Tell me this isn't something you'd see on Red Green.

So I was very, very very bored today, and while messing around in the shop today with the welding, I remembered I want to start tying flies. But, at the same time, can't really justify spending money on a vice, not yet anyways. Soooo, I started grabbing things that were laying around.

So I threw this together. Probably won't work worth anything. But! We'll see. Holds a hook pretty good without ruining it.

Think I'll end up buying a vice anyways? I do.

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h3...k/201_0121.jpg
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h3...k/201_0122.jpg


All comments welcome, bad or good (if possible) haha.

Thanks for looking,
Shane

you will end up buying a vice very soon,,,even if its a 10.00 one from cabelas.
nice work though on making a makeshift one
:D

It can not be a Red Green type vise. It would need miles of duct tape to be something he made.

An old pro...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...an/Chappie.jpg

When you do get a vice make usre that it is rotary. You will love it.

Rick

There are useable vises out there that cost less than a pair of vise-grips, you know. And certainly cheaper than ink. Plus, think how long it took you to build that contraption, and what that time was worth.

A vise is an investment, and on a per-fly basis is a tiny fraction of the cost of a fly. My old Thompson worked for almost thirty years, and tens of thousands of flies, and the new one ($29) should last me as long.

Haha, forgot about the duct tape:)

Here I thought I was the only one who used vice grips ;) Guess they'll work afterall.

Yeah, certainly cheaper than ink. Well, not for me. But! I do want a vice this thing is very awkward, and I highly doubt it's going to work great.

Going to check out the other boards and forums and find out what I need to get started.

I'll probably end up putting a decent vice on my MC.

30 years on a $30 vice? I was looking at vices over the $75 mark just because I assumed the cheap ones would break.

Thanks for looking, and the comments:)
Shane

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by OttoDita

Haha, forgot about the duct tape:)

Here I thought I was the only one who used vice grips ;) Guess they'll work afterall.

Yeah, certainly cheaper than ink. Well, not for me. But! I do want a vice this thing is very awkward, and I highly doubt it's going to work great.

Going to check out the other boards and forums and find out what I need to get started.

I'll probably end up putting a decent vice on my MC.

30 years on a $30 vice? I was looking at vices over the $75 mark just because I assumed the cheap ones would break.

Thanks for looking, and the comments:)
Shane

---

Shane,
That's what were here for! To tell you about Duct Tape! :lol:
I admire your ingenuity but your craftmanship leaves a lot to be desired.
You need to use more high tech materials to reduce weight.
Now let's see you rig up a vice that will hold a size 20 hook!
Doug :D

Haha, yeah, my craftmanship is in the toilet for sure:)

A quick question, will any vice hold size 1-20 hooks? Or will I need multiple vices? Also, what species are size 1's for? The largest fish I'll ever fish for is most likely Musky.

Thanks for the feedback:)

Shane

I would think size 1 would be a bit small for musky
4/0 might be more like it
I tie 4/0 to 24 on my 25 year old $30 Thompson Pro
I think I could go both larger and smaller but I have a tough time throwing anything larger, and I can't see anything smaller :lol:

Hi Shane,

While in KC, recently, Bluegill222 showed me an HMH Spartan, and he showed me that it would hold nearly that range of hooks with the standard jaws. If you need to hold smaller or larger hooks you go with different jaws. Midge jaws for tiny hooks, and I can't remember the name of the large jaws.

A Thompson "A" will hold hooks from #18 or so down to #4 or so with standard jaws. Again with the midge jaws and the super jaws it will hold hooks smaller and larger.

You can buy a Thompson "A" on Ebay for less than $20. If you buy one get one of the older ones in the Red box. The newer ones in the whitish cardoard box are not as good as the older ones. I tie on an Ebay Thompson "A", but would like to move up sometime, but for now it works fine, and I have tied on it for several years.

The tools you need for basic tying are the vise, sissors, bodkin (dubbing needle), whip finisher, and bobbin. You will probably also use a dubbing spinner, hair stacker, a second set of cheap sissors for cutting wire, and perhaps a set of tweezers. My dubbing spinner is a piece of bent (like a sheppards crook) piece of #12 copper wire. I have two stackers, the smaller one a Griffen (about $5) and my bigger one I made from small PVC pipe, and I have about $1 in it.

Buy a ceramic tip bobbin, as the cheapies are junk, I have two junkers...but should throw them away. You can get a griffin for less than $10, and it will be a good one, it's what I use most of the time. For a vise, a Thompson "A" from Ebay is great to learn on. Starter sissors run less than $10, a bodkin 2 or 3 bucks (that's what mine cost, and it turned out to be excellent quality.)

Don't buy a cheap vise...one of the India, Pakistani, or Chinese junkers...they don't hold the hook well, and will break sooner or later. Mine did, and that is what most of the tiers that I know have said about the cheap junker vises.

Point is you don't need high dollar stuff to tie flies. If you find out that it is for you, and you want better stuff, you can get it later. All of the stuff that I routinely use cost less than $50 total. I do have another vise that I use once in a while, and if I count it my stuff is still less than 100.

Thing to think about when starting tying, is that most guys that start don't keep with it. It doesn't seem to be for everyone. Several years ago I did a survey of guys that had taught tying, and they guys reported that only about 10 to 15% of their students stick with it. For that reason, I always advise guys that want to learn to tie not to go out and buy a $300 vise. Every now and then you see a $300 vise on Ebay, most of the time a guy bought it, with the intent to learn tying, and after a while gave it up.

Again on the tools, high dollar tools do not make you a better tier, but can make tying a little easier. The tier ties the flies, not the tools. A good tier will tie excellent flies with relatively inexpensive tools, whereas a poor tier will tie poor flies on very high dollar tools.

If you do decide to go into tying, I wish you well. You may end up really liking tying. Thing to remember about the flies you tie...they don't have to be perfect...the fish could care less. In fact I have read more than once that flies that are not very neat at all often outfish "perfect" flies. I have also read about guys who take their new nymphs and step on them before fishing them, saying that they work better once they are messed up a bit.

The vise you made shows some good thinking. A big name tier I read about still used a vise grip set up for tying with large hooks.

Regards,

Gandolf

Hi Gandolf,

Thanks a lot for your informative post. That's exactly the information I was looking for. I went out to check ebay a few days back for tying tools, but because I'm such a newb, I have no idea of what's quality and what's junk, and, what's in between.

This helps me out a lot, and gives me a good idea of what tools I'm going to require. But, it's just the start, haha:)

Thanks again!
Shane

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ducksterman

An old pro...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...an/Chappie.jpg

---

Duckster,

Old George is one of the most fugal fly tyers I know. He is a great source of knowledge and he loves to share it.

FRUGAL FLY TIER??!!
is that reallly possible??
:lol:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by flyandtie

FRUGAL FLY TIER??!!
is that reallly possible??
:lol:

---

It's an oddity, but is does occur. :lol:

For tying those small midges clamp a hemostat in those jaws and use the hemostat to hold the hook. That should compete the setup.

I like yankee ingenuity. Good job.

jed

If you haven't already you may want to check out the Fly Tying section here on FAOL. There is an article that tells you about the equipment you need to get started, there are also several vice reviews that you may find helpful.

MacGyver

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by OttoDita

So I was very, very very bored today, and while messing around in the shop today with the welding, I remembered I want to start tying flies. But, at the same time, can't really justify spending money on a vice, not yet anyways. Soooo, I started grabbing things that were laying around.

So I threw this together. Probably won't work worth anything. But! We'll see. Holds a hook pretty good without ruining it.

Think I'll end up buying a vice anyways? I do.

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h3...k/201_0121.jpg
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h3...k/201_0122.jpg


All comments welcome, bad or good (if possible) haha.

Thanks for looking,
Shane

---

WHAT NO DUCT TAPE?????????

That's UN-American! :lol:

Okay - if you are serious about buying a vise - the Fly Fish Ohio site just completed a pretty comprehensive "Fly Tying Vise Shoot-out" where they compared umpteen different vises in a variety of price ranges...

You can find the results here:

http://www.flyfishohio.com/

Good luck!

Thanks for posting the link!
Doug

My pleasure - I thought it was a very interesting and unbiased review...AND it covers a nice range of prices as well.

Jim

Jim,
I thought it was humorous, nice or funny that one guy on that review LOVED his Regal, since that is mine.
Doug :D

Just goes to show that you, my friend, have VERY good taste.

What is Red Green ???????

You gotta try and watch it - usually on PBS...a "man's man" if there ever was one. "And if the women don't find you handsome - they should at least find you handy."

http://www.redgreen.com/