Hi Folks. My name is Greg and I'm a newbie fly fisherman. I'm also learning to tie my own flies. I bought the Trout Fly Tying kit from Bass Pro Workshops and so far I'm enjoying this part of the hobby.

Now, it's not TOTALLY fair to call this my $3 bench. I had most of the wood laying around my workshop ready to be used for some project. But my total cost for new stuff was about $3 for some dowels and a 3" bolt.

The original problem was that I didn't like the way the fly vise clamped onto the table. I didn't want to mark up our table so I always clamped it to a board. Well, that didn't work so well because I had to hand the board over the edge of the table and my arms didn't rest on the table the way I wanted them to. So I made a little clamp from a couple blocks of maple, a threaded T-nut, and a 3" long 1/4-20 bolt. That's screwed to the workbench from underneath.



Now I can just put my bench on the table and start working.

I soon found that I was collecting more materials than what would fit in the original box that the kit came in. So I build a box for my materials. Being a woodworker I couldn't just glue 4 pieces together, I had to box join the corners and dado the partitions.



I built the box so it was just a bit larger than the workbench. It also has a lip around 3 sides on the top. That way the workbench fits right on top of the materials box. I think I'll add some handles on the sides to make it easier to carry.



See that block of wood with the slot in it? The white piece under it is a piece of 1/8" plywood with paper glued to it. It sits in the wooden block to give me a white background to work against. That really helps my middle age eyes see those tiny flies.



So that's my little $3 workbench. I've been having a lot of fun learning how to tie flies with it. I joke around with my wife saying that it's just one more thing for me to become obsessive compulsive about.

I've been busy.


There's some pheasant tail nymphs in there as well as some hare's ear nymphs, some Adams attractors, some Elk hair and Deer hair caddis flies, some winged ants, a few tiny midges, a few wooley buggers and a couple that were suppose to be one thing but ended up looking like "fuzz on a hook". (But I'm getting better)

In any case, I thought I'd introduce myself and share the pictures in case it inspires someone else to make there own bench. I'm having a fun time with it and I hope you are too.

Greg