Recent additions/improvements you've made to your bench

Brute

Legend
Forum Supporter
I’m sure someone else has came up with this idea already but this is one I made. Im sending a reel to have it switch from a right hand wind to a left hand wind. The the thought of winding a 1000 yards of 80 lb of braid by hand didn’t sound like fun. For just over $2.00 I made this and with the wife’s help holding the reel and me on the drill it only took a few minute. In doing this I found a problem in the backing that could have cost me not only a big fish but also my fly line. I also made one that works on a Rio fly line spool.
When I used to respool my Penn 80 wides for trolling, I had a fitting that screwed onto a large soda bottle and chucked into my cordless drill to remove 800 yards of 80 lb test from each reel…Hugh timesaver…
 

TicTokCroc

Sunkist and Sudafed
Forum Supporter
Much better, I'm about to start on a similar project. I have to drag everything out in boxes and try and find a space between the chaos to put my vice and try to tie a fly, me and 3 ladies in about 1000 square feet. So I found a dark back corner of the furnace room next to the crawlspace access that has a metal shelf I'm going to convert to a little tying bench.
Finally had a few hours to put this together now to clear off the top shelves to put my boxes of materials. The eye shield acts like the brim of a hat or makes a light box like effect so the super bright LED isn't constantly straining my eyes. I found a 2x3 maple "project board" that was cheaper then the same size plywood I would of had to cut, super easy. Bolted the desk top to the existing metal shelf. Time to move in.
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Kfish

Flyologist
Forum Supporter
Very cool. I'll have to add one to my bench - when I get one again (lost my cave while we're stuck in a rental). The only critique is I would question the accuracy of fly motion given the induced turbulence from the nozzle jet (as opposed to action imparted by the fly simply moving through water). Although that wouldn't be too difficult to fix by rigging some sort of flow expander with a grid of laminar flow vanes.

BTW, do they make a larger model for saltwater and musky flies? Some of the squid and mackerel patterns I tie would be hanging out both sides.
I agree, it's an exaggerated cartoonish fly motion. It might give you an idea of how the materials interact with each other but not really how a fly swim in the water. But you can't beat that entertainment value though! :)
 

Merle

Roy’s cousin
Forum Supporter
I finally upgraded and organized my bead storage. I had seen organizers similar to this online but decided to build my own since I used to be really in to woodworking.

I found some screw top vials on Amazon that were pretty cheap for a pack of 20. I figured I could make something that would hold all my beads and maybe even some of my cones. But once I finally went through all I had I found I could just barely house the many combinations of beads. If you figure 3 basic colors (black, gold, orange) times 4 common sizes (3/32, 1/8, 5/32, 3/16), times 2 materials (brass vs tungsten) then slotted versus non-slotted I had almost 25 vials filled. I think I have 2 empties left for future expansion.

I also got a label maker to print I’d labels for the vials.

I think I have 15 more vials so I guess I better make another for cones. And maybe another for eyes.
 

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SpeyrodGB

Steelhead
I finally upgraded and organized my bead storage. I had seen organizers similar to this online but decided to build my own since I used to be really in to woodworking.

I found some screw top vials on Amazon that were pretty cheap for a pack of 20. I figured I could make something that would hold all my beads and maybe even some of my cones. But once I finally went through all I had I found I could just barely house the many combinations of beads. If you figure 3 basic colors (black, gold, orange) times 4 common sizes (3/32, 1/8, 5/32, 3/16), times 2 materials (brass vs tungsten) then slotted versus non-slotted I had almost 25 vials filled. I think I have 2 empties left for future expansion.

I also got a label maker to print I’d labels for the vials.

I think I have 15 more vials so I guess I better make another for cones. And maybe another for eyes.

Funny how fast that stuff builds up. Nicely done.
 
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