies on bench vise in my dad's garage.  I used sewing thread from mom's stuff.  Collected chicken and duck feathers around the farm.  Deer hair from hunting.  They were ugly flies, but I caught some trout anyway.  Now I have a rotary vise and a tying bench, and sure appreciate it.

You can tie flies in the field with forceps.

 

You really dont have to have the fancy equipment nor the materials to produce flys that will catch fish but the more I tie, the more I like my rotary vice and premium hackles 

[Smokepole]

For cheap materials, you can use black insulation foam for ant bodies.  Just melt little pcs with a bic lighter and roll it to shape.

Lots of guys collect "road kill specimens" for materials, but I never tried that.